After watching Matt Baume’s video I’ve been thinking a lot about Jodie’s identity. It was always kind of up in the air for fans. Is he trans? Is he cis? Is he gay? Is he bi? The last two I think can kind of go either way since we never get a conclusion to the Maggie storyline (I personally think they had no romantic/sexual chemistry so that relationship means nothing to me. Doesn’t mean Jodie can’t be bi, but I just don’t see it with Maggie).
But I’m settled on how I interpret his gender. I have always viewed him as cis, but really looking at that storyline and reflecting on something Ada-Rhodes Short said in the video, gave me some more perspective. There are what I used to see as inconsistencies in that story, but looking at it closer I think the way Jodie explains his choice to get a “sex change operation” to his family makes sense. I’ll go into that in a bit, but first I want to address what Ada-Rhodes said.
About halfway through the video she says,
“…I just wanna look at Jodie and be like, “You are clearly super fucking trans”. ‘Cause nobody looks at their boyfriend and is like, “Well, he likes girls, so I should just become a girl”. That’s not a cis person’s thought process.”
Now, this clip is only a portion of an interview Matt and Ada-Rhodes did. The rest is on his Patreon. I’m not currently a Patron of his so I’m willing to take this quote with a grain of salt, as I may be missing context. At the same time though, this video should be able to stand on its own without context from content that’s behind a paywall. So looking at the statement as it’s presented here…it makes no sense.
The first thing I take issue with is that she says Jodie’s bf (Dennis Phillips) is attracted to girls. Anyone who has seen the first half of season 1, or even Dennis’ first appearance, knows this is not the case. Dennis is gay. But Dennis is closeted because he is a public figure and it’s 1977. When we first meet him he is dating, and later engaged to, a woman. Not because he is attracted to her, but because being in a lavender marriage is the safest option for him as a well-known athlete.
The fact that she got this detail wrong in her interpretation of Jodie (and Dennis for that matter!) leads me to assume that she has not actually watched Soap, or at least not any full episodes from this storyline. Maybe she has, I don’t know -I didn’t know anything about her until this video- but how can you get this one fact so wrong otherwise? It just takes apart the whole argument.
The rest of the quote bothers me too. I’m not trans, so if anyone who is wants to chime in or correct me, please do. But to me a person shouldn’t transition to please someone else. That actually seems like a very not-trans thing to do. They should do it because it feels right to them as an individual. Which is why I see Jodie as cis. It’s clear to me that Jodie is transitioning because to him it’s the safest option for Dennis if the two of them eventually want to be public as a couple. And in many cultures and time periods this experience was or continues to be the reality for cis-gay couples. It has happened throughout history. That’s what I see playing out here when Jodie chooses to transition. He’s not doing it because it’s who he feels he is in his heart. He’s doing it as a compromise to continue being with Dennis.
But, now you might be recalling the scene in episode 2 when Jodie tells Mary that he has always felt like a woman. This statement can, and has, been interpreted in many ways. Is this how Jodie really feels? Or, is this a case of the writers conflating gender identity and sexuality? As Oprah once said, “What is the truth”? Yesterday, after years of pondering this scene, it finally clicked for me. Mary doesn’t know about Dennis. None of Jodie’s family knows that they’re dating. Danny doesn’t find out until episode 8 when Jodie officially comes out to him as gay. His cousins find out after he’s already checked into the hospital for surgery. Burt doesn’t even know until the beginning of season 2, after Jodie has decided not to go through with transitioning and Dennis has opened up to the idea of coming out. Jodie has been keeping this relationship, the true reason he wants to transition, under wraps in order to, again, protect Dennis. He needs a way to justify this decision to his loved ones before he and Dennis are able to go public.
At the end of the day, Jodie is a fictional character. His idenity/ies can be interpreted in many ways. If a trans person sees themself in Jodie then that’s groovy. But when I look at this story, who was writing it, and the historical context of when it was written and takes place, I just don’t see trans representation. I see the story of a gay man that is making a sacrifice in order to be with the man he loves. And that’s just as valid, because many gay people have been in the same or similar situations and can relate to that.
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