१४ ऑक्टोबर, २०२१

What is a gender-neutral dressing room?

I'm trying to understand "A Black Trans 'Hamilton' Cast Member Has Filed A Discrimination Complaint Against The Show/In the federal complaint, Suni Reid said their contract was suspended after requesting a gender-neutral dressing room" (BuzzFeed).

Is this a demand for one's own separate dressing room while all the rest of the cast is using either the men's dressing room or the women's dressing room? Or is it a demand to remove the separation of men and women into 2 different rooms and mix the sexes in all of the dressing room space? 

It sounds as though Reid was using the men's dressing room:
According to the complaint, which was filed with the Los Angeles office of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Reid was repeatedly misgendered and mocked for their gender presentation during performances of the show. In dressing rooms, male cast members allegedly derided them for wearing dresses, at times calling them "auntie" and "Madea."

Madea is a female character played by the male comedian Tyler Perry in lots of things I've never seen. 

I wonder, what was Reid's character in the play? Is Reid a trans man who plays a female character, chooses to use the men's dressing room, is given that choice but then teased, and therefore demanded a private dressing room? We're told the request for "a gender-neutral dressing room" came after what the complaint says were "bullying and attacks that Mx. Reid had faced in the male dressing rooms at Hamilton in the past."

"Mx." would seem to indicate a preference for being regarded as neither gender.

[M]anagers said they would simply section off part of the main dressing room with a sheet or curtain, a solution Reid said would be inadequate. It was after raising the dressing room issue that Reid said they began to face retaliation.... Throughout this period, Reid's fellow cast members were largely supportive, they said, and one leading actor gave up his private dressing room in order to turn it into a gender-neutral one.... Producers allegedly refused to answer whether it was due to the dressing room issue, saying only “there is more to that story than you know.” 

The BuzzFeed article is puzzling, but I quickly turned up the New York Post article which has lots of pictures of Reid — dressed in various costumes — and a list of roles played in the show: Aaron Burr, George Washington, Hercules Mulligan/James Madison and Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson.

What was the "misgendering"? This was an actor who played male roles and used the men's dressing room, so perhaps the misgendering was only a failure to remember to use the preferred pronoun "they." Or does it count as misgendering if you compare someone to a character of a different gender or if you compare person who identifies as neither gender to any male or female?

I get the feeling the Buzzfeed writer is trying so hard to be correct about everything that... they can't set out the facts comprehensibly!

६२ टिप्पण्या:

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

I know I'm Eunuchphobic. for sure. no genitals!

wendybar म्हणाले...

WAHHHHHHHH. Grow up. YOU are a man. Science proves it. Suck it up. So sick of people thinking they are owed something because of choices they are making.

Wilbur म्हणाले...

They? Is that like the royal "we"?

I'm usually pretty supportive of gay, trans, lesbian people but this pronoun stuff is out of hand. Ridiculous.

Owen म्हणाले...

Hard to convey how strong the Schadenfreude is right now.

madAsHell म्हणाले...

repeatedly misgendered

Well......after you slice, and dice your gender away. Nobody knows what the fuck you are!! The jokes on you.

Scot म्हणाले...

Puh-leeze. Get over yourself. You are all familiar with the male & the female form. You are only an actor.

Temujin म्हणाले...

To quote Ray Davies: "It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world."

I cannot take any person, writer, or media outlet seriously when they use a plural pronoun for an individual person. It's not a 'new' style standard, it's just wrong. It's not the language, it makes zero sense, and I refuse to play along.

But you have to admit- if the goal of progressives has been to render all things we know as black and white into a muddled grey- well then, they've succeeded in rapid fashion beyond what I am sure was their wildest dreams.

The push-back has yet to show itself. But it will. This is utter nonsense. Mr. or Ms. Reid needs to understand that he/she cannot request all of society to bend to his/her needs (or whims). He/she needs to navigate his/her life as best as he can. Or, if it works out better as a she, as best as she can. And get on with it. Oh...and remember: people can be mean. That's just a fact of humanity and it's not changing soon- not by decree, not by lawsuits, and not by stomping your feet and screaming.

Strick म्हणाले...

