Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
by Janet Mock
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10:11
Janet Mock speaks live with Piers Morgan on CNN
152K
575
Feb, 2014
Spoiler:
Piers Morgan marvels that he would never have had the slightest idea that Janet Mock was born a boy and asks if she ever considered “going back.” Mock says there was never any turning back, once she changed her name from Charles to Janet (in honor of Janet Jackson) and started wearing girls’ clothes. She says the medical transformation was “a step for me to move closer to me” and “a reconciliation” with herself. Morgan calls her “gutsy” and “determined.”
6:02
Excerpt from author interview on Bill Maher’s Real Time
90K
766
Feb, 2015
Spoiler:
Bill Maher jokes with the author about pop culture and Beyoncé but then tells her seriously that the book actually educated him about transgender people and issues. Although the author chose to undergo a medical transformation and hormone replacement therapy, she says that there are many paths and that many trans women choose to realize their transformation differently. Mock says it doesn’t matter how many possible gender options there are, that the number of boxes available to check doesn’t affect the box that somebody else wants to check.
37:38
Author in conversation in Talks at Google Format + Q&A
75K
704
Mar, 2014
Spoiler:
The author begins her conversation with Google’s moderator by answering a series of rapid-fire either/or questions (sweet/savory, Aretha Franklin/Patti LaBelle), then reflects on certain key moments from the book. One of these is when her father forcibly shaved her head to try to enforce her birth-assigned gender as a boy. Although she says her family life was “messy,” she tried in the book to compassionately consider how her parents were raised and how ill-equipped they were to parent her.
1:12
Author does short promo for book in talking-head format
29K
175
Jan, 2014
Spoiler:
Mock hopes to help young girls who find themselves growing up like she did to know that they are not alone, that they are not the first ones to experience being born into the wrong body and all the social and familial implications that go along with that. The book was a chance for her to create the story that she didn’t have growing up, when she was not only expected to be a boy but was being raised by parents who were “super ill-equipped.”
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