So, we were out for dinner with my dad and his partner tonight, and he was telling some off-colour stories about his army days.
In one of them, he was talking about how he and a mate were vying for the attentions of a gorgeous girl in a bar in Singapore, and this other guy came up and warned them that this girl was "a nine bob note" - "what they now call ladyboys," my dad said. Anyway, his friend had missed this, being at the bathroom, and he was doing a better job of being on the pull anyway (since my dad was married by then and not particularly trying *that* hard) and got on well with her, and there came a point when the same guy who had tried to put my dad off said the same thing to him "she's a nine bob note."
So I was expecting to hear a tale of transphobia and some squaddie going "ooh, how awful, this bloke has fooled me!" But what did the guy actually say?
"I don't give a fuck; she's gorgeous, I've pulled, I'm going with her anyway!"
Marvellous! Beautifully progressive and unexpected, if in a selfish way - but what's really amazing about this response, this it-doesn't-matter-what-the-chromosomes-are response is that this was fucking 1961 or 62! Back in the bad old days!
I really liked that story.
In one of them, he was talking about how he and a mate were vying for the attentions of a gorgeous girl in a bar in Singapore, and this other guy came up and warned them that this girl was "a nine bob note" - "what they now call ladyboys," my dad said. Anyway, his friend had missed this, being at the bathroom, and he was doing a better job of being on the pull anyway (since my dad was married by then and not particularly trying *that* hard) and got on well with her, and there came a point when the same guy who had tried to put my dad off said the same thing to him "she's a nine bob note."
So I was expecting to hear a tale of transphobia and some squaddie going "ooh, how awful, this bloke has fooled me!" But what did the guy actually say?
"I don't give a fuck; she's gorgeous, I've pulled, I'm going with her anyway!"
Marvellous! Beautifully progressive and unexpected, if in a selfish way - but what's really amazing about this response, this it-doesn't-matter-what-the-chromosomes-are response is that this was fucking 1961 or 62! Back in the bad old days!
I really liked that story.