On Caleb Hannan and his Dr. V. story

A piece went up recently on the ESPN/Bill Simmons site Grantland. Titled "Dr. V's Magical Putter" it was ostensibly a piece about a piece of golf equipment that, while unusual in appearance, seemed to work wonders for those who needed to improve their short game.

The writer, a freelancer from Denver named Caleb Hannan, wrote the long piece that started out as what looked like a personal essay about discovering this putter. Then...it went in a different direction.

As John Stansberry (of Lonely Tailgater) put it:

I don't think Bill Simmons pays a lick of attention to what goes up on Grantland. But if he does, Dr. V’s Magical Putter shoulda been nixed.
— Lonely Tailgater (@LonelyTailgater) January 18, 2014

Hard to argue with him upon further reading.

I want to point you towards a post by author Maria Dahvana Headley. Don't tell me it's too long; didn't read. Read the whole damn thing. Because it is by far one of the best things you're going to read about this situation.

My own thoughts? Well, there's this: Overall, I found the piece to be in desperate need of editing. I felt that the piece was too focused in on the writer and his thoughts/emotions/feelings throughout the duration of the article. It was an exercise in self-indulgence; too inwardly focused.

Now, maybe that inward focus is what led to my biggest issue with the article: the callous disregard of the person who ultimately became the true subject of the piece—Dr. Vanderbilt herself.

Hannan sought out to learn more about the Dr. Vanderbilt. Actually, scratch that. He was investigating, at first, the history of this putter that would allegedly help him get better at golf. He then managed to find out who created the putter. The creator of the putter wanted to talk only about the putter's creation and the science behind it, not about themselves. From Hannan's article:

 First, however, she insisted that our discussion and any subsequent article about her putter focus on the science and not the scientist.

It was Hannan who felt compelled to keep digging and digging. Granted, Dr. Vanderbilt didn't help matters by putting out the false resume information. I will admit that. But again, at that point, she must have assumed that the article was not going to reference her background more than in passing.

I also found this passage from Hannan to be odd:

The pitch of her voice was strange, too — deeper than expected. She said it was the result of a collapsed larynx she had suffered in a car crash.

Since there weren't many (any) pictures of her available, how can you say that the pitch of her voice was deeper than expected? You were talking to her on the phone.

Anyway, Hannan got his hands on the putter and was ready to become the club's biggest advocate:

I was ready to proclaim her an unknown genius with an idea that could revolutionize golf. All that was left to do was make sure the stories about engineering accolades and top-secret defense projects were legit. It was, I thought, just a formality.

After she had said to focus on the club and not the person

I started with Dr. V’s biggest accomplishment — her work on the stealth bomber. The Department of Defense could not confirm her employment without a Social Security number, and I figured that Dr. V wouldn’t want to share hers. So I contacted Aviation Week senior international defense editor Bill Sweetman, who had written a book on the plane. Sweetman said there was no way to confirm Dr. V’s work without forcing her into a compromising position, since stealth workers signed lifetime nondisclosure agreements. “It would not be surprising if she worked on the B-2,” he wrote in an email, “and that she would not want to talk about it if she did.” He was certainly right about that. 

Good to see Hannan realized that. And then when you continued to poke and prod for details of her past life, she snapped at you. Well, hell. She asked you to stay out of her background. I can understand that.

The email was a surprise. Dr. V’s initial requests for privacy had seemed reasonable. Now, however, they felt like an attempt to stop me from writing about her or the company she’d founded. But why?

So wait. It was a reasonable request until Hannan decided it was a request keeping him from formulating the story HE wanted to tell.

It wasn't until he spoke to the town manager from Gilbert, Arizona, apparently, that things crystallized. Hannan inferred from the conversation that Vanderbilt was born male.

And, even though I had many issues with the piece, it was this that started my blood boiling:

What began as a story about a brilliant woman with a new invention had turned into the tale of a troubled man who had invented a new life for himself. Yet the biggest question remained unanswered: Had Dr. V created a great golf club or merely a great story?

No. No. A thousand times no.

That, right there, is a fundamental problem. That is the crux of the issue that was never really addressed. The lack of understanding of individuals who are transgender.

Essay Vanderbilt was not a troubled man inventing a new life for himself. She was a transgender person who clearly seemed to be dealing with other issues as well. It is safe to say that depression was probably one of them, as Vanderbilt had attempted suicide at least once before (and sadly, ultimately succeeded).

She didn't lie about her gender, and to imply that her gender identification was just one of many lies is insulting to those in the transgender community.

With that being said, though, I want to think that in a rational world, this would be an opportunity for people to educate themselves about how difficult it is to be transgender. Granted, I would also think that the world in 2014 would be more accepting of gays and lesbians as well. Pockets of the world are. Pockets of this country are. But as we are (probably) about to see and hear from Russia, the world isn't completely there.

And we know sports isn't there either.

But maybe this narcissistic tale spun by a freelancer from Denver, and the ultimate negative outcome that came from it, can serve as an impetus for people to realize that transgender men and women are human beings as well; not objects for derision. Not people trying to intentionally fool others.

I wish Hannan had addressed some of this in his article, but obviously that was not the tale he set out to tell. In point of fact, I wish I actually knew what tale he was trying to tell. Does he regret his actions? Was he trying to educate about the dangers of pursuing the story at the expense of someone's private life? Or was he just trying to say, "Look at me and my investigative chops"? Because that's how it comes off.