The Journal

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: Jennifer Wenger Spoken-word artist Alix Olson stuns Webster's audience during her poem, "My relationship with my country," where she describes her relationship with America as being immature, self-absorbed and ultimately destructive. Olson performed Nov. 8 at Webster's UC Sunnen Lounge, sponsored by a number of Webster's organizations.

Felicity Huffman is floating in a tubful of water. Seemingly soaking away the day's stress, she runs her hands lightly over her naked body. Starting with her breasts, she works her way down to the dark, fuzzy mound. Checking and double-checking, she sighs, happy her penis is truly gone.

This is a scene out of "Transamerica," a Duncan Tucker-directed movie screened by the LGBTQ Alliance Nov. 10 in the Sverdrup building, room 101. In an award-winning performance, Huffman, best known for her role on "Desperate Housewives," plays Bree, a pre-operative transsexual living in Los Angeles.

With just one week until her surgery, Bree learns she fathered a son, Toby, when she was still living as a man. That son is now a teenager and in jail in New York City. Bree's therapist refuses to sign off on her surgery until she comes to terms with her past, so Bree goes to New York. Eventually, she and her son embark on a cross-country trip back to Los Angeles. The movie focuses on the pair's evolving relationship and the misconceptions of others.

Quinn Gardner, a junior photography and human rights major and president of LGBTQ Alliance, said the movie screening was planned months ago. Gardner said the Alliance wanted to show a movie about transsexuals because the group is often overlooked by society.

"We don't address the 'T' enough," Gardner said, referring to the T in the club's name.

Approximately 25 people attended the screening. In an open forum held after the movie, topics such as the difference between sex and gender, sexism and gender classification were discussed. The group talked about how sex is the biological part of a person and gender is the social construction. When the words he and she are used, it generally refers to how that person is seen by society. If a person has long hair and wears makeup and a dress, that person is usually referred to as a woman. If someone has very short hair and looks and acts in a stereotypical masculine way, then that person is referred to as a man.

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