Princess Joules

A few days ago, I have rediscovered one of my favorite YouTube bloggers, Princess Joules (Julie Vu). Princess Joules has been documenting her transition from male-to-female for about 3 years. About 5 months ago, she went under sex reassignment surgery and made a complete transition. What I love about her videos is that she is honest about her experiences. In the video below, she tells us about her feelings as she is an hour away from surgery.In class, we’ve read about how a transgender person must have a psychological assessment done before they are approved for sex reassignment surgery. I personally felt that it was upsetting that they had to prove that surgery was necessary; society should not be able to police our bodies, especially when we know ourselves best. However, Princess Joules tells us the truth about her feelings – something that most of us would not expect…

After seeing this video, a few questions came to mind:

• Before Princess Joules came out as transgender, she came out as a gay male. I want to know if surgery changed her perception of her own sexuality. Because she believes that, internally, she is a female and belongs in a female body, and she is now a legal female, is her sexuality labelled as straight?
• How do most transgender people define their sexuality after their transition into their true selves?
• If we completely got rid of gender roles, gender, and sexuality (LGBT), how would we define our self?

American Horror Story: Freak Show

I absolutely love these interviews that American Horror Story is putting out on YouTube. It definitely gives us a perspective on how those with unique bodies, view their own bodies, and learn to accept their own bodies.

I hate to be That person, but…

Being 4’11 and currently 90 pounds, I have never received so much body shaming and hate as I did when I was at Mary Baldwin College, an all-female school I attended freshman year. I thought that being at an all-female school, that the females would have mutual understanding, and respect one another. That they would be strong supporters of self-ownership, and believe that whatever we choose to do with our bodies should be our business. But what I found was the complete opposite.

It’s MY Body, NOT Yours.

Ever since I was young, my parents have attempted to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body. They told me that I was too young to understand how society would perceive me, depending on how I dress and how I choose to express my own body. They told me that until I turn 18, they are responsible for what I do to and with my own body.

This included my own virginity.