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But I’m settled on how I interpret his gender. I have always viewed him as cis, but really looking at that storyline and reflecting on something Ada-Rhodes Short said in the video, gave me some more perspective. There are what I used to see as inconsistencies in that story, but looking at it closer I think the way Jodie explains his choice to get a “sex change operation” to his family makes sense. I’ll go into that in a bit, but first I want to address what Ada-Rhodes said.

About halfway through the video she says,

“…I just wanna look at Jodie and be like, “You are clearly super fucking trans”. ‘Cause nobody looks at their boyfriend and is like, “Well, he likes girls, so I should just become a girl”. That’s not a cis person’s thought process.”

Now, this clip is only a portion of an interview Matt and Ada-Rhodes did. The rest is on his Patreon. I’m not currently a Patron of his so I’m willing to take this quote with a grain of salt, as I may be missing context. At the same time though, this video should be able to stand on its own without context from content that’s behind a paywall. So looking at the statement as it’s presented here…it makes no sense.

The first thing I take issue with is that she says Jodie’s bf (Dennis Phillips) is attracted to girls. Anyone who has seen the first half of season 1, or even Dennis’ first appearance, knows this is not the case. Dennis is gay. But Dennis is closeted because he is a public figure and it’s 1977. When we first meet him he is dating, and later engaged to, a woman. Not because he is attracted to her, but because being in a lavender marriage is the safest option for him as a well-known athlete.

The fact that she got this detail wrong in her interpretation of Jodie (and Dennis for that matter!) leads me to assume that she has not actually watched Soap, or at least not any full episodes from this storyline. Maybe she has, I don’t know -I didn’t know anything about her until this video- but how can you get this one fact so wrong otherwise? It just takes apart the whole argument.

The rest of the quote bothers me too. I’m not trans, so if anyone who is wants to chime in or correct me, please do. But to me a person shouldn’t transition to please someone else. That actually seems like a very not-trans thing to do. They should do it because it feels right to them as an individual. Which is why I see Jodie as cis. It’s clear to me that Jodie is transitioning because to him it’s the safest option for Dennis if the two of them eventually want to be public as a couple. And in many cultures and time periods this experience was or continues to be the reality for cis-gay couples. It has happened throughout history. That’s what I see playing out here when Jodie chooses to transition. He’s not doing it because it’s who he feels he is in his heart. He’s doing it as a compromise to continue being with Dennis.

But, now you might be recalling the scene in episode 2 when Jodie tells Mary that he has always felt like a woman. This statement can, and has, been interpreted in many ways. Is this how Jodie really feels? Or, is this a case of the writers conflating gender identity and sexuality? As Oprah once said, “What is the truth”? Yesterday, after years of pondering this scene, it finally clicked for me. Mary doesn’t know about Dennis. None of Jodie’s family knows that they’re dating. Danny doesn’t find out until episode 8 when Jodie officially comes out to him as gay. His cousins find out after he’s already checked into the hospital for surgery. Burt doesn’t even know until the beginning of season 2, after Jodie has decided not to go through with transitioning and Dennis has opened up to the idea of coming out. Jodie has been keeping this relationship, the true reason he wants to transition, under wraps in order to, again, protect Dennis. He needs a way to justify this decision to his loved ones before he and Dennis are able to go public. 

Lesser known facts when writing women:

High heeled shoes don’t become flats if you break the heels off.

The posts of earrings aren’t sharp.

Nail polish takes a long time to dry and smudges when wet.

You can’t hold in a period like pee.

Inserting a tampon is not arousing or sexual in any way, ever.

- Make up can take anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes depending on how skilled you are.

- Taking hair out of a ponytail after wearing it for hours does not make it perfectly straight when it comes down.

- Hair when wet sticks to the skin it no longer flows, idiot.

-When women with long hair kiss, turn around, do anything, their hair falls in the way.

-a good bra will hide headlights, or at the very least drastically reduce their noticeability. A women with enough pointy nipple issues will opt for a padded or molded bra to hide them.

- whether or not a woman has masturbated before her first time having penetrative sex is irrelevant to whether or not the sex will make her bleed. Bleeding from first sex is from either a rough/inconsiderate partner or being insufficiently aroused/lubricated.

-Not wearing underwear means discharge gets on her pants or between her thighs.

-Shower sex fails most of the time.

-There is no such thing as natural cleavage.

-A woman’s appearance has absolutely no relation to her level of intelligence, so enough with this “beautiful but intelligent” trope.

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