1 Scene on Radio Be Like You (MEN, Part 9) http://www.sceneonradio.org/episode-55-be-like-you-men-part-9/ [Outside ambience.] Lewis Wallace: Yeah. So, we’re in the parking lot of the YMCA that I go to a few times a week. This is the one that doesn’t have a gender-neutral changing room, it’s just men’s or women’s. So we’re gonna have a little adventure. Which changing room do you usually use? John Biewen: I would usually use the men’s. John Biewen: Lewis Wallace and I meet up one day in Durham, North Carolina, where we both live. We’re wired with lavalier mics so we won’t draw attention to ourselves or the fact that we’re recording. Before we go in, I ask him to describe his own appearance, gender-wise. Lewis Wallace: I’ve been pretty androgynous since I was about 15 or 16, kind of boyishly androgynous-looking. But now I’m in my mid 30s and I have like gray hair – some (laughs). And so it’s sort of a different thing. Yeah, a little harder to navigate than it used to be. I’m about 5 foot 7, I have short hair. Most people 1 2 glance at me and think they’re seeing a boy, but probably about half the people then do a double-take and think they’re seeing a girl (laughs). Or a woman. [Sound: inside of a YMCA] Lewis Wallace: Hi, how are you? (Woman at counter: Hi, how are you.) Good. John Biewen: Lewis checks us in. [beep] Lewis Wallace, to John Biewen: Got your guest pass… John Biewen: The music and voices are pouring out of a Zoomba aerobics class. The weight machines and treadmills are nearby – not too many people on them, midafternoon on a weekday. Lewis Wallace: I’m a little nervous about this. John Biewen: Are you? Lewis Wallace: Yeah. 2 3 Lewis Wallace: Okay, now we’re gonna walk in the men’s locker room, but before we do, we’re like standing at the threshold, I feel like there’s a couple things we should talk about. John Biewen: Yeah. Lewis Wallace: First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever gone into one of these and talked to someone. Because that’s one of the gender things that can be a giveaway for people, like – I’ve had a pretty high voice most of my life. Now it’s a little lower, but if people would look at me and perceive me as male until I talk and then be like, Oh, my goodness, it’s a she! So if I do use a men’s room, locker room, or bathroom, I don’t talk at all. So this’ll be like a first. (laughs) John Biewen: Yeah. Lewis Wallace: And normally I just avoid this kind of space. In general I go to places that have a gender neutral option. All right, should we do it? John Biewen: Let’s do it. [Sound: ambient noise.] 3 4 John Biewen: We walk into the locker room itself. There are just two or three men in there, one sitting on a bench, one coming out of the shower. They ignore us, which is what men generally do in locker rooms if they don’t know each other. Lewis tells me what he would do if he were here alone and were actually going to use this locker room. Lewis Wallace: I keep my head down and walk in over to this side, and go in this single-stall kind of changing stall. Change, and get out. Now I want to know about you. What is this space to you? John Biewen: Um. It’s comfortable. Yeah, I would walk in here like I own the place. (laughs) I mean not really, but like I certainly belong here and have every right to be here, and have zero concern about the way anybody’s gonna perceive me or react to me. Lewis Wallace: Uh-hmm. See how I just smiled at you? Smiling is one of the things that I don’t do in spaces like this. ‘Cause ever since I came out as trans people would say to me, oh, your smile’s so pretty, your smile’s too pretty to be a boy. Big smile. So you don’t smile, you don’t make eye contact, like keep your head down. Don’t talk. 4 5 [MUSIC] John Biewen: Those precautions, and Lewis’s nervousness in a men’s locker room, as a trans, genderqueer person, are not about shyness. He’s not thin- skinned about how people see him. In fact, he’s used to people’s uncertainty about his gender and is fine with it. He doesn’t correct the ones who call him “she.” Lewis Wallace: In general, it’s sort of a free for all. He, she, whatever. It’s such a daily thing I don’t have time (laughs) to think about it all the time. John Biewen: His wariness is about something else, of course. Lewis Wallace: It’s about fear. Of violence, harassment. Arrest. That’s not out of the question. People get the cops called on them for being perceived to be in the bathroom of the wrong gender. [MUSIC] John Biewen: Hey Celeste. 5 6 Celeste Headlee: Hey John. John Biewen: So, I’ve had to add something to my list of privileges – something I hadn’t really thought much about. Celeste Headlee: In this case, a privilege you have as a cisgender person, right? The freedom to use gendered bathrooms and locker rooms without fearing for your personal safety. And for that matter, to go anywhere at all without worrying that somebody might decide you need to be harassed or beaten or killed for not conforming to the gender binary. John Biewen: And of course, the people that Lewis legitimately has to fear as a trans person are cisgender, heterosexual men like me. [Music – Theme] Celeste Headlee: From the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and PRX, it’s Scene on Radio, Part 9 of our series, MEN. John Biewen: Our season-long look at gender, masculinity, sexism – the patriarchy. 6 7 Celeste Headlee: This time, Lewis Wallace. He’s a journalist, writer, radio reporter. You might have heard of him because he was fired in early 2017 by the public radio show, Marketplace, for an essay he wrote on his personal blog challenging traditional ideas about journalistic “objectivity.” Lewis wrote, for example, that as a trans person, it doesn’t make sense to expect him to be “neutral” about whether trans people should have the same rights as everybody else. John Biewen: Lewis is not here to talk about journalistic objectivity, but let’s just say, we at Scene on Radio did not ask Lewis to be “objective” on this topic. Celeste Headlee: In the series up to now, we have made references to the fact that the gender binary is not the whole story, but we’re past due to hear directly from a trans person. John Biewen: We invited Lewis to produce a piece telling his story, and I guess I wondered something like this: What is it like to transition from female-assigned to – well, male-ish, more male … given all the problems, the toxicity that so often comes with manhood in our culture, all the stuff we’ve been exploring here? 7 8 Celeste Headlee: Before we get into Lewis’s story, he has a couple of disclaimers he wants to put on the table. Lewis Wallace: So one disclaimer is about me, and the other one is about representation in general. First, about me: I’m trans, and I was female-assigned at birth…but I’m not a man, even though I go by he and wear pants and stuff. I identify as genderqueer and androgynous. I am also white, and come from class privilege…so those are my intersecting identities that give me a lot of privilege in the world. Which gets me to the more general disclaimer, which is that talking about being trans is always really scary because we are so underrepresented—a lot of people don’t know anyone who’s transgender, or don’t think they do—and so I just wanna be really really clear that I’m speaking from my very specific limited experience. We’ll also hear from my friend Melvin in this episode, who is a Black trans man …it’s a tiny slice, so please know that we only represent ourselves! John Biewen: Celeste, Lewis told me that one thing coming out as trans has revealed to him is how much maleness is defined in terms of negatives – ways that we’re not supposed to be: So, getting rid of parts of yourself that are considered feminine, sometimes violently rejecting those traits. 8 9 Celeste Headlee: So Lewis wanted a flat chest and a lower voice, and maybe some facial hair. But that doesn’t mean he wanted to give up all the so-called feminine parts of his personality. Here’s Lewis. Lewis Wallace: You start learning about the limitation of what “man” or “male” is really young…my dad Bruce remembers HIS dad teaching him that: Bruce: ….This is important to him, I mean he was worried that I would come across as a sissy, even when I didn't give him much to worry about in that regard.