Woman: I'm so tired of people thinking I don't know how to do my job because I'm a woman!
Chrissie: Tell me about it. The other day, this guy tried to teach me how to use my own equipment - the stuff I actually own!
Dude: Look, there's assholes in every job. Men and women have to deal with jerks, it's not a gender thing.
Chrissie: Trust me, I'm pretty sure it's a gender thing.
Dude: How would you know?
Chrissie: Let me tell you a bit about myself.
Chrissie: I’m an independent videographer. I'm a one-woman shop; I do all my own storyboarding, shooting, sound recording, interviewing, and editing. I do a lot of work for some pretty major clients in Canada, and I do contract work as well. It's a field that needs a lot of technical knowledge and a lot of artistic intuititon. Fortunately, I'm very, very good at my job.
Chrissie: Up until a few years ago, I used the name ‘Christopher’ - I presented as and was gendered as male. Coming out as trans in my work was pretty scary, but my main client was really supportive.
Client: Ok, thanks for letting us know! Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you.
Chrissie: One thing I noticed in the months after I came out is that people treated 'Christopher' the videographer and ‘Chrissie’ the videographer differently. I don't mean people who knew me before my transition, but that the way new clients or interview subjects would interact with me was different...
Before, to Christopher, people would say things like:
Guy: Nice camera! What's your opinion on the Canon 5D3?
Guy2: What kind of editing software do you use?
Now, to Chrissie, people are more likely to say things like:
Guy - You should probably be filming this from a different angle - I'm pretty sure the way you've set up your lighting isn't going to work for this shot.
Guy:
Guy2: Who do you get to do your video editing?
Chrissie: And I'm much more likely to have to go through a gauntlet of 'good natured' questions that are actually meant to evaluate how much I know about my own job:
Chrissie: It's normal for people to be curious. But the level of technical knowledge that Chrissie has to prove up front to get people to leave her alone and do her job is so much higher than what ‘Christopher’ had to prove.
Graph titled
Chris ++
Chrissie +++++
Chrissie: So I do sometimes find myself passive-aggressively responding to the 'testing' questions that guys ask with more involved answers than strictly necessary...
Dude: Shouldn’t the antennas of your microphones be pointed at each other?
Chrissie: Actually, the radiation pattern of the radio waves that come off the sides of the microphone’s antenna are toroidal, which looks like a donut in shape, with the signal dropping off at the top and bottom poles of the antenna, or in this case the direction of the tip. So pointing them towards each other increases the risk of losing the wireless signal, and it’s best to align them parallel to one another to get the cleanest reception.
Chrissie: The truth is, when I presented as a guy, people had no problem seeing me as the dedicated and knowledgable artist who lugs 30 pounds of equipment into a forest in the dead of the winter to get, with frostbitten fingers, the perfect time-lapse shot of a sunrise.
Now, it seems like they think I'm just relaxing at home, reading a Cosmo.
Chrissie: I'm not the only one to notice this. You'll find stories all over from trans people - trans men who found that people listen to them more in meetings or don't question them as much, and trans women like me who find that their technical chops are now constantly being tested and doubted.
Dude: Huh, if you say so. I guess you would know. Hey, do you know how to fly that thing? [about quadcopter]
Chrissie: Of course I do. Let me show you. [chasing dude with quadcopter]
