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!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Trans Woman of the Day."

Beyer and Jenner (inset)

Our feature today is Georgina Beyer from New Zealand :

"Given the circus surrounding E! reality star Caitlyn’s transition from male to female, and the fact that Georgina, 57, is New Zealand’s most famous transsexual, the comparison is only natural. And Georgina seems just as fascinated by the 65-year-old former Olympic champion’s transformation from Bruce to Caitlyn as the rest of us.

“It’s such a brave and courageous thing she’s doing,” says Georgina. “Caitlyn has lived in her own prison for so many years and she didn’t want to die wondering, ‘What if?’ It reminds me of a drag show I did at a pub in Greymouth in the ’80s.

“Afterwards, this elderly gentleman came up to me and started crying. He felt he was a transsexual, but he was never able to fulfil it because of his marriage and family. I dissolved into tears because this was a pain he was taking to the grave. That’s not going to happen to Caitlyn.”

Of course, Georgina and Caitlyn’s journeys are wildly different. Georgina started taking hormones at the age of 16 and had sex-reassignment surgery at 27. After a stint as a sex worker, Georgina went on to become the world’s first transsexual mayor and later its first transsexual MP.

Besides the new found acceptance of transgender people in the mainstream, the brightest spot in Georgina’s life at the moment is the fact a film about her life is back in development after years on the back-burner.

“They’ve got the money now and the director is really excited,” smiles Georgina. “I don’t have a clue who’ll play me. I’m a bit scared, to be honest. I’d want a good actor. It’s a big deal. I mean, how many good New Zealand life stories have you seen on film? Hopefully, with all this Caitlyn Jenner stuff, we’re not all trans out!”

For more, go to Woman's Day here.

Working the Room?

Saturday night as I mentioned in the Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"- a bunch of us went to an amateur boxing event in downtown Dayton, Ohio. 

First of all, let me try to explain the physical set up. The ring itself for lack of a better term sat against the back wall in a space under a parking garage over hang. Chairs surrounded the ring in a semi circle with a beer truck on the left, and food concessions on the right (including the rest rooms.) Of course we ended up sitting on the left side. 

As it turned out, just before the boxing matches began, Liz and I thought a trip to the restrooms would be a good idea - so we did.  We headed along the semi circle aisle to the other side. I am sure the trip wasn't the mile and a half it felt like and I wasn't the visual cannon fodder to every woman in the seats behind me. On the other hand, I kept telling myself "shoulders back and chest out."

I found two things out for certain-the trip was not a mile and I survived.    

As far as being "cannon fodder?" I'm used to that!!!! I was busy looking for any other transgender women watching the event.