Ahliyah Williams
06/13/19
Help Received: REFERENCES Ahliyah Williams
Artifact 7: Love and Community
Robert Eads was a transexual man. Starting off as a female, he never truly felt right with his assigned gender. Robert did not fully convert, with still having his female external parts, but still felt fully male. He appreciated his female genitalia, but it was one thing that was killing him. The film is a documentation of Roberts life. Showing how one’s personal choice for their life can affect their connections with family, friends, community and even their health.
The Southern Comfort says so much about the concept of family. A family doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be biological. In Robert Eads case, his family was not biological at all. Just some friends, but people that he considered more his friend than his biological family. This is prevalent in so many cases with people who identify with the other gender. In most cases, a person will have to find people like them because their family, especially parents do not accept them. When people in communities that accept each other and are similar to each other, it is important for them to unite because humans need some sort of feeling of acceptance. With Robert, he didn’t really have acceptance from anyone, except his grandson, which was totally oblivious to what Robert truly was. Robert’s form of community was SoCo. SoCo was a southern conference that brought together people like Robert. Transgender and transexual couples got together and gave their opinions about issues that are relevant in their community of people. Its significance in Robert was huge. He felt so passionate about being there for other people of his community that he wished to stay alive for just one more conference. This shows just how severe it is for people that identify with different identities with not having biological family members for support and having to depend on a whole community of strangers for your support and for love. This love is/was so very important for these people because it’s the only thing some people have.
Robert Eads and many of his friends look very similar to what they identify as. You would have to bat your eyes a few times to really see that Robert is a female, only being able to tell by his voice when you see him, and obviously his external parts. The stereotypes of transgender individuals immediately is drag queens. When you think of that term, you think of a buff man with a dress, makeup and a wig on. In many cases that may be true, but in most, it never goes to extremes. Another stereotype for transgenders would be that all of them are flamboyant and rowdy. Ultimately, is proven in the film that is not true. Most people in the film are too themselves and keep their life private. Most significant, Robert Eads was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which means that he had cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer. Something that people would never guess Robert having because he appears to be a male. Robert could have been treated much earlier, but all the hospitals and doctors he went to refused him to protect their businesses and keep clients. Robert was unfortunately left untreated and just allowed his cancer to take his life, accepting his fate. In an article by Erin Allday, a man sued a hospital for refusing to perform a hysterectomy on them. There are countless articles on this issue. One issue that caused Robert Had to lose his life
In conclusion, The southern conference, or SoCo, was an organization giving the spotlight to people with different gender identities. Robert Eads, a transexual man lived an unproblematic life compared to most transexuals, especially in the south. Robert showed that genitalia wasn’t the true thing that made a man a man or a woman a woman. One of my favorite sayings from him in the film is, “ being a man or woman has nothing to do with genitalia, it’s what it is in your heart or mind”. This film is significant because Robert Eads and many other people in the film prove how hard it is to live as a transexual or transgender, but also how with community, love, and family, it is possible.
References
(2019). Erin Allday. Transgender man sues over Eurekas hospitals refusal to perform hysterectomy. San Fransisco Chronicle.