Woman accused of cutting off husband's penis said he 'deserved' it
July 12, 2011 | 11:00 am


Ife After spontaneously telling officers that her husband "deserved" having his penis cut off, a 48-year-old woman being held as a suspect has said nothing to Garden Grove police, according to a department official.

Catherine Kieu Becker told police she had drugged her husband’s dinner to make him sleepy, then tied him to a bed before the assault Monday night in the 14000 block of Flower Street.

Becker has been booked on suspicion of aggravated mayhem, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, administering a drug with intent to commit a felony, poisoning and spousal abuse, said Garden Grove Police Lt. Jeff Nightengale.

The victim, who was not identified, told detectives that Becker made him dinner, but he believed something was wrong with his food. He went to lie down and when he woke up he found himself tied to the bed, with his wife tugging his clothes off, he said. She then allegedly cut off his penis and threw it in the garbage disposal.

Nightengale said police are trying to sort out a motive for the crime but that they would have to put off interviewing the victim further until he was out of surgery.

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-- Tony Barboza and Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Catherine Kieu Becker. Credit: Garden Grove Police Department, KTLA -TV


I found this article very interesting since it depicted a woman very aggressive. I never imagined up to what extent a woman would react to a betrayal from their fiancé and husband in order to hurt them. Until I read the articles Portrait of a Monster and Woman accused of cutting off husband's penis… from different time periods. Both articles showed courageous women who want to defend their dignity and honor when they had been humiliated by their couples. Therefore, women took a stand and acted by themselves in order to take care of their reputation in different ways.

Is the Public More Comfortable with Transgendered People?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ieLG2Wrqew

To piggyback off of snughyun's post, there is an American model named Isis King who actually appeared on the popular TV show America's Next Top Model. The above link is a YouTube video I found of Isis's second appearance on the Tyra Show, hosted by Tyra Banks (which is the same host for America's Next Top Model).

In our class discussion, we touched on the question of if transgendered people are now more widely accepted in society. Comparing Tyra's interview with Isis King to Oprah's interview with Thomas Beatie, it's obvious that Tyra is quite comfortable in talking with Isis. In fact, the first time Isis was on the show, Tyra surprised her with introducing Isis to a doctor that was willing to perform on Isis a sex-change surgery, which has was a long-term dream of Isis's. In observing the audience, the people are in a standing ovation for Isis, rather than having jaw-dropping countenances.

Isis was quite was quite successful on America's Next Top Model and will be appearing in the All-Star season. I found her success inspiring in that in a model industry, where the appearance of femininity is valued the most, Isis has been able to break that mold, and has many supporters/fans. Therefore, I think that on a whole, we as a culture are becoming more progressive in accepting transgendered people Furthermore, we even deem it as beautiful.

Another aspect that I found intriguing was that Isis also has a boyfriend. This was also similar to Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy because Isis boyfriend also knew Isis as a male before the sex-change. I thought it was touching to hear him talk about his love for her, because he saw past her physical body and loved her for her personality. Just like the Beaties, Isis and her boyfriend also consider themselves as a heterosexual couple. The bottom line is that it didn't matter what the physical body type was, the couples loved each other disregarding that they had the same sex organs as each other.

Seeing another transgendered person put themselves out there in the eyes of the public with supporters makes me believe that we are on the right track to accepting people who are different from the "norm."

Third Option on Passport Gender

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14926598

I just came across this on BBC. I thought it was great, and really interesting considering the discussions we've been having about legal gender. In class yesterday we talked about people who could legally change their gender status through passports and birth certificates, and I thought it was very progressive of countries to allow people the freedom to express their identity like that. But Australia takes it to a whole new level. I was wondering if anyone knew of other countries that allow this? Do you guys think we could ever get this kind of legislation in the states? I think it's an important step towards officially recognizing flaws in the male/female gender binary. It could help naturalize the transgender experience and even lead to more improvements, like bathrooms that don't rely so rigidly on traditionally defined gender and/or sexuality.

In response to the New York Times cartoon:
The bald man is wondering: Hmm is that a food baby
The pregnant man then responds: No, it's your baby.

In Gender Conflicts we study gender roles, from how they are constructed to their dismantling. We have focused on the nebulousness of gender and the way people are eager to consign an individual to a certain gender.

On the other hand, people appear to be as fascinated by gender flexibility as they seem to be uneasy about it. In the case of model Andrej Pejic, unclear sex appears to work to his advantage. First appearing in Australia, Andrej is now 19th of the top 50 male models in the world.

