[Intro music]
Um, so our first guest um, that we're welcoming is Valerie Robin Clayman.
Um, Valerie is the author of
so I'm supposed to lead to this,
this book here which she is selling,
um, today, so you can pick up a copy of that
and she'll have it signed for you.
Um, Valerie, um, is-Valerie completed her masters degree
at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies
at the University of Ottawa.
She also holds a certificate in Women's Studies
from the Simone de..
[laughs]
Valerie: Beauvoir.
Beauvoir Institute,
and a bachelor's degree in Political Science
from Concordia University in Montreal.
Um, she is a self proclaimed
comic book superhero and 80s movie aficionado.
Um, she's currently an associate member of Aesthetics and Politics
at the Image Research Group based at the University of Ottawa.
Um, she is also now currently working um, towards
her PhD in Feminist and Gender Studies.
Did I get all that right?
Valerie: Yes.
Okay. [Audience laughs.]
On a more personal note-
Valerie: I sound really educated!
[laughter]
Alright, and next to Valerie we have the
ever brightened hair coloured,
Chase Ross.
[laughter]
[Valerie claps]
Chase: I was waiting-
[laughter]
Chase is a trans activist, speaker, educator and academic.
His popular YouTube channel, @uppercasechase1
[laughter]
As incorrect on the back of your book, by the way,
he has over 110,000 subscribers
and over 10 million views on YouTube.
[applause]
Mostly underexploited in this book.
[laughter]
Um, Chase is currently working on his masters thesis in Sociology at Concordia-
[laughter]
University at Montreal.
His research focuses on the experience of trans masculine individuals, identity, tattoos and internet culture.
He is also a large fan of cats.
As I remember, refreshing myself on his videos last night.
Valerie: I'm going to start because I'm the older one.
[laughter]
Apparently I'm more educated.
[laughter]
Valerie: Um, so what happened
what happened was-I'm going, I'm going to
share my story, as a second wave tran.
[laughter]
And I came out in 2006,
Chase: So I was 15. Just to make you feel old.
[laughter and applause]
Valerie: And I was joining around drag bars in 1997.
[laughter]
Chase: I was 6.
[laughter]
Valerie: And, um, I saw The Crying Game actually in the cinema
in 1992.
Chase: I was 1.
[laughter]
Valerie: So, um, before I came out
I read a lot of memoirs that trans people had written, they self published them..
I started collecting them. I got this in my mind that one day, I was going to go ahead and write my own memoir and somehow publish it.
I started writing a manuscript it ended up being about
70,000 words or something like that
Every day when I would finish a chapter I'd hand it to my partner,
and she would read it.
And when I finally finished it,
she looked at me and she said:
"You cannot publish this."
And I'm like "What do you mean,
I can't publish this?" and she said:
"Someone is going to use you as their research."
and she said "I'd recommend that you just go back to school and
turn this into your own research and research yourself."
Trans people are too often the research of people who aren't trans, and aren't familiar with our
experiences. So, um I wrote this because I always had felt that the images that I saw growing up as a
closeted, not even knowing what a trans person was, in the 70s and 80s,
um, was hampered by all the images that I was seeing on screen, in magazines, in books etc.
And uh, I decide to write about that.
So I wrote about that and I turned it into a memoir of sorts.
And it's all focused on me, me, me,
because trans people are extremely narcissistic.
[laughter]
And uh, yeah, we like to tell, we like to tell our stories.
Chase: Just see my YouTube channel.
[laughter]
Valerie: So yeah, so what happened was-
I was able to focus on myself, my own experience.
because I can't speak for the trans masculine experience.
Because, well, duh.
And, Chase and I figured this would be kind of cool,
if we talk about all these images and then we turn it over,
and we start talking about trans masculine experiences.
Now that we have other trans masculine images,
other than Boys Don't Cry.
Chase: Uh.
Valerie: From 1999.
Chase: Yes. That was from 99?
Valerie: Yes.
Chase: I was 8.
[laughter]
Chase: Um, the character is outed, like, multiple times by different people.
It's not the actual character that has control over their own narrative.
Like, what if they didn't want other people in their family,
like, the person's family, to know.
Whether they want other people to know.
Valerie: I just feel like some, like..
I just feel like sometimes the scenes just aren't written by trans people.
Like, I have a feeling they're not written by trans people.
Chase: Oh, like Degrassi?
[laughter]
Valerie: It's like, even here, even there, with Shameless and The Fosters,
Chase: Yeah.
Valerie: I don't feel trans people wrote those scenes.
Chase: No.
Valerie: Like I think Elliot Fletcher tries to insert a lot of his, you know, ideas into it.
Chase: Yeah.
Valerie: But, um, that particular scene, the beach scene in The Fosters, is just terrible.
Definitely not written by a trans person.
Chase: Yeah.
