Check It Out: What does it mean to be disadvantaged?
By Joan Janzen
Reading a transcript of a recent CBC investigative report caused me to recall my childhood when we watched one channel (CBC) on a black and white television. I was at somewhat of a disadvantage when it came to accessing information. If I wanted to watch colour television with three channels offered, I’d have to go visit my friends. Both colour television and more channels were available, but it just wasn’t a priority for my parents. Nevertheless, I can recall dozens of sitcoms that I would never miss. And the chatter on the next morning’s long bus ride would be about what happened to who among our fictitious friends.
Not only did I manage to navigate through childhood without a colour television, but we also didn’t have a phone. In fact, we learned of the birth of my parent’s first grandkids (twins) when our neighbours came over and relayed the phone message. I was ten at the time, but before the next grandchild arrived three years later, we had a phone. It was a desk phone perched on a phone bench ordered from the Sears catalogue. My friends were thrilled I was able to join them in the wonderful world of communication, complete with a built-in party line.
Sometimes I would listen in on the most mundane and boring adult conversations, but I didn’t dare hang up, or the other party would hear the telltale click of the receiver; however, I soon lost interest in eavesdropping. My recollections of those days seem like they occurred on a different planet compared to present-day events, and it was the Radio Canada investigative program that served as a reminder.
The French language arm of CBC released a documentary where they had recorded a young actress posing as a 14-year-old patient at a gender clinic. The therapist asked the girl to tell her when she knew deep down she was not in the right body. The girl who was posing as a first-time patient named Sacha told the doctor after she had vomited at age 12, her mother had taken her to a psychologist. She was told she had an eating disorder.
Sacha explained to the doctor that it didn’t make sense to her, but when she was 13, she came across a video that explained it wasn’t an eating disorder but was a result of being in the wrong body. That’s when Sacha decided she was in the wrong body.
For the next five minutes, the doctor asked the girl if she was considering mastectomies, to which she replied yes. The doctor also explained it was possible to remove her uterus and ovaries and asked Sacha if she was interested in preserving her fertility before prescribing testosterone. The 14-year-old quickly replied, saying she didn’t want to have children.
After less than nine minutes, which were all recorded, the doctor prescribed testosterone, informing her it would begin at an intermediate dose. The doctor concluded the visit by saying, “The best is yet to come.”
After the appointment, Radio Canada confronted the doctor, asking how such drastic action could be taken in such a short consultation. The response was, “A medical consultation cannot be evaluated in terms of duration, but rather in terms of quality of the exchange of information.” The doctor had told his young patient that there was nothing in her profile that would stop them from prescribing hormones.
The documentary went viral online. However, Canada’s state broadcaster also received some anonymous backlash. An anonymous letter was sent to Radio-Canada, along with vandals breaking the windows of the Radio-Canada building.
The documentary and subsequent backlash triggered my memories of watching nothing but CBC as a child. It was a time when families sat in their living rooms watching shows like Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, My Three Sons, Beverly Hillbillies, and Get Smart. The content of those shows was from a different world than the content of the recent CBC documentary. Violent responses and anonymous verbal backlash rarely occurred in the era in which I grew up.
I admit I love tapping into all the information available at my fingertips, but when I look in the rearview mirror at my childhood, I can’t help but think I had an enormous advantage over the kids today. There weren’t thousands of voices vying for my attention, eager to answer my questions and offer solutions to my dilemmas. Instead, I had access to one channel of information generated from the outside world: a party line, my family and friends, school, books, neighbours and church. The only backlash I was aware of was when the cow kicked the milk bucket during milking.
The definition of disadvantaged is “a person in unfavourable circumstances, especially with regard to social opportunities.” According to current standards, I would have been disadvantaged in my ability to access information. However, it seems to me I experienced imperfect but favourable circumstances throughout my formative years.