Isn't the real issue that the presumably woke members of the cast were teasing and taunting a trans member of the cast? The dressing room request was apparently an attempt to avoid that issue in a hostile work place, right?

Sometimes hard to live up to the standards you insist on holding others to.

mikee म्हणाले...

I find it perfectly amusing that the cast of Hamilton is revealed in this story as exhibiting in fact the very "-isms" nad "-phobias" with which these same people denounce others, often with zero truth to the accusations.

Fire them all. Cancel the play. Burn the theater. Salt the earth.
Hamilton is a hotbed of hate.

Blair म्हणाले...

On Hamilton?! It couldn't have happened to a nicer musical cast...

My name goes here. म्हणाले...

Or is it a demand to remove the separation of men and women...?

Yes. Yes it is.

As soon as you erase the line between men and women, you erase women. Men (not all of them) excel. As soon as you open the door to men wearing make up, they will apply it better, and wear it better than women. Jeffrey Starr might not be my favorite person but damn can he apply foundation.

As soon as you open the door to men playing women, they will out act all of the other women.

As soon as you open the door to men in women's sport, they will out run, out jump, out lift, out punch women.

By erasing women these "progressives" are (whether planned or not) "putting women back in their place."

All this imho.

Amadeus 48 म्हणाले...

They are confused. All of them. Suni plays all those male roles and is bitching about gender identity issues in the dressing room? The least they could do is cast them as Eliza or Maria once in while.

Achilles म्हणाले...

Why is all of the hate and racism in these democrat controlled areas?

We are all generally cool here in Alabama.

Critter म्हणाले...

I can’t help but react to the pronoun and type casting language confusion in this situation by losing track of whether this is a real person or just a Babylon Bee setup. It’s hard to have sympathy for unsympathetic characters. I also lose sympathy for those who resort to a lawsuit because feelings are hurt. I’d hate to even go near such a world let alone live in it.

Deevs म्हणाले...

This is a puzzler. I thought the running explanation for gender is that it's a social construct that's just heavily correlated with biological sex (I'm ignoring those who say sex isn't binary). A trans person is someone who identifies as a member of the opposite sex, which they do through gender expression. So, how can a trans person be gender neutral? Don't you need to pick a gender or the whole transgender idea falls apart? I mean, it's right there in the name, transgender. You'd call yourself non-binary if you're neither.

Maybe I'm just mistaken that the actor identifies as gender neutral and just wants a gender neutral dressing room for whoever doesn't feel comfortable in the gendered dressing rooms. Though I don't see why the same issues couldn't arise in a gender neutral room. So, I have to think the dressing room would be for gender neutral people. Which takes me back to wondering how that doesn't dismantle the transgender concept.

Eh, that's probably too much thought for what is most likely an attempt at legal extortion through discrimination complaint.

Birches म्हणाले...

Reading between the lines on this, the other black male cast members made fun of this person because of the street clothes put on after performances.

Intersectionality rears its ugly head.

pious agnostic म्हणाले...

Theater folk can be very catty.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne म्हणाले...

Temujin said...

Mr. or Ms. Reid needs to understand that he/she cannot request all of society to bend to his/her needs (or whims).

I would expect that Mx. Reid would faint dead away after reading that.

JK Brown म्हणाले...

The most surprising thing is that apparently theater actors are the same as high rise construction workers when it comes to harassing those who don't dress conventionally. Despite a larger than the general population percentage of gay men.

But why did they have dressing rooms segregated on gender? That makes no sense. You could segregate on the "penis" so that those with are not mixing with those without in states of undress. You could segregate on sexual attraction, but that is real problematic in a group setting. You'd have to put the heterosexual males with heterosexual males, heterosexual females with heterosexual females, then homosexuals females with homosexual males, but as soon as you have a third person of either sex in the latter dressing room you've violated the segregation on sexual attraction rule. And bisexuals would have to be given a solo dressing room.

Now functionally and having a rational operation of the business/show reasoning would be to segregate on the costuming. Those wearing the period female character costumes in one room and those wearing period male costumes in another. The costumers likely have different skills and need different supplies for the two types of costumes.

