She's Back!

I am a downloader. I like to grab TV shows off the internet. I do it because if I download shows, I can watch them according to my schedule. I like to download something every day or so, so when I am bored I just need to check my computer for a few hundred episodes from any of the series I like to watch. I also like that when I am browsing lists of shows available for download that I come across shows from networks I don't get, shows I haven't seen in a while, shows I have never heard of, and brand new shows that haven't been on TV yet. On Friday I found a show that had not been on TV yet, but only in this current incarnation. A show of the same name and premise was on thirty years ago, and back then it was the TV show that captured my imagination. I knew it was supposed to premiere this September, so when I saw it on the internet a month and a half early I wasn't sure it was going to be the real thing, but I had to try. As luck would have it, it was real, and a day or so later I was watching The Bionic Woman.



I one-hundred-percent believe that transsexualism is purely biological. There is no choice in the matter at all, you are either born this way or you are not. Many people think this is untrue, they think it is a choice. If you ever hear this, don't believe it. The people who say it are not transsexuals, so don't listen to them. Believe someone with experience in the matter, like me. The truth is we are born like this, and just as kids discover their own individuality, this is just another thing we discover about ourselves - usually at an early age. I can't say for sure when I realized I was transgendered, but I definitely knew by the time the original Bionic Woman came on TV. I remember I used to go out and play and pretend I was her all the time. As much fun as I had playing, the sad part is that I felt I should hide it from everyone. I think I was somewhere between five and seven years old when I developed my first 'cover story'. All the while I was playing 'bionic woman', I would just tell people I was playing 'six million dollar man'.



I think the reason I was so interested in this show was because as a kid I was very interested in heroes and science fiction. Through my dad and my uncle I had hundreds, maybe even thousands of comic books. I had Spider-man, Superman, Batman... I had all the "man" comics, but the closest thing to a female hero that I was exposed to was Betty Cooper. Jamie Sommers became my first, and long-time favorite, fictional role model.



I think I am not alone in remembering the Bionic Woman in this way. There is a scene in the new show where Jamie escapes from a government hospital and runs away as fast as she can through a forest - and with her bionic legs that is pretty fast. Meanwhile, a minivan carrying a woman and her young daughter is travelling on the highway, parallel to the forest. The daughter looks out the window and says, "Mommy! There's a lady out there running really fast, like as fast as a car!"

The mother says, "Sweety, what did I tell you about making things up?"

The girl has a look of admiration on her face and says, "I just think it's cool that a girl could do that."

That is exactly what I thought when I was her age!