(Trans)formation: The Story of Christine Jorgensen

September 18, 2024 10:05 PM

She was literally the biggest story on the planet in 1952. Her story knocked the story of testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific off the front page. It blew Queen Elizabeth's coronation off the front page. A former GI, who knew from childhood that she was in the wrong body, went to Copenhagen and became Christine, who she really was all along.

And the amazing reaction upon her return to the US -- everybody wanted to see pictures of her, everyone wanted to read about her; her life became public property, way past any limit that I would be OK with.

But Christine Jorgensen had class, strength, panache, beauty, confidence.

It's great to see how far we've come, it's great to see a trailblazer who pushed on the door -- actually pushed the damn door open -- at a time when even being a transvestite was illegal. She could not marry, not in NY anyways, she had a guy she loved who loved her but it didn't work out. Again, great to see how far we've come.

It's a short flick, 15 minutes, I think it's worth your time. (I mean -- "Duh." -- I'm posting it for one and all; of course I think it's worth your time.)

posted by dancestoblue (14 comments total)

Growing up in the straight-lace small-town 1950s, my mom was next door neighbors with a Scandinavian family with a a blond son several years younger than she. They became very close friends and it was clear to everyone he was born to be gay and perhaps trans (he was a mean "cross-dresser" from what she told me).

This lived experience greatly tempered her acceptance of the radical anti-gay/trans teachings the crypto-SBC churches she was going to later in life were promulgating. Her daughter marrying a Rushdoony far-right MAGA a-hole really broke her heart.
posted by torokunai at 11:54 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]

May we all have such courage.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 12:12 AM on September 19 [8 favorites]

May we build and live in a world that doesn’t demand that kind of courage.
posted by mhoye at 1:36 AM on September 19 [30 favorites]

This is an excellent short film, but it ironically underlines what Jorgensen says at the very end:

Russell: "Christine, do you think the time will ever come when your complete past or at least this episode will disappear, when people will think of you as Christine Jorgensen, photographer or Christine Jorgensen, actress, and not as Christine Jorgensen, woman formerly man?"

Jorgensen: "No Mr. Russell, I don't think the time will ever really come when the past, as you say, Christine Jorgensen, formerly a man, would ever be forgotten."
posted by chavenet at 2:12 AM on September 19 [2 favorites]

Can we not deadname her right off the bat?

This shit is exhausting.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 3:21 AM on September 19 [12 favorites]

That was fun, especially having Susan Stryker and Jules Gill-Peterson offer a nice little bite-sized history lesson.
posted by mittens at 4:19 AM on September 19

dancestoblue took care to use correct pronouns, maybe we can assume positive intent and ask for a mod to adjust the post text?
posted by sixswitch at 4:25 AM on September 19 [3 favorites]

I don't want to be a jerk and I'm sure your intent in asking that we assume positive intent was itself positive but (with the understanding that we are not a monolith and others might disagree) speaking as a trans person the ubiquitous exhortations that we assume positive intent when someone does or says something crummy, accidentally or otherwise, are exhausting to me. I am not saying either the OP or the person asking that we assume positive intent are bad people, or that their intent isn't positive, but when someone trans expresses pain or frustration and the response is so frequently something that feels like being chastised for hurting cis feelings, well, it gets old pretty fast.

I also feel like as someone trans people are often asking me to assume positive intent but not extending me the same courtesy so I hope this is read in a positive spirit; I am NOT trying to attack anyone, I'm sharing an experience so people reading this can think about how words and phrases they're using might land differently than they realize.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:07 AM on September 19 [23 favorites]

You are turning people away from an important slice of history being presented by trans historians for the sake of this argument. I don't want to get into a whole thing about it, but these are the sorts of little argument starters that kill threads that are trying to show something good.
posted by mittens at 6:20 AM on September 19 [6 favorites]

Fair enough, I don't want to derail and will step out of the thread and keep my thoughts to myself unless someone wants to start a MeTa or something.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:30 AM on September 19

I was 5 in 1952 so naturally I don't remember this story. But it would pop up occasionally in the ensuing years...usually on the cover of a tabloid
So at some point, perhaps around 8 years of age I became aware of it. I knew at 8 I was different from other little boys. It was confusing not me. I knew there was a connection, but it eluded my young mind. Not trans but gay.
posted by Czjewel at 6:45 AM on September 19 [2 favorites]

Mod note: Post edited to remove Christine’s previous name.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:27 AM on September 19 [6 favorites]

I’m sorry, an octopus IRL, for chastising you and making you feel that way. What you said makes a lot of sense, and I wasn’t considering the barrage of that kind of thing that you and trans folks face daily. I’ll work to be more conscious and conscientious in the future.
posted by sixswitch at 8:04 AM on September 19 [9 favorites]

You are turning people away from an important slice of history being presented by trans historians for the sake of this argument. I don't want to get into a whole thing about it, but these are the sorts of little argument starters that kill threads that are trying to show something good.

i mean, when things like deadnaming and scolding trans people happen in a thread about a trans person, it kinda already kills the thread, doesn't it?
posted by i used to be someone else at 9:57 AM on September 23 [2 favorites]