Bruno

Discussion (6) ¬

1. 
   ronald

   June 14, 2017 at 7:40 am | #

   Okay, I’m confused (so what else is new?), I thought the only woman he’d ever had sex with was the woman whose name I’ve forgotten but who I do remember was born in male form (or however one expresses it; I strive to be politically correct but I think I may have missed out on some changes in the rules on that) and who was male when they had sex.

   (sidebar: How much does one have to like the other person before one says “made love” instead of not “had sex”? Probably varies a great deal.)

   So, where a straight man would as likely as not say “cute girl” (instead of “woman”), Dije says “cute boy” (instead of “man”). The underlying assumption inherent in the former doesn’t quite carry over into the latter, though, which can make for an awkward split-second in reading it…
2. 
   Christopher

   June 14, 2017 at 1:32 pm | #

   I’m not sure if I went into it really, but they are really old friends. And like many gay men I’ve known (especially back pre-90s or so, when it was still very unaccepted), they started off with some attempts for straight relationships before accepting their true nature. So, yeah, he and Sophia had a thing way WAY back when.
3. 
   ronald

   June 14, 2017 at 7:36 pm | #

   Well, the earlier plot made a point of Dije having said that he’d NEVER slept with a woman and then it somehow came out (no pun intended) that he’d slept with, uh, the formerly-a-male-now-a-female character, and since no one else KNEW she was formerly male, this to them meant that she WAS a woman whom Dije had slept with, which the others took to mean that Dije had lied (which he hadn’t since he hadn’t slept with ___ (‘d be nice if I could remember the name) while that character was a woman), which cause a big fooferah in the group that took a while to settle down.

   But now we’re learning that Dije slept with a woman who AFAIK has never been not-a-woman which means Dije did indeed lie after all, making the whole prior thing sort of, uh, incongruous. So there’s that, anyway.
4. 
   Christopher

   June 14, 2017 at 7:48 pm | #

   @Ronald, your memory is close on this one, but not 100%. I found the pertinent strip.
   http://brunostrip.com/wp/?p=5629
5. 
   ronald

   June 15, 2017 at 1:32 am | #

   Oh, okay.
6. 
   Lau

   June 15, 2017 at 6:41 am | #

   So generally the experience of trans people is not of “changing” gender, but of being one gender their entire life. A trans woman for example has always been a woman – a woman being forced to live “like a man”, but not “as a man”, if you see the distinction.

   The politically correct, or just respectful way to refer to trans people’s gender before their transition is to reflect this reality, by using the gender that they are and always have been.

   Of course this is being very generalizing. Trans people have different narratives, and some definitely do say “when I was a man” or something to that effect. Non-binary trans people and especially genderfluid trans people also often have a different experience that may include once being a man and then changing genders.

   But in my experience the language least likely to be hurtful and most likely to more accurately describe people’s experiences, is to say for example “when she presented as a man” or “before her transition.”