Jude Doyle

Jan 4, 2025 | jude-doyle.ghost.io | Jude Doyle

Four years into my transition, I have basically given up on the idea of “passing,” or at least, on ever conclusively knowing whether I pass for cis. I used to foreground these conversations by telling the reader what my body looks like. I’ve gotten suspicious of that impulse: It feels like I’m making myself into a sideshow, sating cis people’s curiosity about trans bodies while sacrificing any right to privacy or dignity in my own. Gender is social, right?

Jan 2, 2025 | jude-doyle.ghost.io | Jude Doyle

There are times when I wish I could give a movie two write-ups: One for the thing it’s trying to be, and another for the thing it actually is. El Conde — a movie in which Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is an immortal vampire lingering on past his supposed death -- is sort of a mess. It’s horror, it’s comedy, it’s Knives Out, it’s Succession, it’s (confusingly, but sincerely) The Passion of Joan of Arc sometimes.

Dec 24, 2024 | jude-doyle.ghost.io | Jude Doyle

This year has kicked the shit out of me. I’m embarrassed to say so, more embarrassed to tell you why. If I actually try to list all the contributing factors, it sounds like whining, like a list of major and minor incidents that could occur in anybody’s life: My mom had spinal surgery in the spring, and has been recovering all year. My estranged dad died in July. My 900-year-old dog also picked July to die. Trump ran against a woman — traditionally not good news for the Doyle household. Trump won.

Dec 18, 2024 | jude-doyle.ghost.io | Jude Doyle

Women have such a cruel relationship with their bodies, I thought, midway through The Substance. It actually took me a while to realize that I do, too. The thing to know about The Substance — a movie that will be promoted to you as Extreme and Gross and also probably Feminist — is that it is fun. Way more fun than an Extreme, Gross, Feminist movie about body image sounds like it would be.

Dec 3, 2024 | jude-doyle.ghost.io | Jude Doyle

I want to start this post with a list of the unreasonable demands made by trans people. They were printed on November 26 in the New York Times, in an article with the headline The thrust of the article, by Jeremy W. Peters, was that “transgender activists” had committed to unwinnably extreme positions, and that this was alienating would-be allies and causing the Democrats to lose elections.