Gender dysphoria and being transgender are not the same thing. The World Health Organization no longer classifies being transgender as a mental illness.
Calling transgender identity a mental illness is no different to people calling homosexuality a mental illness and forcing conversion therapy onto gay people to 'correct' them. Gay people are happiest and mentally healthiest in societies where homosexuality is decriminalised and accepted, not ones where they're labeled mentally ill.
The biggest dangers towards transgender people are the ignorant bigots who bully, attack and even kill them due to their prejudice and hatred. If you were genuinely trying to find a solution to prevent transgender suicides you would address the actual causes instead of ignorantly blaming SJW's like a teenage internet troll.
I'm pretty sure the this new actress's mental health is better from having viewers support her career, than having people call her casting 'propaganda promoting mental illness'.
GrrArgh (25-03-2019), HarryHedgehog (08-04-2019), kaz21 (25-03-2019)
Umm... A transgender person who is distressed by not being called the pronouns they want or wanting hormone treatment/want to transition because the bodies they were born is called Gender Dysphoria. This is different to gender nonconformity, whereby it's a choice, not a distressing feeling of a need to change. What's homosexuality got to do with what we're talking about. Don't muddle your arguments.
No, the biggest danger is normalising gender dysphoria patients (not people who are gender nonconformists) and maintaining it's the right thing to do when the facts are in: that giving into what they want (transitioning/hormone treatment/etc) isn't solving the problem. I will not apologise for not wanting to be complicit in suicides. You can reduce that to calling me a teenage troll, but that would say a lot more about you than me.
Don't for 1 second feel that Neighbours is trying to put a spotlight on these kinds of things out of the goodness of their heart. They're trying to attract viewers and keep the show going because dwindling ratings is killing the show in Oz. After the next funding meeting Neighbours has in the UK, if they decide to pull funding, Neighbours is dead. They're using what little time they have left before renewing a broadcast/funding deal with whatever channel it plays on in the UK to piggy back on top of current social trends, hoping it will attract viewers. Hence the personalities they're trying to attract playing themselves. Hence Eve getting fired to reduce funding. Hence crew being let go to minimise costs, and skeleton crews going on location. Hence Eve's statement about whether the show would continue or not.As someone else pointed out, everyone is welcome on Ramsay Street. You don't like it, don't watch.
Instead of misguided virtue signalling, perhaps that should address the poor acting with some of their cast and the contrived nature of their writing. They're competing with the likes of Netflix. The demand for easily understood television is getting lesser and lesser as audiences are getting savvier. Neighbours won't exist in 10 years time.
And thanks for your permission to not watch it. I'll keep that in mind when the time comes and might check back here for spoilers when he/she/it/zhe/they leave Ramsay St to start watching again.
delsey10 (26-08-2019)
Sorry for heavily editing your post, but these are the bits I want to touch on.
It's apparent they've been doing this for upwards of a year. It's good in a way, highlighting issues and being a progressive show, but the downside is the use of what feels like endless guests who I, and probably others, haven't heard of. I live in Oz but didn't grow up here, and rarely watch any other shows - certainly not the ones the guests are drawn from. It doesn't make a blind bit of difference to me as a viewer who they are but it does have a negative impact when they are brought in for a week and gone again. Their storylines are created to be pretty inconsequential. Drop in, lift out. Pick up again if necessary. No one else is affected. Even Karl with his long lost sister. A train in the mail, a mention here and there.. but he's still the same.
It feels like the use of gimmicks in sports. A-League had a Star Wars round once, which was a bit odd. NRL had Marvel kits for one round. WCW Wrestling had 'on a pole...' matches. Kids for $1 tickets, sort of thing. It was like throwing anything and everything at the wall to see if it stuck. Anything to see a spike in ratings/ticket sales, but usually any spike is just for a short time because the show (Or anything..) reverts back to the norm and it's not good enough to retain the audience. If ratings are low (I don't know..) then the writing is, sadly, on the wall, unless out of blind loyalty or nostalgia, the network decides to keep funding it regardless.
Totally right about the standard of their storylines. I am not against it tackling social issues but to do it in a short-term way comes across pretty as pretty cynical if you consider the points above. They could, for instance, bring in a trans character and explore issues around that, the feelings they have and their decision, have the character be bullied and the bullies themselves learn to understand the person, overcome some odds, etc.. in the same sort of way they tackled David coming out and his and Aaron's wedding. Permanent characters showing that there is a place. Not this few weeks of something and 'didn't we all learn something today...' feel like Sesame Street before moving on and forgetting about it (assuming they do). Also, some racial diversity would be nice. It's Australia after all, almost everyone is from somewhere else.
