"...They Were Broadminded People..."
Always Jane: The TV Series
It's cliché to say that the
importance of family is almost always underrated. But imagine if that support
network (and let's call it what it is, love) isn't there when you spend all
your life as a boy from the age of 3 reaching into mummy’s closet. And you are
determined (come what may) that one day, you will actually be able to try on
those lady clothes and they will fit – even look beautiful.
Amazon's TV series
"Always Jane" comes at you in four parts and vividly and bravely
shows what transitioning into a woman means for a teenage boy who has always
known he/she was different. It's a real-world documentary about a real American
family and its time frame spills over from 2019 into Covid-19 and Lock Down in
2020.
As you watch, you quickly
begin to realize that Jane's family are in some ways in awe of their precocious
girl-in-the-making son/daughter. For sure there's the jibes, the hurt, the
shaming by the less enlightened in New Jersey's small towns - but her inner
beauty and belief shines through always. It's take guts that many don't have to
make this journey and there's going to be pain and ridicule no matter how shiny your home love is.
The family of two other daughters
(who love their bro/sis to bits) along with Mum and Dad and ageing Granddad (who
was part of the engineering crew that put Apollo 12 and its astronauts on the
moon) are close knit and support each other in every way. Unusually, you also get to hear
what it's like to be transitioning parents - what it means to stand up for
your child when the monsters snarl from the sidelines. You take the journey
with them - share their hopes - their fears - and their losses.
There are also scenes in NYC
too when a group of trans get to do a collective photo-shoot and Jane can talk
to like minds (and vice versa) from all walks of life and colour background.
It’s incredibly moving stuff and you quickly pick up that this is not
grandstanding on their part or some fad to grab attention in an online world
that so craves such things – this is a deep biological need to go all the way
over to the other side because they truly believe themselves to be women
trapped in what creation gave them when they were born.
For sure there is hardly a
moment when Jane is not flicking hair or gazing into the camera literally
egging it on to tell her she is beautiful – and if you were cruel – you could
laugh at this borderline narcissistic behaviour. But the program is smart
enough to get across why – his DNA-deep need to be feminine – all the way to painful
surgical procedures that will irretrievably alter the very anatomy of his being.
And all the while Mum and Dad and his/her sisters are there backing up the bravery with
a ferocity that will bring a tear to many eyes.
I thought "Always
Jane" was beautiful - an eye-opener - and compassionate about a subject
that in 2021 is still taboo to so many cultures. Love is all - and this program
paints a hopeful and dare-to-be-yourself sketch of it. Well done to everyone
involved...
