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The guardian - thinking we’re idiots as usual

33 replies

Theeyeballsinthesky · 29/09/2024 12:12

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/29/jan-morris-conundrum-memoir-transgender-son

if you just see the headline that the guardian have chosen to quote you’d think Jans son mark was and is an enthusiastic cheerleader but the reality is very much not the case

“One group, though, are still a hidden story: the children of trans parents. We are our own selves – I have used “my father” throughout this piece, called him “him” when he was to me a man, and “she” when a woman. For, whether trans advocates like it or not, Jan was my father. People still call Jan to my face “your mother”: to do so is to deny me my identity, and my actual mother her rightful place”

“For Jan was very successful in putting her own views in her writing in such a way that they were rarely questioned. Certainly that was true when painting a picture of the happy, loyal family, who supported her with their love all her life, and which so many writers about her seem to have swallowed so uncritically.
The reality was rather different. She was extraordinarily charming to friends and acquaintances, but she needed to be the constant centre of attention and, to a certain extent, admiration. Deeper empathy, deeper understanding, I never saw or experienced – she was, I think, incapable of truly understanding the feelings of others, and thus appeared to care little about those feelings”

But no the guardian chose to imply the complete opposite

‘Once she was Jan, I never thought of her as anything other than a woman’: Jan Morris remembered by her son

When celebrated writer Jan Morris published a memoir about her gender reassignment in 1974, it brought trans identity to public attention. Fifty years on, her son Mark reflects on the flawed woman he thought of as his father

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/29/jan-morris-conundrum-memoir-transgender-son

OP posts:
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HoppityBun · 29/09/2024 13:43

Many years ago, I heard a Children’s Guardian in care proceedings observe in a case where a mother had transitioned to live as a mam, that however much people supported the adult in question, the fact remained that the children had lost their mother

CatChant · 29/09/2024 13:26

Conundrum is the only Slightly Foxed edition that I have thrown across a room. ‘Me, myself, I’ from start to finish. Morris was an extraordinarily selfish individual.

DeanElderberry · 29/09/2024 13:14

Morris was not a 'flawed woman'. He was a public school and army man who decided to put himself through 'sex reassignment' for some obscure ego centered reason, found it was a route to commercial success, changed his name, went on depending on his wife's domestic support, and clearly despised women. I feel so sorry for his children.

Helleofabore · 29/09/2024 13:00

”People still call Jan to my face “your mother”: to do so is to deny me my identity, and my actual mother her rightful place”

Thankfully, the children of transitioners are beginning to find their voices. Probably after they have processed all that they themselves feel. But maybe also because they have now been given the right to express negative feelings about it now. I know what it is like to have a parent that people outside the immediate family thought was funny and charming, yet was manipulative, abusive and detached from family life.

It takes years to process. I cannot imagine Morris' children's feelings to constantly see their father lionised and celebrated when they have felt so many complex emotions. I am glad that they are finding their voices.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 29/09/2024 12:44

What agenda pushing wankers.

Original poster
Theeyeballsinthesky · 29/09/2024 12:42

Brefugee · 29/09/2024 12:36

from the sub header:

When celebrated writer Jan Morris published a memoir about her gender reassignment in 1974, it brought trans identity to public attention. Fifty years on, her son Mark reflects on the flawed woman he thought of as his father

FFS you idiot subs, he thought of Morris as his father because Morris was his father. And then was a narcissistic attention seeker.

Yep & Mark is crystal clear that Jan was his father.

”People still call Jan to my face “your mother”: to do so is to deny me my identity, and my actual mother her rightful place”

OP posts:
Brefugee · 29/09/2024 12:36

from the sub header:

When celebrated writer Jan Morris published a memoir about her gender reassignment in 1974, it brought trans identity to public attention. Fifty years on, her son Mark reflects on the flawed woman he thought of as his father

FFS you idiot subs, he thought of Morris as his father because Morris was his father. And then was a narcissistic attention seeker.