I Love Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters is the faggiest obsession I've had in a long time—and I've been into some pretty faggy shit. I'm talking vacations to Dollywood, Mariah Carey, reality TV shows involving models/designers/Jordan, child beauty pageants, Celine Dione, and of course, the Beales. While there's obviously some crossover, there's definitely a difference between "faggy" and "girlie." Being a straight girl who usually behaves like a gay man, I'm totally fascinated by gender being a social construct.

Last week's episode of 20/20 was all about transgendered children and it was fascinating for many reasons. First of all, it's crazy to see kids be so firm about knowing who they are at such a young age, because I feel like that's something that most people struggle with for a large portion of their lives. Secondly, it was crazy to hear Barbara Walters say "dick." I know that the nature of this subject matter is very serious, but how it was nurtured in this special was hilarious. Ha! See, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Rich and I watched this over and over again, realizing that it was an instant classic. We made a little clip show of our favorite moments.

Comments

[g]

OMG!

I love Rich!!

Thanks for posting this!

Hilarious!

[brief]

Ha! I love it.

[the cajun boy]

"mermaids" will be stuck in my head the remainder of the day and night. thanks one d.

[KP]

That was magical.

[stripper barbie]

"being transgender is not different than any other ordinary family."
"except it is."

best part ever. im cracking up over here.

[NSupertramp]

I like how Barbara keeps returning to Riley's "snake." What an unfortunate choice of pets considering he wants to get rid of his own trouser snake.

[Boober]

I'm seriously considering thinking about buying you something from your wishlist for this post.

I'll let you know if I ever get around to it.

[I like cheese]

I absolutely loved this episode of 20/20.

I almost peed my pants when Barbara referred to Riley's snake. I couldn't believe she was talking about his penis that way on national tv ;)

[stinkypuppy]

this is off-topic, but the commenters on gawker are just spewing their haterade all over you because you have the nerve to like things (penises, blow) without irony. pay them no mind, they're miserable and probably don't get to make out very often.

[slut machine]

thanks! yeah, they hate my guts. i have a ton of work to do, which means i'm procrastinating and reading the comments and wondering why they dislike me. they give reasons and stuff, but it doesn't make sense. i totally want to see what they look like.

[nippleconfusion]

i was reading the comments on gawker and wanted to let you know that i think you are fabulous. your writing is fresh and you have talent, so fuck everybody else!

i do hope that you keep your identity anonymous so that you can continue writing freely. plus, being totally anon can benefit you later on down the line - you may change your mind about drug use, etc. it's no fun to be typecast as a writer...and unforch women who write about sex and drugs certainly get typecast.

still, while it may not be "brave" to write about sex and drugs, it's certainly fearless. so keep on, mama.

[Rich]

Indeed, the comments don't make any sense. I think you should follow Liz Taylor's advice to Liza: Don't read it!

I get the feeling that these people NEVER get laid, and the most embarrassing thing is that they don't know enough to feel like they should maybe keep that a secret.

[the cajun boy]

i'm really astonished at the visceral nature of the venom spewed today on the gawker comment board. the only logical answer is jealousy.

[Boober]

The gawker commenters are kind of being fuckrags. On the other hand, and don't take this the wrong way but, I've never been that into the "potty girl" feature. It's just not the best of this blog, ya know?

Their charges of 'bad writing' are insupportable.

[Rich]

Their charges of 'bad writing' are insupportable.

Exactly! Which is why they aren't supporting them! They're just throwing around the phrase with no qualification. Which, come to think of it, is REALLY bad writing.

[Boober]

Too true Rich, too true.

Another thing that occurs to me is that the only thing that annoys people who pride themselves on not caring about what others think of them is someone who genuinely doesn't care what others think of them. And not caring what others think of them is not a characteristic of a gawker commenter. Aren't they all trying to get into the gold star motel so fucking hard?

p.s. that was so hard to type when I'm so fucked up. Triple Lindy!!!

[ann arbor]

First, I will totally supply the water for the Gawker Hater-ade...those hos are fucking up a formerly-good thing. If anyone is hating on you, they are showing their stripes. I think you stuck up for them with my last hate-fest by saying they were gyno-centric, but I disagree. I think they are petty and try to disguise their lameness with unnecessary cattiness...like, if you are going to trash titties, at least put your own out there. But I feel with the flock...this pastiche was gold and you did a good job. I am still working on the SM/Daft Punk mashup but when it drops there will not be enough matches to cover the smell. I would scrap for you. Keep up the good work.

[slut machine]

you know, honestly, potty girl isn't my fave either. it's why i didn't keep it up as a regular weekly thing here. i was actually asked to do it back in the fall for gawker but never did it until recently.

i really don't understand why people HATE it though. they seem to be offended by my behavior (or the facet of which i choose to isolate and present), but then they try to take it further by saying that i offend them as a "writer." and they put "writer" in quotes when referring to me! bitch, i'm not making comments on gawker FOR FREE in hopes of making it into some comments roundup post. i gets paid! 100% of my income is from writing.

i try not to care about what those people say, but it bothered me after a while that their comments became rather violent and misogynistic. which brings me to my point: those asspeople are so motherfucking sexist. they don't like me, they don't like julia alison, and they wouldn't like any other girl who openly, shamelessly talks about sex. fuck, they've told college callgirl before that she deserved to be raped!

the fact that they think that my life is "sad" because i enjoy sex says a lot more about them than it does about me.

[jon smith]

they don't hate you cause of your writing (its just about decent), they hate you because of your immaturity (you act like youre 17) and because you are some jonny come lately slag to the scene.

[slut machine]

they just think i'm a jonny come lately because i haven't been writing under this name for very long.

[Blair]

Although it is not my own peen, I am just in shock that #1 is running in second place. WTF?

SM, you are genius. Fuck the haters.

[lil terror]

jonny come lately to this city.

[jana]

**howling**

[Tuna]

"I moved to New York and did drugs before it was cool," is that what they mean by 'jonny come lately to the scene?'
People have been doing that scene for a long time.

[Deege]

"I heard you have a snake." Fucking DEAD!

[Z]

Wow. Best thing I've seen in a long time.

[Hez]

SM, you had me at "Dollywood".