But then when did theater people become such prudes as to need segregated dressing rooms. They are status oriented so a private dressing room is a signal of status and superiority over the supporting actors.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne म्हणाले...

Producers allegedly refused to answer whether it was due to the dressing room issue, saying only “there is more to that story than you know.”

But we can't talk about it because no one is willing to admit that Mx. Reid's case of the vapors is disingenuous.

What's emanating from your penumbra म्हणाले...

Isn't it the left who in current times reminds us that you have freedom of speech but not freedom from the repercussions of your speech? When you demand that others refer to you with certain words, it would seem to follow that other people have the right to make fun of those demands.

Jim म्हणाले...

I, too, thought when I first heard this story that the actor just wanted a personal dressing room and framed it as a civil rights issue.

Tina Trent म्हणाले...

Imagine if journalists had the balls to report these stories accurately. Do we call this yellow journalism?

ga6 म्हणाले...

Was Reid a black playing a white role or a white playing a back role or one of those Creole persons?

Need to know in order to make a cultural approbation judgement.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

Reid was repeatedly misgendered and mocked for their gender presentation

That might be because he's a big, fat hairy man wearing a dress.

Oops, I meant to say "Saying No to Broadway's Beauty Standards is What Makes Hamilton's Suni Reid a True Star" Click the thumbnail and check out his hairy shoulders.

Matt म्हणाले...

Suni Reid is a black male with a well-trimmed full beard and short-to-bald hair. Regardless of whether Reid had hatred for women, it's hard not to think of a bearded male in a dress as anything but a parody.

robother म्हणाले...

How can you be two persons at once? It's a secular mystery as impenetrable as the Trinity, with consequences for heretical doubt as in Medieval times. Back to the Future!

R C Belaire म्हणाले...

Perhaps this fits the broader situation of which Reid is but a minor example:

Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

What does gender neutral even mean?
You got a toilet and possibly a toilet and a urinal in there.

If you don't need or want the urinal - are you not equipped with the life skills to ignore the urinal?

Perhaps it's the mirror on the wall that is throwing you off? what?

Maynard म्हणाले...


Attention Whore Alert!

Narr म्हणाले...

Mx Reid is a they. Mx Reid are a they. Mx Reid is/are an editor, a monarch, or has tapeworms.

H/t Twain.

wendybar म्हणाले...

mikee said...
I find it perfectly amusing that the cast of Hamilton is revealed in this story as exhibiting in fact the very "-isms" nad "-phobias" with which these same people denounce others, often with zero truth to the accusations.

Fire them all. Cancel the play. Burn the theater. Salt the earth.
Hamilton is a hotbed of hate.

THIS is what SHOULD happen. It's the Progressive way.

LordSomber म्हणाले...

If you were truly "gender neutral" wouldn't either dressing room suffice?

Sigh. First World Problems.

iowan2 म्हणाले...

As a man of Social Security, maturity, I need lot of help with the whole gender thing.

First is was male and female. Understood. I had a leg up on the issue, growing up on a livestock farm and watching the new boar Dad bought, get unloaded into the pen of gilts (yes at age 6 I could point out, gilts, barrows, boars, and sows)and hang on the fence with Dad to make sure the new boar would 'work'.
So I have the nature part of life figured out at a young age.

But now I'm lost. Gender is a social construct. But this guy separated himself from both males and females and demands his sex be treated differently. While everyone else's sex is meaningless.

But I heard this week, California has a new law, banning sex specific aisles for toys.
How is that even definable. All toys are for all children. The aisles are already neutral.

So I'll check back and see of I can get some help, so as to not offend the perpetually aggrieved.

Richard Aubrey म्हणाले...

If you're one in a thousand anonymous bodies in the theater....you need a NAME.

Thuglawlibrarian म्हणाले...

Why is the cast of Hamilton such a cesspool of discrimination?

Howard म्हणाले...

When I was 3-yo competitive swimmer, my Mom took me into the ladies locker room to change into my Speedo.

Chris Lopes म्हणाले...

The cast is reacting to reality as they observe it. I'm sure if you talked to them about a trans person they never met and didn't know, they'd be as woke as can be about it. It's dealing with the real person in front of them, who is obviously a guy, that they can't ignore. He's a man, and they refuse to lie about it.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent म्हणाले...

