Some people look closer to the caricature on the left (nix the cartoonishly creepy vibes) than they do to the one on the right and there's nothing wrong with that. I think the intention behind this comic is well-meaning but IMHO this is a harmful way of characterizing trans people.
Agreed, as if to imply that it's somehow bad to look more masculine than most women, or even be straight up visibly AMAB. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.
Both characters should be able to use a public restroom without scrutiny at any rate.
So much of the Transgender Hate boils down to the fundamental belief "All women should be sexually attractive and available to me and my peers".
Left Image is intolerable because I can't get off to her. Right Image is intolerable because I'm afraid that if she was nude I would not be able to get off her.
Not coincidentally, a significant number of right-wing extremists (particularly those obsessed with clocking transgender people) will happily consume transgender pornography. North Carolina Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Robinson is just the latest example, as a guy whose Nude Africa account consisted of a litany of appreciative posts under transgender porn videos.
Well, I do have some questions about the "Candy for luring kids" bag.
i fw the girl on the left
As a trans person just one for one showing the exact depiction a conservative would use for us in your meme is not helpful and deeply offensive.
It's not yours but you're still accountable for promoting it by posting it here. It's ultimately up to you whether or not you personally find it offensive. However, I do think being open to community feedback and understanding why other people might be offended by it is important.
In most cases you won’t even know they are trans until the subject rises due to other factors. At least in NL (and in my circles) being trans isn’t something they tell others, because well it’s not important. Sometimes you can notice it when somebody is trans and other times it’s not.
Even if you look like the image on the left, your gender is still valid. You shouldn't have to be "passing" to be allowed to be who you are.
and let's be clear, anti-trans activists hate passing trans people as much as non-passing trans people - they want to erase all of us
I am glad that others share this viewpoint.
I don't care if they look like the person on the left. A person is a person, actions that affect others without their consent is inexcusable. That it includes a lack of acknowledgment because you don't "pass". All I'm saying is, please don't depict people who don't pass, as criminals. They suffer enough, as is. especially now.
Yeah i was gonna say, this is a weird way to be supportive of trans people. I have absolutely seen trans people looking like the left pic and this makes it seem like those would be untrustworthy or scary somehow.
It might've been a deeper comic if they used the person on the right for both panes .
Yeah I am someone who looks like the person on the left, I do hope to feminize a little bit more on E but overall as a tomboy I do like looking a bit more masculine. I also don't really see why looking like that would make someone untrustworthy or scary.
I mean we can take exception with someone holding a bag that is tagged, "candy for luring kids." I can't think of a time when that could be a good thing.
Is it telling about my childhood trauma that I immediately imagined a priest holding that bag?
I also think the point here is considerably more nuanced than non-passing=bad.
I read it as a critique of how trans people are stereotyped as non-passing. The fact of the matter is, a lot of us do pass and go about our daily lives, and the average cis person doesn't even realize. We assimilate more often than most would admit.
So while I don't think there should be moral value to passing per se, I also think it's pretty fucked up the way we're all sort of stereotyped as being the most visible until proven otherwise...
It's a label. They're labeling people based on the way they look.
I see those stereotypes as convenient propaganda to easily turn the situation into an "us-vs-them" issue and radicalise people with less skin in the game. Whether transphobes actually believe in them is kinda beside the point. The real drive for transphobia imo is purely ideological where gender roles are governed by nature, families are nuclear, and patriarchy is normal and good (but dont call it that)!
The most effective way to combat this is to show examples of trans folks existing in society as healthy, productive people. Having families, not conforming to the stereotypes or giving ammunition to the zealots. I'm not saying everyone should be conforming! Just that we need to have counterexamples to show those who hold trans people up as the epitome of western decline.
my brother in law is an awesome example. Dude is literally just 'guy™️'
like he'll yap to you about an alternator, watch tv, eat string cheese, and take a nap. But he's also super sweet and will help literally anyone for any reason. I love him so much ❤️That's so wholesome! Thanks for sharing 🤗
I'm real tempted, as a cis woman, to dress like a man and see if I can pick fights with people. Because I want people to be able to stand up say, "Well, yes, I'm trans," and then fistfight whoever jump them, but that sounds exhausting, and they shouldn't have to do it. At the same time, I'm worried these idiots would find out I was fighting them on purpose and then would try handwaving me as "not really trans so it doesn't count."
I already have the body-type of Danny Devito. May as well make use of it.
Personally I'll probably just let people pick fights with me, not pick fights with them. It would be the dumbest thing they could do since I'm tough and would kick their asses. And they would deserve it for picking a fight with someone who's ripped.
Now let's see one about religious leaders being role models (left) vs sex offenders (right).
FWIW, I didn't think all religious leaders are sex offenders, but the percentage that have been caught and charged with sexual assault compared to trans people caught and charged is near infinitely higher.
I think deep down they're afraid of "actual trans people" as displayed in this image because they're terrified of "accidentally" hitting on them and finding out they're trans. :/
I mean isn't that valid?
If I was hooking up with a girl and she didn't disclose that and she took off her clothes I would feel so violated
I doubt this ever really happens though
I'm not sure that in a society that isn't homophobic and transphobic that this would be as much of a problem as we think. Would it be acceptable to be upset if the girl you were hooking up with took off her clothes and you find out she had some other kind of situation she didn't disclose? I can imagine many different situations, like:
- breasts are smaller than expected because the bra was padded
- one or more breasts were removed due to cancer
- ambiguous or otherwise "not normal" genitalia for whatever reason (e.g. there are women with multiple vaginas, for example, or women with very large clits, etc.)
- scars, burns, or other marks on the body that you didn't expect
You can think of more examples I'm sure. If you really think a trans woman is a woman, I don't think their genitals being in one configuration is that different than these sorts of examples - it's just another unexpected thing.
I think part of what makes it feel like a violation, esp. to so many cis straight men, is that the attitudes about genitals are so essentialized, it's often hard for a cis straight man (and people in general) to think the penis isn't "male" at least in some sense, and so on a trans woman a penis requires special consent and disclosure that we might not demand of other conditions.
Should someone feel violated if anything else is not what they expected on a woman's body? Why is being trans special or different?
All that said, we do live in a society - so disclosing seems like a good idea for so many reasons. My questions aren't meant to lead people to take risks, but to create clarity about why these practices of disclosure are necessary in the first place.
That's one thing, but I was referring to steps before that part. I think these people are horrified of the prospect of being attracted to someone and then finding out they were once biologically male so they simply push to make that prospect impossible. Everyone else suffers so they don't have to suffer any introspection. :/
There is one group of men that dress up in flamboyant clothing where of that group a large percentage assaults children. They don’t wear women’s clothing but they wear vestments and a miter.
I've never seen tik tok style censorship in a comic itself
LoL
Evil Deceivers & Make Believers (warning, link is to PDF; additionally: archived link, JSTOR link).
thanks for the warning, don't know what I would've done if I clicked on the link and didn't know it was a PDF file!
lol, I don't know why people care about that, but I think some people do. It's probably because PDFs initiate a download and some people have limited mobile data? Either way, I've been on the internet long enough to find that some people prefer a warning as etiquette. 🤷♀️
