Transgenders: Medicalized Freaks?

I thought that the question Jeff asked in class on whether all the media attention given to Christine Jorgensen was a good thing or was is making her a "medicalized freak" was an interesting question to think about. I do agree with what others said in class that the media attention was good in some aspects. Such as making society aware of transgender people and letting others who want to change genders see someone who as already gone through it as a sort of inspiration for them. On the other hand I do see how the media attention towards Jorgensen could be seen as making her a "medicalized freak".


Earlier in the semester we talked a lot about "freaks". People payed to go see these people who were labeled as such for their own entertainment or to assure themselves that they were normal. In sensationalizing Christine Jorgenson, the media was in a sense giving society a form of entertainment. Here is a woman who used to be a man! Look how beautiful she is, you would never know that she had once been a man! Look at how amazing medical technology is today! It just reminds me of the one "freak" in the movie we watched (Freaks) that was half man and half woman. I feel like if Christine Jorgensen had been in an earlier time period she would have been a prime candidate for the circus freak shows (theoretically if the medical technology was available then). I am not saying that I think that she is a freak, I just mean that if you look at the medias attention on her you can relate it to the media attention on the circus freaks.