"What is a Gender-neutral dressing room?"

A padded one?

Big Mike म्हणाले...

What is a gender-neutral dressing room?

Go watch the shower scene in the movie “Starship Troopers.”

Jamie म्हणाले...

When I was in high school I sometimes had to change in the wings when it was a quick change. In high school. Particularly, I recall a play in which I had to play strip poker, getting from skirt, blouse, and jacket down to a full slip (it was, after all, high school, as I think I've mentioned...), and immediately before that scene I was in jeans and t-shirt or the like.

(My dad attended every performance of that play, sitting in the front row, just to make sure that slip never slipped... but I don't ever recall telling him what the arrangement was for my getting into it just beforehand.)

Of course, no one was mocking me. But really, actors, do the job and don't listen to the reviews.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

so s/he would not embrace power of 'and' or only when private?

Narayanan म्हणाले...

"What is a gender-neutral dressing room?"
-------
more to the point - why dressing rooms at all? nudophobic?

typingtalker म्हणाले...

What is a gender-neutral dressing room?

One with a lock on the door. And no windows.

h म्हणाले...

This is probably a good place to remind people that there are many of us who have strong preferences about Second Person pronouns. (I personally insist on Shoo, Shoe, and Sure.) So reading a sentence like the one in this post ("Or does it count as misgendering if you compare someone to a character of a different gender") even if not intended to be disrespectful, literally gives me a nose bleed. Please be more careful about this in the future.

Tom T. म्हणाले...

I don't think the roles in the play are relevant here. It sounds like this person was born male, now identifies as some sort of middle option, and dresses female. And theater people, whom one would typically expect to be theatrically welcoming of different gender identities, are teasing him.

My guess is that the real issue here is race, and that attitudes among Black men are deeply suspicious of gender-bending, even in the theater community.

Wa St Blogger म्हणाले...

I wonder if Shakespeare had to have separate dressing rooms for the boys who played women in his plays?

PM म्हणाले...

My name goes with 'My name goes here'@ 9:21.

tolkein म्हणाले...

Can I say that Mx Reid sounds like a drama queen?

Skippy Tisdale म्हणाले...

You all can laugh if you want to, but you try getting in both costume and character in a room that has toy trains entering tunnels wallpaper, not to mention the globally acclaimed S. Tisdale oil painting "Three Fat Men around an Oblong Table Smoking Pre-embargo Cuban Cigars" in the bathroom. You'd be too scared to pee too.

Skippy Tisdale म्हणाले...

Deevs @ 9:44 AM gets it.

Given that gender is a social construct created and imposed by the patriarchy for the sole purpose of controlling women, then choosing a gender identity is nothing short of kneeling before the patriarchy, mouth wide open.

Me? I'm fully-gendered/gender-free. It' rocks!

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Howard - your mom would be arrested today. Or given a Nobel peace prize.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

9:21 My Name goes here - thread winner.

Tarrou म्हणाले...

No doubt all those red-blooded straight white male Trump supporters in the musical acting community.

Skippy Tisdale म्हणाले...

"When I was 3-yo competitive swimmer, my Mom took me into the ladies locker room to change into my Speedo."

How did that make you feel?

Douglas B. Levene म्हणाले...

“them”?— Is there more than one person involved or does he have multiple personality disorder?

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

"What is a gender-neutral dressing room?"

It might be the removal (or the putting back) what Chappelle comedy special referred to as "the glory hole." ;)

That's my stab at it.

अनामित म्हणाले...

If I am ever asked for my pronouns I will insist on "I" and "me." That should clear things up.

AvoCat

Vito Gassmann म्हणाले...

Please stop using plural pronouns to refer to singular nouns.

Bunkypotatohead म्हणाले...

If it is true that Mx. "would seem to indicate a preference for being regarded as neither gender." then Reid's pronoun should be It.

Jaq म्हणाले...

I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.. - The Great Gatsby

Biff म्हणाले...

I suggest that Mike Pence visit New York City to give the cast of Hamilton the speech that they gave to him.