“Except: I was no longer a son, no longer a man. I became more aware of this as groups of gay men, mostly aging or aged, circulated around me” – (Fairest, Meredith Talusan Page 14)
When Meredith states this in her memoir, it reminded me of the research I did about her beforehand. She said that in her book, she wanted to reveal all her obstacles in life and not just about her transition from being a man to a woman. This phrase proved that she did just that. She went straight to the point in the prologue, it didn’t take the whole book for the reader to find out about her transition. In other words, I can tell that the memoir as a whole will not be just focused on this type of transition, but in others as well.
Going forward into the reading, she starts speaking about the importance of beauty in everyone. Even how it affects the “gayness,” race, and femininity in a person. Before reading the book, based on the research we did, I already knew this was going to be one of her main points in the memoir. I just didn’t know how exactly she’d introduce the connection between beauty and being transgender. After reading this quote, it became clear to me as to how Talusan would write out her memoir. Not only would her book focus on becoming trans, but also on her past, and the obstacles she had to encounter as someone who didn’t accept themselves and basically had to lie to themselves.
Talusan wrote her memoir to focus on multiple topics, which include beauty and being transgender. It doesn’t take long for her to being discussing and incorporating these topics into her writing as she wrote about it in the prologue. While Talusan focuses on beauty, she also focuses on ugliness and how we view ourselves in society.
The book focuses on the opposite of beauty in multiple instances, especially when she is compared to others or how she compares herself. In the book, she brings up people like Kit Clark and his acceptance of being “undesireable” and her grandmother, who says Talusan’s skin is “white and fair” and her’s is “dark and ugly”. What made her grandmother say this about her own skin? How come society gets to dictate how we have to look like? Is it because she believes she is ugly or is it more about the fact that they look like different races? Also, do you think Clark would be happier truly accepting himself instead of stating he accepts his ugly self? There are many more examples and different people in her story that discuss beauty and ugliness, but which stands out the most to you?
Talusan being transgender also has a connection to beauty. Talusan was hesitant to look in the mirror at herself since she wants to look like a woman, but was worried she still looked like a man. Beauty is something she thought about before transitioning, which shows how society can influence even the decision to become the sex that feels right to you. Should beauty matter when deciding to transition? Do you think it’s the same issue if it’s a woman transitioning to a man?