News
Page 4
Street Roots • Sept. 16-22, 2016
Susan Faludi visits her father, Stefdnie, in Budapest. Susan reunited with her estranged father after Stefdnie’s gender transition.
A journey of identity
Susan Faludi’s new book, "In the Darkroom,’ explores the facades her transgender father hid behind
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
n 2004, Susan Faludi received news that
her estranged father had recently
transitioned into a woman. He was well
into his 70s when he flew to Thailand for
the surgery.
Steven re-emerged as Stefdnie, or “Stefi,”
and she had reintroduced herself to her
daughter via email, complete with
photographs displaying her new look.
In an effort to become reacquainted with
the parent she had grown up knowing as a
domineering, macho and sometimes violent
patriarch, Faludi soon embarked on a
journey that would span the remainder of
her father’s life.
Her new book, “In the Darkroom,” is a
personal account of her investigation into
her father’s many identities.
It takes her from Portland to Budapest,
where she’s confronted with her family’s
history of Holocaust survival and the many
masks her father hid behind.
Faludi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist and the feminist author of
“Backlash: The Undeclared War Against
American Women,” which won the National
Book Critics Award in 1991. She’s written
for The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal
and The New York Times, as well as other
publications.
She will be at Powell’s City of Books,
I
1005 W Burnside St, at 7:30
p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, for a
book signing and reading
followed by a discussion and
question-and-answer session.
We began our interview with
a couple of questions from
Street Roots vendor Tina Drake,
who, like Stefi, has become
estranged from the daughter
she fathered years ago.
When her daughter turns 18,
Tina plans to reach out to her and will be
faced with explaining her own gender
transition.
Tina wanted us to ask Susan if she had
any advice about how she might best break
the news.
Darkroom
Faludi
Susan Faludi: One hopes that by the
time her daughter is older, that given the
somewhat encouraging trends in culture,
that maybe this won’t even be a big deal.
We are so much more open than even a few
years ago. I look back when my father
transitioned in 2004, and it was seen as this
exotic phenomenon, whereas (now) there is
so much more press, and generally more
positive press. My recommendation
everyone’s experience is different and of
course it completely depends on what she’s
comfortable with, and what her daughter is
comfortable with - but I think speaking
openly and honestly is always the best
ticket And speaking in person, I
would say. Given that my father
sent me an email from overseas, I
would have appreciated a phone
call, but then we hadn’t been
speaking for a while, so perhaps my
father wanted to feel out the water
first before diving in.
Emily Green: Tina also wanted
me to ask you if you have any advice
for how family members of someone
seeking gender reassignment surgery might
best cope with the change in their loved one?
S.F.: Keeping all lines of communication
open. I can only speak for my own
experience, and I have to say that my
father’s transition was really the least
difficult part of us reconnecting. Much
harder was dealing with all the baggage
between us. There are a lot - and I know a
lot - of trans people whose family members
have fallen away, they claim, as a result of
the transition. If you can keep talking, and
show that you care, and that you don’t want
to be estranged, hopefully that message will
finally get through. Most people, no matter
how badly they react at first, want to come
around and Want to be close to their family.
We all want family.
E.G.: As you explored your father’s gender
identity tra,nsformation, were there aspects of
See FALUDI, page 5