h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Conchita Wurst - Winner of Eurovision 2014 - A87829492
Author: SashaQ - towel - don't panic! - U9936370

Here's a topical Entry I couldn't resist writing after enjoying Eurovision last Saturday

And very well written too

You know who she reminds me of? Bearded lady in a dress, rude name,...

It's Cupid Stunt off the Kenny Everett Show.

Thank you

As a concept, I agree with you, but in terms of how the performance of the women is carried out, they're miles apart...

Are you saying that Conchita wasn't all in the best possible taste?!

Looks good to me. As I didn't see much of Eurovision, the one question I'd ask which this entry doesn't answer is how clear a winner was Conchita? You've said she gathered 290 points and was the clear winner, so I'm guessing that it wasn't a case of pipping the competitors to the post, but was it a landslide victory?

If I was being really fussy I'd want to know how clear a lead over the closest rival there was, and how does 290 points compare to winners in previous years? Or how many countries gave 12 points compared to the number which gave nil points? Conchita won, that is undeniable, I'd just like to know how big a victory it actually was. (Can we end the article by saying something along the lines of 'Conchita had the clearest lead in Eurovision for 10 years' or 'getting more votes than any winner since 1993' or whatever).

Feel free to ignore me, though

<BB<

I like it... a lot My only question, from reading it, that spring immediately to mind, and which I think might want clarification (a footnote maybe?), or, of course, I missed the explination <doh< is;
(near the start)
"he went through 'parallel puberty'"
I'm not sure what 'parallel puberty' is; it could be, biological (having both male and female anatomy), or more err, psychiological than physical, I guess, if that makes sense.... Just the one bit which confused me slightly

I've seen reports of Conchita as being "transgender" and using "she" and "her". Other reports call "him" a "drag queen". The singer said "I'm just a singer in a beautiful dress, with a beard" (or words to that effect). I notice you use the pronoun "she".

Is this a question of using whatever pronoun the person in question wants to be referred to by, and is it worth a few lines in the Entry explaining this? You've written quite a bit about transgender people and are familiar with these issues, but the person reading this may not have encountered these issues before.

this is topical, well done Sasha!

Conchita sang the best song of the night (I watched the whole thing), she was referred to as "she" all the time, by the presenters. And I'd say she was the landslide winner, she took an early lead and didn't look at all like being caught. One of the more memorable winners (for me) and well deserved

GB

The Guide has a lot if entries on gender, I know, I edited most of them so rather than going further into it in this entry, I'd link out to the others.

I thought this was a great entry with just enough information to properly inform, without getting dull. Really enjoyed reading it and feel educated!

Thanks everyone

"Are you saying that Conchita wasn't all in the best possible taste?!"

I don't know whether the answer to that is yes or no, so let's put it this way - in terms of taste, Conchita's more to mine than Cupid...

I've added in some more numbers to show how clear the win was - it wasn't a record victory, but it wasn't very close run either.

I've added a little more detail about 'parallel puberty'.

I've tried to clarify Tom and Conchita's self identity a bit more, so hopefully that's better, too.

I really enjoyed this entry, SashaQ. I think that whatever Pastey may opine that the new 'civil rights' front is DEFINITELY on the gender-bending front. People need to appreciate how nuanced sex, gender and identity are and how all of these are on a spectrum ---there is not one way to be. I think this is the sort of thing that brings the New Enlightenment into the 21st century. One of the downsides of the (old) Enlightenment was it forced people into the heteronormative gender relations whereas people before that were much more accepting of eccentric behavior on the part of their fellow citizens.

I had left you a message on your PS but I don't know how much you are on h2g2, so it might have slipped pretty far down on your convo list.

Thanks Elektra

Yes, I saw your post on my PS - I am on h2g2 every day, but don't always have time to deal with everything so didn't yet comment, sorry.

No problem, SashaQ. I was just interested in your take on the article in question. Just do your thing, I didn't want to be bossy.

Elektra, you should read some of the entries I've edited that are in the Guide, they cover a very wide range.

Whilst I think referring to them in this entry is absolutely needed for context, I'm not so sure the entry itself is the place to go into detail about the issues.

I think the issue of Conchita's gender identity is central to her winning.

It's definitely a factor that should be covered in this entry, there's no doubt about that.

But what I'm thinking is that going into the types of gender identity is not really for this entry.

She's appearing on Graham Norton in a couple of minutes.

I watched, and will add a bit to the Entry tomorrow

Updated

I added a little bit more about possible gender identity descriptions, but I agree with Pastey, that the detail of non-binary genders is too complicated to do justice to here, as the information about Conchita herself is limited by being reported in newspapers and by how much she may or may not know about transgender studies...

I added a couple more links (although I'm not 100% happy with the trans paragraph in the Descriptors Entry - must put my mind to an update of that soon...)

As to her win, it's difficult for me to say why she did - I certainly voted for her because she was singing to me, but I also think the song is very 'Eurovision' without being dull, as well as being well sung - many people *didn't* vote for her because of the way she looks, and the Romanian singer didn't win last year in spite of transgressing the gender binary...

Anyway - I hope the tweaks are an improvement to the Entry, but more feedback is welcome

Thanks for this, Sasha. <biggrin. It certainly enlightened me, having missed this year's Eurovision entirely. Not a bad song, either.

Could you please put a hyphen in bi-gender? At the moment it looks like big ender.