Tuesday, June 25, 2019
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT
Your all day eyes
Sunday surprise
I've been livin' under the guise
of something loosely deemed
human
for oh so long
It's time to break out
show you what I'm all about
the monster lurks within
poised to destroy Tokyo
one more time
and eat your head
just a snack before bed
Scoop me up a slice of dat will ya?
that's it...warm apple a la
American Pie
I'm the second coming
of Little Jack
In my day we questioned
authority
but we never questioned
who we were
somehow we just knew
(we were grounded)
these fundamental questions
are up in the air now
like the balls you'd always see
the jugglers tossing on Ed Sullivan
now you see them
now you don't
snip snip
If I told you I was Godzilla
would you give me
all your loving support...
no questions asked?
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Godzilla comes in many guises these days. Good one, Tim.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kerry! How'd ya like to live in Tokyo? They just get the city rebuilt and then he (I mean me) comes along again!
DeleteMe think Godzilla originated in Tokyo, friend Tim … or maybe in Tonga or Turkey or Transylvania or Timbuktu … Love, cat.
ReplyDeleteNow he lives here, where he feels right at home with the vermin and the varmints of the desert. :)
Delete… no prob, Tucson Tim … smiles … Love, cat.
DeleteWhy do I get the feeling Godzilla here is being referred to as he who must not be named .. haha .. Powerful write!💖
ReplyDeleteGood insight, Sanaa! There are those who destroy everything in their path and yes, they go by other names!
DeleteOh those all-day eyes! I remember the days of questioning authority. I think we were on the right track!
ReplyDeleteWe most definitely were. Not so much of that going on today...more like whatever you say we'll believe you!
DeleteAuthority comes in many disguises... the lizardy ones are among the most obvious.
ReplyDeleteI figure if you can't beat the reptilians, you might as well join them :)
DeleteNo, no, never join them! Love the veiled references in this, Tim. 2020, here we come.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sarah! I'm not sure everybody picked up on those veiled references. It will just be our little secret!
DeleteI enjoyed the lyricality of ‘Your all day eyes / Sunday surprise’ and the idea of the monster within.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kim. The beast that lies within me is still more akin to the Cookie Monster than anything else :)
DeleteI have to say, I am not sure I like the subtext here, especially with the snip snip. I can attest, for example, that transgender people are often mocked by the question that goes something along the lines of... so you say you are a girl, what is the difference between saying you are a girl and a seahorse, or a dog, or Godzilla. I may be wrong about your intended subtext, but I am going to give you the chance to either correct my perception or explicate it clearly.
ReplyDeleteIf this were your intended subtext, then the equating of a person who asks for love and support from their family and milieu for being transgender is being conflated with someone who asks for the same support for believing they were Godzilla. If I misunderstand your message, please forgive me.
In the meantime, however, I have included a response to a person named Travis, who asked an honest question in another blog post of mine as to how the transgender phenomenology may differ from someone with a mental disorder such as body dysmorphia, or delusions that someone is Napolean etc. I think this might be useful in explaining the difference. You are a gifted writer, and I enjoy your wit. i just think this particular issue is valid to the discussion of this poem. I will include my reply to Travis in a different reply message.
(Continued as outlined above),
DeleteTravis,
thank you for the question. The types of questions you raise almost inevitably arise in discussions about transgender issues. They need to be approached cautiously because they are often brought up in the context of some group or individual that is starting from an anti-trans perspective. I make no such assumptions about you, and am not offended, but you always have to be careful when asking someone if they might be crazy, which is an undertone to the comparison with psychosis. These questions have been addressed perhaps more ably by others, but I am going to attempt to share my perspective with some degree of off the cuff coherence.