They shouldn't need the guest stars and stunts; the show should sell itself. It could be so much better than it is.
Mirjam (26-03-2019)
nor is it a mental illness
Does anyone have any info on when she’s going to appear?
A couple of articles at the end of July mentioned that it would be 'next month', so I gather she will appear before the end of August.
Neighbours’ First Trans Character Mackenzie Is Coming To Ramsay Street Next Month
https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainm...hbours-august/
And...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...eighbours.html
I hope she is given a good storyline and can act
kaz21 (14-08-2019), lizann (14-08-2019), Pantherboy (14-08-2019)
Digital Spy article:
Neighbours reveals new details of its first ever transgender storyline
Newcomer Mackenzie confides in Yashvi next week.
https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/nei...one-storyline/
Neighbours has confirmed details of the show's first ever transgender storyline, which begins on screen next week.
Show bosses have cast trans actress Georgie Stone in the role of newcomer Mackenzie Hargreaves, who befriends Yashvi Rebecchi (Olivia Junkeer) after joining Erinsborough High.
As the girls get to know each other, Yashvi starts to realise that she has met Mackenzie somewhere before.
Yashvi wonders if she crossed paths with Mackenzie in her old town of Bourke, a possibility that Mackenzie denies. However, viewers will soon discover that she is from the area after all and isn't telling Yashvi the true story.
When Mackenzie then starts to take a keen interest in Yasvhi's father Shane (Nicholas Coghlan), the situation becomes even more complicated. Getting carried away, Yashvi suspects that Mackenzie could be a secret love-child of Shane's.
Yashvi voices her concerns to Shane, who strongly denies that he'd ever cheat on his wife Dipi. However, he firmly refuses to explain his connection to Mackenzie, insisting that it's not his place to do so.
When Mackenzie finds out that Yashvi is coming up with wild theories, she finally explains that she did indeed grow up in Bourke and they even knew each other in primary school.
Mackenzie reveals that she was known as Michael at the time, but has since transitioned. She was only speaking to Shane as she wanted help tracking down her father.
Much to Mackenzie's delight, Yashvi is fully accepting and the girls agree to stay friends.
Georgie's casting in Neighbours was first announced in March and she started filming three months later. She landed the role after writing in to the Neighbours producers, suggesting they should bring in a transgender character.
Georgie recently told the Herald Sun: "I came up with the idea of having a trans young person on the show so I wrote a letter to the executive producer, Jason Herbison, with a few ideas on how it could happen.
"Both my parents have been on Neighbours so I have grown up with the show.
"When watching it I could see that essentially, amid all the drama and soapy stuff, it is about human stories and genuine stories that reflect the viewers and society as a whole, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell a story that isn’t often told on Australian TV."
Neighbours airs weekdays at 1.45pm and 5.30pm on Channel 5 (UK) and 6.30pm on 10 Peach (Australia).
MellBee (26-08-2019), Ruffed_lemur (26-08-2019), tammyy2j (03-09-2019)
Digital Spy article:
Neighbours to explore transphobia as Mackenzie Hargreaves' past is revealed
Can Yashvi and Mackenzie make up?
https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/nei...shvi-rebecchi/
Neighbours is to explore the issue of transphobia as Mackenzie Hargreaves' past is revealed.
The soap has recently welcomed its first ever transgender character in the form of Mackenzie, and it will also tackle transphobia over the coming weeks when Yashvi makes an ignorant comment at her expense.
It comes after Yashvi remarks that her new friend Mackenzie "used to be a boy", unaware that this is a false and deeply offensive thing to say.
The drama begins when Yashvi and Mackenzie become friends and Mackenzie starts to open up about trans issues, only for someone to overhear them talking.
After mistakenly believing Harlow was the person to overhear them, the girls soon identify school bully Richie as the eavesdropper.
Looking to defend her friend, Yashvi confronts Richie, warning him to keep his mouth shut and yelling that he shouldn't care if Mackenzie "used to be a boy".
Their argument quickly attracts an audience of students and Mackenzie is horrified – not only because Yashvi has outed her, but also because she has proven she doesn't get who Mackenzie is at all.
Eventually, the pair make up, although Mackenzie still feels deeply wounded by the incident and the feeling that her friend doesn't really understand her.
Things are worsened further when parents, spearheaded by Angela Lane, start calling the school to air their concerns about Mackenzie.
Can their budding friendship recover?
Neighbours airs weekdays on Channel 5.
tammyy2j (03-09-2019)
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