Looks like show business is now cashing in on the trans craze!

[stumbledin]

BBC2 has started a new series called Pose which is in effect one long PR for the heroic fore runners of current trans activism.

Suspect there will never be a tv drama of the ground breaking underground work of early feminism / women's liberation (partly because none of us wore such extravagant frocks!)

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0003g1h/pose

Episode 8 'Who will win the prestigious Mother of the Year trophy?'

This is the accompanying image

You're misunderstanding the term - they're talking about 'house mothers' - The following* is taken from the wiki entry for House of Extravaganza, a real house from the NY underground ballroom scene.
I have only heard the name house mother before in a sorority house sense but am guessing the role would be similar, like pastoral care.
Am not American.
I haven't seen the show but it has three trans women characters and I would probably guess at a drag queen or two? It won 2 golden globes. I don't think it's a bandwagon thing, given the creators' other work.

*Composed primarily of African American and Latino LGBTQ people, members of the ballroom community traditionally form “houses” which serve the dual purpose of providing a surrogate family structure, and competing for trophies and prestige in community organized balls. Houses are traditionally formed in a family-like structure, with a house “mother” and/or “father” who oversee and direct the group. In keeping with ballroom community tradition, members take the house name as their surname[1] (e.g. “Jose Xtravaganza”). House members compete or “walk" in balls in various categories including representations of dance, fashion, costume design, runway modeling, and gender impersonation.

I can see why you might not like it but no-one's forcing you to watch it - I like dance and watch RuPaul's Drag Race so I would imagine I am the demographic but haven't seen it yet, even though it's been on Netflix for a while.
But I also liked Dietland which was excellent and Handmaid's Tale. Each to their own.

My only issue with this programme is how dire it is. From start to finish.
There is a fantastic documentary on Netflix I think studying this time and culture. It was wonderful and examined all the contributing factors to the balls and the posing.
Madonna nicked it. Framed it. I dunno. Bit it was more than trans taking part back then
One of the mothers interviewed said, o am ot a woman. I do not know how it is to be a woman. Quite directly.
This show is shit. Mindless and in no way any kind of representation of that time and place.
Breaking into the Met and ripping up priceless artefacts?
And the cops know exactly who did it.
Pfffttt
On my gravestone there will be 3 words
STRIKE A POSE

I did like the review in the Spectator - “Given that the cast are largely trans, this is the sort of programme that we’re now obliged to like almost by law.”

I am not 'misunderstanding the term'. Women can be mothers. Not men.

I watched the first episode. It was okay but could have been more, I think - not so sure about the quality of the script though I accept there is much dramatic license. There hasn't been much dance or music so far but I suppose it's only the first episode. I'm most interested in the young lad thrown out of his parents' home for being gay who acts as our introduction into ball culture (I've checked, he stays male). Blanca too as she tries to establish her own house whilst coming to terms with being HIV positive - a death sentence back then of course.

There's only been one clumsy modern transgenderist insert - one of the characters announcing that she had been born a daughter. Not sure if she would have said that in 80's, or at least not meaning it literally.

That's the thing back then. It was all gender bending, transvestism, drag. If someone said they were a 'house mother' they wouldn't have meant as in biological female because they knew they were men!

I also noticed that all are the type most people think of when considering trans women- feminine acting (in the most cliched way), they fancy men, many would pass - most are clearly disadvantaged. We're not seeing clearly male-bodied hetero transgenders chasing lesbians and begging entry into women's toilets.

If you separate this show from current transactivism it is meant to represent a specific era of gay culture popular in NYC in the late 70s/early 80s.

The inspiration I presume is the documentary Paris is Burning - the doc was on Netflix and if it still is it's worth a watch to understand what the culture was about and how the ballroom scene influenced a number of mainstream artists in music and fashion.

It's a very gritty, street level documentary and doesn't shy away from real issues. All the men in it understand that they are men regardless of how they present outwardly.

I haven't watched Pose yet but I have read criticism that it glamourises the ball scene in a less than realistic way and I expect it plays to the modern narrative of transactivism rather than how cross dressing was actually understood and treated in that era.

I don't think we should automatically dismiss shows like Pose but I do recommend watching the infamous documentary first to put the show in context.

I have not seen Pose, however I am concerned about the exploitation of children in the media

This recent news story really upset me

I was maybe being a bit flip in my comment and sort of assumed the "frock" jock would indicate where I was coming from.

ie I think this is a glamourised version of what was probably quite a tough life (haven't seen the doc) and a bit of a soap opera. and sanitised in the same way (as commented above) that Madonna copted it to boost her pop career.

But on one level I was being quite serious, as equally if not more important in the 70s, many women opted out of marriages, had their children taken away, whilst building up housing co-ops, community printing etc.. But there were no glamourous frocks or dance routines. Unless you count women dancing naked together at WLM National Conferences on the saturday night social. And you can imagine how the main stream male media would present that.