I Am Cait Returns to the UK

~ Cheryl

The UK is once again well behind on getting new episodes of I Am Cait. However, we have now had episodes #1-#3 of the second series. Having been away, I have only just caught up on them, so I guess it is time for a few thoughts.

Episodes #1 and #3 were mainly about Cait’s politics which are sadly naive. Listening to them in the context of the show is bad enough. Listening to them in the aftermath of the North Carolina Trans Panic legislation is utterly surreal. Thankfully the rest of the show is much more interesting.

Episode #2 started on what appears to be a signature theme of the season: exploring issues within the trans community. Knowing that the show is reality TV, I am slightly nervous about assigning views to people because I don’t know how much of what people say on the show is scripted, but with that caveat in mind here goes.

The debate in #2 was all about differences in attitudes between Jenny Boylan and Kate Bornstein. Jenny, like me, identifies as a woman. Kate, on the other hand, identifies as non-binary (and has done since before the term became popular). In the past she has flirted with stating that trans women can never “really” be women, which naturally upsets those of us who think we are.

The matter came to a head over the use of the word “tr*nny”. All three of us come from a time in which many trans people proudly used that term to describe themselves. Jenny has had the unfortunate experience of being beaten up by someone using the word as a slur. Naturally she and Kate had something of a difference of opinion.

Personally I never much took to the term. I understand that people like Kate are attached to it, but I also understand that many younger trans people react viscerally to it. And when I experienced someone using it as a slur I did too. I know that some people are trying to reclaim it, but I’m happy to not use it until such time as that movement has more traction among people more vulnerable than myself.

Episode #3 brought up two more hot button issues. The first was dating as trans women. Candis, who by anyone’s definition is drop-dead gorgeous, has not had good luck with men. I cannot for the life of me understand this, but there is it. Still, would I trade Candis’s looks for Kevin? Not a hope in Hell.

The whole idea of dating freaks Cait out totally. She’s still not really sure what sort of things she’s sexually attracted to, and sexuality can change on transition so she may well need time. She’s still obviously struggling with family issues too, and her family has their own issues to work out. Dating would complicate all of that. There’s nothing usual about this, Cait just happens to be doing it in the public eye.

Also in #3 was an instance where Saint Jenny was in the wrong for once. The team was in Chicago, where a good friend of Candis’s worked in a popular revue bar. Chandi, who started out as a drag performer, had been missing her time on stage, so Candis offered to get them both gigs for a night.

Jenny, as a respected New England academic, has never gone through the “having to do whatever you can to survive” thing. She also seems surprisingly unaware of the very different place that Ball culture has in the African-American trans community. She was suspicious of the drag show because she associates drag with “men pretending to be women”. As she said on the show, she’s not pretending.

But, as anyone who has watched Priscilla should know, there is drag and drag. Some drag performers do happily identify as men (usually gay men). Some of them do drag solely for the purpose of mocking femininity, and can be quite misogynist. But it is equally true that many trans women found themselves through “female impersonation”. April Ashley worked in a show like that in Paris, and her description of the excitement among the girls when Coccinelle came back from Casablanca post-surgery is entirely believable. April wasn’t the only member of the group to follow Coccinelle down that path.

Happily it all seemed to have ended well, with Jenny enjoying the show and Chandi, after a decade or so off the boards, showing that she had lost none of her performing talent.

What’s interesting to me is that, while Season 1 seemed to be all about presenting trans people to a cis audience, Season 2 is being made much more for a trans audience. Perhaps that’s because the studio has come to the conclusion that only trans people watch it, so they might as well appeal to us. Whatever the reason, it makes the show much more interesting to me. It also, I think, means it is much more radical. Jenny seems to agree.