[Gráinne]

My son has lately become very fond of the TV show Bones. I love most shows in the Law and Order genre, but can only take Brennan in small doses. She's just so socially inept and odd sometimes. I realize that this is part of the schtick of the show, but it's like watching an extreme form of myself.

But one episode just sticks in my craw. The team is trying to solve a crime and are working with a Japanese forensic anthropologist (I think) who happens to be genderqueer or androgynous. The "joke" of the episode is that this entire team tries everything short of copping a feel to figure out if the person is male or female.

Firstly, even I knew that there's a subculture in Japan involving androgyny. I know little of Japanese culture, but had heard of this (one of the characters mentions it as well).

Second, it's set in Washington, D.C. In that big city, I'm sure things go down that make Cabaret look like tea at two. I find it really, really hard to believe that absolutely no one in that lab has seen a genderqueer person. I'd find it hard to believe that no one there knows someone in our family.

Hell, I was a sheltered little snowflake when I arrived at Reunion or on the site in the beginning, and probably pretty naive, and still didn't give a damn. But maybe I'm a bad example, as I'm family myself. Even if I were straight, I'd know you don't play silly games or "accidentally" bump someone to see what they've got.

I just didn't like the line of "look at the little freak", like a sideshow. People are people, not amusements.