In your first paragraph, you make a possible comparison between a person experiencing a phenomenology of being transgender with a number of delusion/psychotic conditions- ie: wanting to be paralyzed, thinking that a person is an animal, or believing that a person is Napolean. These are most typically quite responsive to a variety of anti-psychotic drugs that modify the dopamine (among other) parts of the brain. Transgender phenomenology is not modified by anti-psychotics. Second, Transgender people are not really psychotic. I have never believed or had the delusion that I am a cis-gender woman, I am aware that I don’t have a uterus etc. I know that my external body and socialization do not match my persistent and elemental sense that my mind is female, but believe me I get it and I know that it does not fit with how I was socialized and how I want to be. It can often feel painful when someone asks a transgender person what is to stop them from declaring they are a seahorse or a dog… we know the difference and the question can feel dehumanizing.
Third, the dangers of dysphoria don’t really come from the inner identity, they come from the mismatch with the external body and the society. there is nothing about being transgender that intrinsically makes a person less smart or less capable or less able to function. The problems come primarily if people see no hope in aligning their body as closely as possible to the inner identity or if they are marginalized or persecuted (or murdered) by those that are closest to them. These points are touched on in the piece above by Mitchell-Barr that shows that the main factor for suicidality among transgender people has to do with the support or lack thereof of the people in their Milieu. Here is that link again:
http://www.sebastianmitchellbarr.com/blog/2015/10/8/why-are-transgender-people-more-likely-to-attempt-suicide
Next, the research is well established that the best way for transgender people to thrive is to assist them to transition as much as possible in as supportive a milieu as possible. I am aware of no clinical data that the best way to help a schizophrenic is to help her to transition into a seahorse or Naploean, so these are clearly… CLEARLY… different categories of mental processes. the EXCELLENT summary from Cornell University I mentioned above is a good entry to the wealth of data on what works in helping transgender people to thrive. Here is the link to that again:
https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-well-being-of-transgender-people/
Lona,
DeleteI can understand your concerns. The poem is tongue-in-cheek, but I know it's going to bring up some concerns with many people. First off, I believe that all persons are deserving of respect on a human level, regardless of race, religion, gender preference or gender identity, etc. That may sound like a standard line akin to some automatic response such as "our thoughts and prayers are with you." It's not. I can't imagine living in a body that doesn't fit what seems to be in my heart and soul, and the conflicts that may bring up, both internally and with society at large. And no, I don't think it's a choice. We are what we are on the inside, regardless of what shows on the outside. But I try to think of myself being in that same boat, and what would I do about it. I don't think I'd be down for all the surgery, the hormones, and not knowing how my body would react to all of it. And then I am slapped with the label of "transgender." It takes a brave soul indeed. My question to myself would be whether it would all be worth it. I guess I'm baffled by the seemingly growing number of people who don't feel happy in their own skin, and what are the reasons for that? And my question is are we going to make the terms "man" and woman" expansive enough to fit all of the above, as it were, and leave it at that? I find it disturbing that some in the political correctness movement would have us make no distinction between a "cis" person and a transgender person, as if they are both exactly the same. But we know that's not true. Thus we have the specter of transgender females competing against biological females in sporting events and having an unfair advantage because they started their lives as men. So I wonder how far we're going to take it. And what about kids growing up...and will there be a taboo against parents telling them that Sarah over here is transgender, and Molly over there is cis. Will that be considered as making some kind of bigoted distinction? So the kids are left to find out on their own when they get into the dating world, and will it be considered improper or impolite to even ask someone about their status, unless they want to volunteer the information? I don't think it's improper to ask these kinds of questions. Sarah may be a woman in her mind, heart, and soul, and she may be accepted socially as a woman, but if she has a penis, or even if she no longer does, she's not going to be considered as relationship material by the vast majority of straight males, especially if they have designs upon having children in the conventional way someday. Correct me if I'm wrong, but political correctness, in the way it seems to be going, might have us just ignore that particular elephant in the room. I think these kinds of issues can be discussed without people getting too excited. We're all just trying to understand ourselves and each other better, and an honest and open dialogue can be had among people who are striving for that understanding, regardless of where they may have started out in their thinking.
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