Piers Morgan & Janet Mock: 'Redefining Realness' Author Makes Second Appearance On Show
Piers Morgan Live caused a controversial stir within the transgender community due to a Twitter faux paus ahead of his interview with the 29 year old transgender author Janet Mock, who has a new book entitled Redefining Realness.
The Piers Morgan Live Twitter account posted an advertisement for the show: "How would you feel if you found out the woman you are dating was formerly a man? @JanetMock shares her experience now," to which Janet Mock replied via Twitter "@PiersMorganLive I was not 'formerly a man.' Pls stop sensationalizing my life and misgendering trans women. #redefiningrealness"
Morgan invited her back his show Wednesday to address the criticism, saying "Why have I been vilified for being transparently supportive of you? I don't get it! I want to learn why it is so offensive to say you grew up as a boy ... and had surgery to become a woman. Why is it offensive?" Janet Mock replied "Being offensive and being kind are not mutually exclusive things. We can be good people but be ignorant. It's about understanding."
"It's not about what surgeries I may or may not have had," Mock said. "It's not about how I disclose my gender to people. It's about who I am right now. ... I am a fierce trans advocate."
Her book says that "The media's insatiable appetite for transsexual women's bodies contributes to the systematic othering of trans women as modern-day freak shows, portrayals that validate and feed society's dismissal and dehumanization of trans women."
In another quote from Janet Mock's new memoir Redefining Realness, she wrote "What I want people to realize is that 'transitioning' is not the end of the journey. Yes, it's an integral part of revealing who we are to ourselves and the world, but there's much life afterward. These stories can earn us visibility, but bail at reporting on what our lives are like beyond our bodies, hormones, surgeries, birth names and before-and-after photos."