There will be a History Channel episode on Dec. 30, at 11 PM that addresses the life of one Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan. The series is “Strange Rituals” and the episode is “Beyond Sex.” This was taped two years ago– but I remember the producer, Deborah Blum, being very smart and thoughtful.
Here’s the description from the History Channel web site:
The line that separates male from female is blurred. In India, the Hijra are a two-thousand-year-old religious sect; their ranks filled with boys who have been–or desire to be–castrated. We meet a Hijra who’s in love with a married man, and who fears that she’ll soon be abandoned and forced into a life of prostitution. In Maine, a male English Professor changed his name to Jennifer, and then struggled to keep her job and her place in her family with a wife and two kids. And in Atlanta, a man makes performance art based on his transition from female to male.
6 Comments
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Oh, so very cool, Jenny!
… I remember Deborah Blum in my old gender reading back in the early 1990’s, she was writing general material on male/female biological/neurological differences then that would impact behavior and social custom.
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Jaysus Boylan! What are the odds there was another English Prof. with the same name in Maine?
Oh..
I’ll get me coat.
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Can’t wait to watch this tomorrow night with one of my best friends from high school! I’m a student at Bates and he goes to Wesleyan. I’ve read both of your memoirs so I’m definitely looking forward to this program.
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The show was very well done! I wish I’d told all my friends and family to watch. Great segment with Jenny, Didi, and the boys! Very uplifting.
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Nice job. Particular thanks to DeeDee for being willing to talk on camera. As another wife, it is comforting to know I’m not crazy for staying married.
I do wish the program a a whole had not so much emphasized the exotic, but your family’s normality was a good antidote. -
I’m so bummed that I missed it. Hoping it’s re-broadcasted.
