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They never got to drink champagne that tastes like cherry cola

By adamg on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 8:19pm

The Somerville News reports that vice cops busting an alleged female prostitute got a (big?) surprise: She was a he.

Oh, and just in case you think the vice squad is all glamor, the News reports that in addition to arresting the guy (after getting a price of $200) and confiscating his tools of the trade, they also "took pictures of the used condoms they found in the trash."

Neighborhoods: 
Somerville
Topics: 
Crime


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Comments

By eeka on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 8:38pm.

I just wanted to drop a note to encourage you to please consider revising this story. It seems disrespectful to me that you would choose to disregard this person's gender identity presumably because she was working as a prostitute. If you were reporting about a transgendered doctor or taxi driver, I assume that you would respect the person's presenting gender. This woman should not be treated differently because of the fact that she has been charged with a crime.

From the GLAAD media guide to dealing respectfully with gender presentation:

If it is not possible to ask the person which pronoun he or she prefers, use the pronoun that is consistent with the person's appearance and gender expression. For example, if the person wears a dress and uses the name "Susan," feminine pronouns are appropriate.

http://www.glaad.org/media/guide/transfocus.php

Adam, might you also consider revising your post to be respectful of this woman's gender presentation?

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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By adamg on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 9:03pm.

If you were reporting about a transgendered doctor or taxi driver, I assume that you would respect the person's presenting gender.

Except in those cases, gender is generally irrelevant. For somebody answering a sex-for-hire Craigslist ad for "Giselle" (or however she advertised), it becomes at least potentially relevant, whether right or not (and, as you know, in "Lola," the narrator decides it doesn't matter to him at all).

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By eeka on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 8:07am.

But it's offensive to use language such as "really a man" and so forth. We don't know if this woman lives her live as a female on a day-to-day basis, or if she crossdresses sometimes. Either way, if she was presenting as female, it's respectful to refer to her as female. The police report could say that her legal identification gave a different name.

As I said, if we were talking about, say, a doctor who has stated that he's a FTM transman, we wouldn't call him "really" a woman or use female pronouns. Similarly, the Somerville News has been respectful of people's gender in other situations that didn't involve being charged with a crime. I don't think they should deny her basic human respect because she was charged with a crime.

(FWIW, a large number of transgendered become involved in sex work, because there's so much discrimination against trans people in the workplace, and, well, people gotta pay the bills. The few positive images of trans people in the media are of doctors and lawyers who are able to transition while at work without experiencing too much discrimination. We don't hear about the people who are mysteriously let go from their job at the insurance company once they start transitioning.)

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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By Marc on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 7:16am.

Let's see if you can figure out why her 'gender presentation' didn't get respected in this story.

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