The University of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma Daily has a potentially interesting profile of a student who checks off more boxes than the average Sooner.
Transgender student Catherine James, born Christopher, is in her 30s at a four-year school and raising a special-needs child, the very definition of an unconventional student.
The Daily reporter, Ali Stratton, also notes that James has no complaints about how the campus has treated her.
But why probe more deeply into this compelling narrative when you can indulge a tiresome perennial complaint – that the TV news industry is superficial?
In the current climate, where women on TV are often judged on physical appearance, one can only imagine the adversity a transgender woman would face.
James got her first taste of these challenges at her audition for the university’s student-produced newscast, OU Nightly, as an on-air talent this fall.
Each applicant’s recording of a short news brief is sent to a panel of judges outside of the OU Nightly staff, who judge students on presentation, look, voice and writing skills.
Comments on James’ look and presentation were highly critical.
“Severe hair style and glazed eyes not pleasing. Not stylish.”
“Not an appealing look at all.”
“Needs to think about working behind the camera.”
“I have to be honest: I don’t think America is ready for a Trans anchor.”
The final comment initially surprised James, but she said she won’t let discouragement hinder her ambitions.
The Daily notes that a journalism professor and veteran network correspondent is coaching her for another try while she works behind the camera.
Here’s the thing: Everyone knows the TV news industry is superficial. All visual media is superficial, because viewers look at people. (While we’re at it, so is audio media – hence the rise of “NPR voice.”)
And James does not easily pass for a woman.
Posted by Catherine James on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Her professor says it took a long time for viewers to accept black and Hispanic correspondents, and trans acceptance will come in time, but even then visually jarring people of color aren’t going to get prime on-camera gigs.
Even the first “mainstream” trans reporter, as identified by the Daily, is not only stuck in public television, which has lower attractiveness standards, but hosts a weekly arts program.
Reporter Stratton never returns to the story of James’ daughter, who remains unnamed, except to note that she was “born with CMV, or cytomegalovirus, which results in profound hearing loss in both ears and neurological damage.”
It’s not even stated explicitly whether James had her daughter biologically or adopted. This is the extent of what we’re told about James’ transition:
James began taking estrogen pills and testosterone blockers on Sept. 5, 2014, when she was 30 years old. To her, this date is “almost a second birthday.”
That suggests that James still has the original “plumbing” of a male and is not considering a full transition to make herself biologically female. Which would mean her daughter is adopted… yet the reader is left to wonder “when did James adopt, what made her decide to adopt, and then choose a special-needs child?”
A potentially fascinating profile, completely wasted, so a print reporter can harp about the shallowness of TV news and push a trans agenda: that taking pills and blockers and putting on makeup is what makes a person a woman.
Which is an insult to feminism, by the way.
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