Friday Philosophy: Educating the masses

I’ve made no secret lately that I was going to appear in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, as Woman #1 (Calpernia Addams) in the…well it is not exactly a monologue, but rather a chorus…They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy…Or So They Tried.

The two-night run at Bloomfield College’s Van Fossan Theater is now over and I am exhausted and have a splitting headache from interacting with the stage lights.  I’m tired and I’m cranky.

Word on the street was that the event was not to be missed.  But then again, each night only had about 120-140 in the audience.

Part of the proceeds went to help combat the systematic maltreatment of women (and men) in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the quest for blood coltan, in what has become known as The Playstation War.  The remainder went to the The Safe House Shelter for battered women, which is affiliated with Clara Maass Hospital.

Affiliated with our production was a teach-in on the DRC and a Clotheline Project in March.

And one more presentation, which is the main purpose of this essay, against the backdrop of these other educational efforts.

Did you know that there is a rape epidemic

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

Proceeds from this year’s Vagina Monologues will go to work against this horror. Come to a teach-in next Tuesday (2/17/09) to learn more.

12:00 Noon

WSREC, 2nd Floor of the Student Center

FREE LUNCH

For those not in the know, which included, I’m sorry to say, pretty much the entire cast except me, Calpernia Addams was, among many other things, the girlfriend of PFC Barry Winchell, who was beaten to death in 1999 at Fort Campbell, KY, because of his relationship with Ms. Addams.  Close observers would note that PFC Winchell was not gay, since Ms. Addams was a transwoman.  Their relationship was indeed heterosexual.  You will not see that explained by the Human Rights Campaign, who used…and still uses…the incident for their own purposes.

Last week I received an email.

Hi Robyn,

I was wondering, since the Vagina Monologues includes the part on transwomen, if you would want to do a lunch presentation to talk more about it? Maybe we could get Crystalrose or Aesha to offer it as a TRUE program. What do you think?

I considered my state of exhaustion at the time and its probability of getting even worse and responded.

I’d be willing to have a candid discussion of the place of transfolk in our society, more along the lines of a question and answer situation than something where I have to do a “presentation.”  Would that fit in?

The email swapping continued.

Conversation on Transgender Issues?

Are you planning to be a nurse?  You may have transgender patients.  Will you know how to interact with them?

Are you planning to be a teacher?  Odds are you will eventually have a transgender student or parent or even colleague?  How are you going to respond to that?

Are you planning to become a social worker or psychologist?  Are you going to turn away transgender clients?

Why not start the learning experience now?

Clearly this was too wordy, though it expressed my thoughts.  Nurses and sociologists, educators and counselors do indeed need to be taught the basics of interaction with transfolk, rather than just picking it gradually up after first offending 10-15 transgender patients, clients, students, parents…or even coworkers.

In fact, wouldn’t the world be a better place for us if all potential coworkers came equipped with the ability to adapt to the changes in our lives?  Of course it would.

Most people would think that is pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I believe for reaching upward and forward, for a better future.  If the world doesn’t adapt to our existence, then we should change the world.

Eventually the advert got shorter…and less specific.  And I was reminded that not only is that going to be on Tuesday but that it was also the case that this Wednesday is the day scheduled for something I had agreed to before the start of the semester:  speaking to the women’s studied class about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Supposedly they will have studied about that, including reading an essay by Les Feinberg, We are All Works in Progress (pdf) as well as having seen one of the presentations of TVM.

And maybe that’s where this piece comes in.  I need some ideas about what really needs to be said to the potential audience.  I’ve done so many presentations of this sort that I’ve lost count.  And familiarity breeds…maybe not contempt, but rather ennui.  

I need some help collecting thoughts…and maybe they need to be a combination of yours as well as mine.  When I only look from my perspective, I probably get a distorted view.

Toward the Cusp Needs and Reasons Until you can understand the need for the learning the reason for the teaching will remain obscure But that won’t stop can’t deflect the teacher from trying to teach One day some day in the future probably more distant than would be ideal maybe the lesson will be learned and we can move on to other things –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 20, 2009