I want to talk about him because the nature of his job is highly visible, and he draws different reactions from people, who despite any protest cannot deny his chameleonlike ability to wear both female and male attire strikingly well.

When he first signed up at a modeling agency in his hometown Melbourne, the agency was eager to have him and at the same time told him it would be difficult for him, since he was "too beautiful to be an obvious choice for men’s campaigns, but...was not actually a woman" ("The Prettiest Boy in the World," New York Magazine).

He didn't become wildly popular with a coveted image until Carine Roitfeld, then editor-in-chief of French Vogue, decided to dress him as a woman for an editorial shoot. Since then he has gone on to model at numerous shows and shoots, until he is famou

s enough in Australia that he "has to wear sunglasses to go outside" ("The Prettiest Boy in the World").

Andrej himself states that he never thought of himself as exclusively male, yet also did not consider himself only female. He claims "At this point, I'm happy with the situation as it is."

At the same time, Andrej's androgyny hasn't been embraced by all. Barnes and Noble ordered copies of the magazine with the image of him walking bare-chested to be wrapped in opaque plastic, lest readers think he was a woman. Another magazine had to apologize for referring to him as an "it." Nevertheless, the controversy served to augment his career.

I want to point him out to the class, because even though fashion is a closed-off world to most of us, it is an image-driven world. Gender to me has a lot to do with the visible and obvious. The visible explains the discomfiture caused by this sort of image.

The image has shock value because clearly it is a man with all features masculine who is late in pregnancy. Contrast with this image:

This is Amanda Lepore, a famous transsexual who appeared for M.A.C. cosmetics and more advertising. Unlike the man in the preceding image, Amanda pregnant would not generate the same reaction.

Image has a lot to do with how we perceive gender, because we interpret gender depending largely on our vision.

It is interesting to consider Andrej because he is a model whose career is based on having an unclear sex. In spite of studying mainly people who are ostracized or demonized for that characteristic, there exist people who bridge the gender gap in a way attractive to the public, as Andrej's ranking of 19 proves.

Society's Perception

When we read "John Frog Gives Birth: An Interlude" I was very shocked at how open all of the jokes were regarding sexuality. This play did not stop at any boundaries when addressing the issues of homosexuality and feminine men, but the audience found all of the humor hilarious. I find it amusing that certain issues that are considered taboo subjects are often easilty accepted through the act of comedy. By making fun of certain lifestyles those who are opposed to them find it easier to listen to the topics because they do not feel threatened by the subject material. For example, in the television show "Glee", Kurt's father is able to accept his son's homosexuality when he demonstrates his dancing ability on the football field. Kurt's "Single Ladies" dance routine by Beyonce was entertaining, but it also was able to merge his father's aversion to his sexual orientation with his own style of expression despite the fact that dancing does not occur in football.

For John Frog's time period it was amazing that people still loved him even though they knew he had committed the forbidden crime of sodomy. Even back then people were able to look past sexual orientation and base their opinion of a person on their personality instead. Although John Frog is paraded around in women's clothing, at the end of the play the other mayors admit that they want to act like John Frog as well. If people merely focused on a person's personality rather than topics such as their religion, background, or sexual orientation, people might find that they have a lot more in common with others than they think. Many people are still shocked to hear that cases of transgenderism exist, but obviously there have been people like this for many years. I feel like society's judgment often constrains people so much that they choose to hide important parts of themselves in order to be accepted. I wonder how many more cases of transgenderism would come out if society did not react so controversely to it?

John Frog and Lois Eihorn

From the all readings we have been assigned in class thus far, the one-act comedy of “John Frog Gives Birth” has been one attention-grabbing story that relates to movies and television shows we have today.   John Frog was an entertainer during the 17^th century who was the center of amusement and outrage for having the ability to get pregnant and give birth.  Similarly, the 1994 American film, Ace Ventura – Pet Detective, has one character that became the focus of attention after being revealed as transgendered.    The police detective, Lois Einhorn, was discovered to be a transgendered woman and pro-football player, Ray Finkle, by Jim Carrey’s character that stripped the detective of her clothing and exposed her hidden penis.  Upon enlightening the truth about the detective’s gender, all of the people in the scene reacted with disgust.  Even though transgendered people are still humans, they have been used for humor and entertainment.  Often, they are also referred to as “it” instead of “he” or “she” suggesting them as not being human.  The topic of transgendered people has typically been uncomfortable for many people to understand because the exposure of the transgendered is only becoming prevalent in our society as improvements in medicine allow men to fully become woman and vice versa.  Various movies and shows often get a laugh from their audience with the use of transgender jokes that criticize individuals who were born the opposite gender and are now living as a man or woman.