One theme that recurs in this collection is that help and guidance may be found in the most unexpected places. (Coyote prefers the pronouns they and them, a preference that will be honored in this review.) Adapted from Coyote’s successful stage show of the same name, these stories are entertaining but also impart serious messages and offer the reader a window into the experiences of a transgender person who became a successful writer and performer. Tomboy Survival Guide, by the Canadian writer, performer and musician Ivan Coyote, is just such a collection of well-told tales about the author’s experiences growing up as a transgender person in the Yukon. What’s the best antidote to these fake stories that result in people’s real experiences being disbelieved? Real stories about real people that help people understand experiences outside their own. Victims of police brutality, poverty, and racial discrimination can no doubt also relate to this type of unrealistic evaluation of their real-life experience.
If the real victim doesn’t measure up to our unrealistic expectations, it’s all too easy to conclude that the person in question isn’t a victim at all. The post-assault demeanor of this perfect victim also satisfies everyone’s beliefs about how someone who was sexually assaulted should act - not too calm, not too hysterical, not too vindictive - no matter how contradictory those beliefs may be. Victims of sexual assault, for example, may be judged by the standard of some hypothetical perfect victim who dresses like a nun, never drinks or uses drugs, is overcome only by the most brutal application of force, and reports the incident immediately to the police, with perfect recall of all the events surrounding the assault.
Instead, these stories use narrative to camouflage prescriptions about how things should be, and often these created stories, because of their simplicity, become more accepted than the lived experiences of real people. Although these stories may be embroidered for the purposes of entertainment, or to make us look better than we actually are, they have the virtue of being grounded in the real lives of real people.Īnother type of story is also prevalent in our culture, and it doesn’t t necessarily draw on anyone’s actual experience. We all share stories of our lives, from what happened at the office today to the best or worst thing that ever happened to us on a date.
0 kommentar(er)
