Orpheus and Eurydice as The "Choice" of Gender Expression

In the original Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus descends into the Underworld for a chance to have his beloved Eurydice back. But he loses her forever once his faith falters and he turns around to look at her, so he reunites with her through death, by committing suicide.

Naturally, Orpheus and Eurydice are two different people, but if we were to interpret them as one single person, the implications of someone losing a part of themselves to death, destined to be buried deep down forever...

As a kind of unconventional interpretation, one could look at this story as a metaphor for transgender and cisgender people's forced role in gender expression by the cisheteropatriarchy.

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One reading would see Orpheus and Eurydice as a multi-gendered individual having to choose between one part of their identity over the others.

On the one hand, many would wish multi-gendered people to just "stick" to their assigned (or chosen) role, for Orpheus to stay without Eurydice, when the two are inseparable items.

Even among the queer community, multi-gendered individuals are often pushed to choose one identity, to be put in a neat little box just like the cisheteropatriarchy would.

But multigender people aren't just Orpheus or just Eurydice, they are Orpheus and Eurydice. One can't be without the other.

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Another interpretation would be to read the story as the forced choice trans binary and non-binary people are forced to make once they come out.

As mentioned before, many people wish for trans people to just stick to their assigned roles at birth. Orpheus should stay among the living, and Eurydice should stay among the dead, because that's what the Fates decided.

But Orpheus still goes to find Eurydice, and she waits for him. Perhaps the two were forced apart, like how trans women are forced to leave their feminine identity behind if they want to fit in among the rest of society.

Or perhaps the two switched places, and Orpheus is the one to stay among the dead as Eurydice, who's not properly a woman anymore, as she is dead, is forced to be among people who are not like her.

Just like how trans men are forced to leave their masculine identity at the door, while evidently (especially according to the "normal ones") not being properly women.

This is not how the myth goes, but it's interesting to imagine what would happen in that scenario.

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Many people, though, especially in progressive spaces, accept trans people in a conditional way. So long as we bury whatever masculinity or femininity they have, we might be validated by those who don't know us.

Orpheus is the trans man who has to leave any hint of feminity behind, lest he's deemed not a real man.

Eurydice is the trans man who has to leave any hint of masculinity behind and stay buried underground, lest he's deemed too threatening.

Viceversa, Eurydice is the trans woman who has to leave any hint of masculinity behind and stay buried underground, lest she's deemed threatening.

Orpheus is the trans woman who has to leave any hint of femininity behind, lest she's deemed as a snake slithering into women's spaces, like the thing who killed her.

Orpheus and Eurydice are the non-binary people who have to carefully tip-toe through the Underworld, either accepting feminity or masculinity, usually depending on their assigned role at birth, or sometimes whatever's deemed most acceptable for them.

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Lastly, one could also see Orpheus and Eurydice as an expression of cisgender people's forced roles as well. Despite not expressing their discomfort with them, many cisgender people struggle with their gender identity.

Orpheus is the cisgender man who can't look back at Eurydice and show a hint of femininity because that would mean losing faith in manhood and masculinity, and everyone around him would take personal offense, like scorned gods.

Especially if Orpheus is an Asian or a Jewish man, or attracted to men, despite that being what they expect from him. It's a carefully laid-out trap.

Eurydice is the cisgender woman who can't follow Orpheus if he looks at her, taking a masculine role or appearance would mean losing everything, and everyone around her would reject her and send her back to the Underworld.

Especially if Eurydice is a woman of color or attracted to women, despite that being what they expect from her. It's a carefully laid-out trap.

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Orpheus and Eurydice as a single unit forced into whatever box is seen as fit for them, whether it's their assigned role at birth or the "correct" gender expression (as decided by the council of the gods) is an interpretation that I hope explains how transgender and cisgender people are forced into roles, even by communities that pride themselves in being against those roles.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Testosterone Serum

“There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul.”

Many interpretations of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde" have been made in the past.

The most common reading of the story revolves around the duality of man and the hypocrisy of respectability culture in Victorian society.

But for this reading, I thought I’d look into the duality of how transgender men and our transitions are perceived, even by other queer people.

How testosterone is said to transform us into ugly and evil beings, and how many of us have trouble accepting our connection to manhood and masculinity because of it.

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“I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both.”

The protagonist of the story, the admired and respected Dr. Henry Jekyll, is a well-mannered, proper Victorian man. He's seemingly prosperous, well-established in the community, and known for his decency and charitable works.

But he feels an evil stirring inside himself, because of the dissolute behaviors he's secretly been engaging in since his youth.

Jekyll despises his dark side and undertakes experiments to separate his good and evil selves from one another, creating a serum that will alleviate him from this internal monstrosity.

However, the serum backfires and transforms Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde.

Edward Hyde is Jekyll’s opposite. He’s malicious, selfish, and aggressive. Every time he takes control, he kills and assaults whomever he sees fit.

He’s often described as ugly and deformed - yet no one can exactly explain what appears weird about him. He seems to instill an uncanny valley effect onto those who see him.

“All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.”

This kind of sentiment runs similar to the misinformation spread by cisgender people on the effects of testosterone, especially lately, because of the spike in conversations surrounding detransitioning.

We’re often told it will make us ugly, or dangerous. We’re told we’re joining the enemy's or the oppressor's side, and suddenly we’re scary to those around us.

Hyde is the version of manhood that a transgender Jekyll is afraid will come out of him once he takes his serum: testosterone.

Because even though Jekyll hates Hyde, and never wants to be him, he can’t help but keep taking the serum.

He can’t stop wanting to be a man. But he’s afraid he’ll become a monster if he does so.

And even when he stops taking the serum, he stays Hyde.

Because he is Hyde. At least in appearance.

He’s a man.

But does that mean he's evil?

We don't have the answer to that question, because Jekyll can’t come to terms with his manhood. He commits suicide.

Perhaps being evil was something he couldn’t help, but maybe his manhood didn’t have to be monstrous, just because everyone saw Hyde as hideous and frightening.

Just because everyone thought Jekyll would become Hyde.

But Jekyll’s mind is made. He'll become a man; and not a respectable man, an ugly, deformed, wrong man. So he must die.

And the serum that transformed him is lost forever.

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“Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.”

The admired and respected Dr. Henry Jekyll, is a well-mannered, proper Victorian man. He's seemingly prosperous, well-established in the community, and known for his decency and charitable works.

Hyde is Jekyll’s opposite. He’s malicious, selfish, and aggressive. Every time he takes control, he kills and assaults whomever he sees fit.

He’s often described as ugly and deformed - yet no one can exactly explain what appears weird about him. He seems to instill an uncanny valley effect onto those who see him.

Jekyll doesn't want to be Hyde. But Hyde is a perception of manhood he'll have to reckon with, and realize he's not destined to become just by virtue of being a man, in order to be happy.

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“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”

To close this reading of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", this is the story of a transgender man picking up the pieces of his manhood, but struggling to feel accepted when he's seen like a monster, or told he'll become one, once he transitions.

And just like Henry Jekyll, there are plenty of transgender men or transmasculine people out there, who are scared they'll become evil, or oppressors, or ugly Mr. Hyde if they dare take the serum.

To all the Henry Jekyll of this world: Edward Hyde is a role that people will try to claim you've become, or will become.

But you are still Henry Jekyll, admired and respected, well-mannered, proper Victorian man. Seemingly prosperous, well-established in the community, and known for his decency and charitable works.

And it is not your job to make them see that.

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