Hey and welcome back to Pandora’s Locks, the blog where I write, and you read. It’s a beautiful partnership, really. Today we’ll be talking about a few stereotypes. We all have bits of identity ingrained with our sense of self and unfortunately those identities have preconceived notions attached to them.
With permission from my friend, we’ll be discussing one aspect of her experience. She is a trans woman, so there are a few stereotypes that she must protest at every media turn. One important one can be viewed in most media of the 90s and now still when the writer has a poor understanding of trans people. The idea protest is that these trans women are just men in female attire; the victims of this stereotype are slurred (via a derogatory piece of internet slang for transwomen (there was an entire movement dedicated to questioning, jeering, and even attacking people viewed through this lens)) and the perpetrators add to this by considering any straight man attracted to them, gay.
Additionally, as a hyphen to this conjunctive cruelty is an element of disgust expressed in media when the male character (either played as a joke on the supporting cast or as a bid of deception on the protagonist) sleeps with or simply considers the trans person attractive before discovering the character is not cis. The movie Ace Ventura Pet Detective is an unfortunate propagator of such harmful messaging. Main antagonist Einhorn “tricks” Ace Ventura, kissing him as a woman, later discovering that she is a man (Finkle) who pretends to be a woman after fumbling a game-deciding kick. The protagonist then puts on an extravagant display of disgust: vomiting, showering, and even burning his clothes.
I believe the legitimacy of this media construction is complicated. The movie assigns her the role of a man who is pretending to be a woman, or one whom weaves into the role as a bid for revenge, something there is no medical precedent or evidence for; the idea that she would not initially be willing to tell Ace is probable. There is ongoing debate in the trans community about these questions of ethics. Some pieces of advice and information say you don’t have to disclose your sex and genitals, while there are people who say it falls under deception and more still who say it is a matter of safety either way. I can see a trans person not telling their partner, but that is just the beginning.
Why would she not tell him? Well, it gets a little silly here because the movie says that she’s intentionally lying to everyone for her sinister pathology. When it is proven to the police, everyone in the room is horrified and disgusted to the same degree as Ace. Some people in real life are very uncomfortable with trans people, they do not understand them, and that mystery leads to fear. This fear is usually fostered by media sources, like movies and tv, and sometimes politicians (foreshadowing is a literary device in which…). Of course, the story of a real trans person is missing, all we have is a caricature of a concept formed in the 90s. The overt bias is the idea that trans people are pathological, deceivers, men in dresses, not truly people, but an idea of a villain to fear. This construction is harmful to perception of trans people and can be harmful to anyone’s development of empathy for fellow humans. Imagine seeing a trans person for the first time and all you know are examples evoking feelings of distrust, fear, and disgust.
Speaking of fear and distrust
The second example of the assumptions articulated above is from failed presidential candidate and suspected zodiac killer (known less notably as U.S. Senator), Ted Cruz. He argues that men will simply state they are women to prey upon people in a secluded and vulnerable position. This was when he called for North Carolina to sign into law a bill that prohibits bathroom use in cases of gender and sex disparity, assigning authority to the letters denoted on your birth certificate. His construction of trans representation has no reference to actual trans people, only the deepest fears one could muster in their stead. Cruz creates a narrative essentially saying to his supporters: “She is not a woman, but a man looking to harm your wife and daughter,” and when put in the position where you must fear for your family’s safety, you might turn violent. This is the danger, a politician leaving out the perspective of any trans people, totally ignoring all evidence that points to the contrary idea; Trans people do not generate a statistically significant abuse percentage. Going further is the missing evidence that points to transpeople as the far and away most targeted victims of these and similar attacks. Painting transpeople as predators seeking the vulnerable is reckless and has led to the confrontation and subsequent stalking of one of my close friends. Every trans person has a story like this: they are not explored by politicians.
The invisible norm that these media constructions imbue society with is one of trans fear: Trans people have an inherent expectation of verbal and often physical abuse by anyone not immediately marked “safe” by queer identity or allyship, sometimes not even a rainbow flag will prove enough to assuage these concerns. If you have questions about being trans, the ways these people navigate the world, and where to learn without assigning all your responsibility to an already stressed individual, I have some resources for you. Along with these few, Contrapoints (a popular video essayist and philosopher) has a video related to this topic, if you are inclined. One more thing to remember is these people are not a monolith, each is an individual with their own biases and self-concept. So, after you’ve learned about trans people, listen to that trans person. With regard to all the above and forevermore below: I ask that you be thorough, thoughtful, and brave. I hope throughout this article I have given you something true to ponder and inquire.
Until we meet again.
-pey
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