What’s a Meta For?

My background is in Education, which means (according to a certain political party) in today’s world I’m an overpaid union thug loafer who poisons the minds of children by encouraging critical thinking.

Not that their bullying makes me bitter or anything.

My degree was teaching English and History. Yes, the subjects that are getting cut from the curriculum. But this book lernin’ gave me some valuable tools that I use every day. I use them at work, and also when I read a book, listen to music, or watch a movie.

One of them there fancy words that I use when doing this is “Metaphor.” Merriam Webster defines this as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly: figurative language — compare”

I enjoy trying to figure out what an artist/director/author is trying to communicate. What exactly WAS Caputo trying to say with “Rumor of War”? Was Springsteen’s album The Rising simply a bunch of songs around a theme of loss, or was it an examination of September 11, 2001 and its effect on the American soul?

We in the TG community do a lot of soul searching. I don’t have to remind you that this is not an easy journey. We have to realize some truths about ourselves that are painful — to ourselves and to those we love. Sometimes we can’t stand the eyes that stare back at us through the mirror and see right through.

“Ok Sophie, what’s your point?” It’s simple. Through the centuries, many people have commented upon the human condition through their Art; be that painting, writing, music, interpretive dance, or synchronized grasshopper arrangements.

Ok, skip the grasshoppers.

Through the work of Greek poets, African story tellers, Japanese poets, Viking sagas and so many other sources, we learn the truths of the Human Condition, and that many of these truths are universal.

Some guy named Bill wrote the following a few years back:

He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?
Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1

Let’s play the substitution game shall we? Substitute the word “Transgender” for “Jew” (and “cisgender” for “Christian”. It looks something like this:

“Hath not a Transgender eyes? hath not a Transgender hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Cisgender is?”

Sound familiar to anyone? And Shakespeare wrote this around 1598.

Why bring this up? By seeing that others have lived through Pain and even triumphed, we can maybe find strength. And these lessons can be found in many forms of art. (If you’re really interested in this sort of thing, I recommend Joseph Campbell’s “Power of Myth.”)

As an example of Metaphor for the TG experience, I will choose an utterly unrelated movie: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This 1977 movie was written and directed by Steven Spielberg, and even had a sequel that was FAR more popular than the original movie! But more on that later.

If you haven’t seen this movie, why not? While slightly dated, it’s really good. Well, this discussion will contain SPOILERS, so go watch it and come back. I’ll wait.

Back? Ok.

So. Roy has a problem. Something inside him is eating away at his sanity. He can’t explain his obsession, but tries. His wife and children don’t understand, and don’t WANT to understand. They think he’s crazy. At one point, he “purges” his home of all traces of this obsession. Something happens to not only bring back the thoughts, but amplify them to the point where Roy’s wife, despite Roy’s pleas, takes their children and leaves. He gives into his vision and rebuilds his life around it. He then discovers the name of this obsession (in this case, it’s where the vision is taking him.) He forsakes his former life to follow this vision, despite major obstacles put in his way, even by the government. He meets like minded people, some of whom are taken away, while still others fall by the wayside when the path gets rocky. And another companion sees the end of the journey, but is satisfied not to complete it, as her goal was fulfilled without continuing forward. In the end, Roy stays focused on this vision, and is rewarded with the knowledge and life he seeks.

This is what Joseph Campbell calls the “Hero’s Journey.”

If you know the movie, you know that Roy’s obsession began when he saw alien spaceships that implanted a vision of Devil’s Tower in his head. He eventually travelled to Devil’s Tower where the government set up a secret landing field to meet the aliens. Roy manages to get to this field, where the alien mother ship lands and he is taken aboard for a journey into space. Overly simplified, but that’s the plot.

But my FIRST description is ALSO accurate. It also describes a Transgender person’s journey. But OUR obsession is to be ourselves.

So Roy’s journey is a METAPHOR for our journey.

Did Spielberg have transgender people in mind when he wrote Close Encounters? No. But he had the Human journey in mind. Metaphors work when they speak to that human journey.

And the TG journey IS a human journey.

I love looking for meanings in art. Doesn’t put food on the table, but it helps enrich me on MY journey. And it brings comfort. On this journey, I’ll take comfort where I can find it!

Oh, before I forget — I mentioned that Close Encounters had a very popular sequel. In fact, it’s one of the most popular movies of all time, but most people don’t realize that it IS a sequel. It was also directed by Spielberg and released in 1982. This journey was of a child, and of his friend who wanted to go home.

It was called “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” Yes, really. Look at the spaceships in it.

In this movie, ET completes his journey, as does Elliot. And both go home.

May we all complete our journeys, and find our homes as well.

Tags: art, featured, literarture, opinion, politics, Transgender, Transition

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics