You Have Great Legs-for a Boy

This morning I saw for the first time the early press releases of "The Danish Girl" starring Eddie Redmayne. 

Like most everyone else on the show, I was wowed by Redmayne's depiction of the husband who posed as a female model for his wife and essentially never went back to the "dark side" as a man. He does present so well as a woman.

Then of course, there are those in the transgender community who are dead set against a non trans person playing the role at all. So what? Get over it, I don't think we can present the right person for the job. The movie producers need a before and after actor so the news anchors can chat away about how "good" he looks as a woman.

Immediately I thought of how I felt during the very early days of when I began presenting as a woman. Like so many of us, I was told "Wow! you have great legs!" which I believe "comes with the territory" for many cross dressers or transgender women - we all should be justifiably proud. But then I began to hear the "for a guy" added in.

Look, if your were the producers and you had a guy like Redmayne as a possible star and he had that bone structure and one academy award already? What would you do?

As you can imagine, we all will have a chance to form our views in the near future the first trailer is here. The trailer caught my attention in that it is a beautiful period movie which captured many of my initial feelings during  transition. Check it out!

Street Smarts?

I can't begin to tell you the amount of pure terror I felt when I began to open the closet and venture into the world as a cross dresser.

Most assume it would be a natural reaction to the radical idea of turning your gender world upside down. 

When I saw one of the pictures of Eddie Redmayne who stars as transgender woman Danish artist, Einer Wegener.in the upcoming movie "The Danish Girl."

Two things stood out. The first of course Redmayne presents as a convincing woman but more pressing- was how "frail" he looked.  

Then it occurred to me, what may have scared me more than presentation fears were as I went out and began stripping myself of what I call the security of male privilege. There was no doubt I had it with my size and how I carried myself. I also found out quickly how much my life would change as I transitioned. 

Most certainly, gender privilege is a slippery slope. Some see a "privilege" as the opposite. I don't know though how anyone can argue most men enjoy more security in society. The picture of Eddie Redmayne just reinforces my point.