Valerie: Definitely not. My supervisor would never let me say that.
[laughter]
Valerie: Definitely not written.
Chase: Yeah.
Valerie: I can't say that.
Chase: But I still think, that for some trans people, it's like
"Oh my god, this is a possibility."
Valerie: Yeah, but the whole thing could have been done without having like: "Oh my god, he's trans!!"
Chase: He's trans! shhh! Trans!
Yeah, for sure.
Valerie: Or, if she just like kept it secret and said it was something else.
Chase: Secret..
Valerie: "You know, like when he was younger, he almost died.."
Chase: Oh, make it really scandal.
Valerie: Yeah, that way he'll be way more "I probably shouldn't say anything."
Chase: Yeah.
[laughter]
Valerie: That's the thing with soap operas, they keep playing that cheesy music all the time.
Chase: They do.
Have you seen The Fosters? It's a good show, but like, we get it.
Valerie: Every single scene has music in it.
Chase: Sounds like you watch it.
[laughter]
Valerie: I don't, I could barely watch the stuff Chase wanted me to watch.
It was painful!
[laughter]
Chase: It's because it's trans men! I see! I see you.
It's not always about you, Val.
[laughter]
Valerie: I can't wait for Laverne Cox to show up.
Chase: Oh my god!
[laughter]
Chase: Okay, so I keep talking Degrassi.
Let me like, why I'm like-ehmm. Side eyeing Degrassi.
Valerie: Does it have to do with Drake?
Chase: Drake? No.
This is way later on!
Um, so there was a trans character, a trans guy-
Valerie: Joey?
Chase: Joey?
Valerie: Yeah, back on the original Degrassi.
[laughter]
Valerie: Is this Degrassi The Next Next Next Next Next Generation?
Chase: Yeah, it's season 9 or something.
Anyways, I'm pretty sure the character's name is Adam.
Audience member: Yes.
Chase: Thank you.
[laughter]
Chase: I was like "Someone here must have seen it!"
So, um if you watch the entire season or a couple of seasons,
where Adam is part of the cast,
um, his transition is kind of,
not really talked about but they talked about it
I mean like a main subject, which Degrassi does a lot.
Like they focus on like one person, and then the next episode was focused another person they kind of do that.
Um, but the, the representation of trans men with Adam-
I think was good for a lot of people because it's like a younger trans guy in high school, trying to transition,
trying to get people to accept him, trying to get his mum to accept him.
And then, I think in the first episode that he's introduced to,
he has to go see his grandma, and he has to wear a dress.
And like "women's clothing" to like pass,
and to like, not arouse suspicion.
And he just can't take it any more.
So I think that that was really powerful and really great for people to see, and especially if there's like families,
who their kid just came out and they're really confused.
Like, maybe that could show the distress, the dysphoria,
that some trans people, especially trans kids, trans youth, trans teens, could experience.
Valerie: And for trans elders..?
Chase: Listen..
[laughs]
It's our turn.
Be young.
[laughter]
Chase: I don't mean it like that! I love her.
Um, but later on in the season-I feel like I spoil everything for everyone,
I actually talked about this in one of my talks in like,
Utah years ago, and I was like "I'm about to spoil it, he dies."
And somebody in the front was like "What?!" and they had just started watching it.
And I was like "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."
I literally spoiled it for them.
Anyways, do you know that?
[laughter]
Valerie: So I'm only here for the reaction shots.
Chase: So the character, Adam,
um, which, played by a cis woman by the way, obviously.
Sorry, forgot to mention that.
Valerie: Forget about Max?
Chase: No, um. Is then, uh..
Like in a car, and then they're texting and driving, and get into an accident.
And then they end up in the hospital under coma and then I remember watching it-
Valerie: Do they wake up and forget that they're trans?
Chase: No, but that's my worse fear.
[laughter]
Chase: Wake up and be like, "What happened?!"
[laughter]
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
[laughter]
Chase: It's a choice!
[laughter]
Chase: The kid is in a coma, and um, I haven't seen it in a while. I don't remember.
They were talking about how, um, Adam had just started hormone blockers
and that kind of interfered with the state that he was in.
Anyway, he dies and that's it. And he just dies.
And then, later on, never really talked about ever again.
So the character is trans, the trans character,
the trans character is in Degrassi for two,
maybe three seasons.Of these two, three seasons, then the character disappears and he's dead.
And then no one talks about the character ever again.
And that's it.
Like why did you have to kill off the only trans character? The only trans guy character, who at the time,
'cos this is happened been years ago,
It was the only other trans male representation other than Boys Don't Cry.
And maybe some here and there.
But like things that are on TV, Degrassi is really popular, it's popular.
It's Canadian, we watch it.
Valerie: L..The L word.
Chase: The L word? Oh..
[Audience members groan]
Valerie: I heard groaning.
[laughter]
[Outro]
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