Transphobia in the Media & What YOU Can Do to Push for Change!
CW/ transphobia, mention of harm/threats, mention of sexual assault
Hey all! My name’s Evangeline Garcia. I use she/her/hers pronouns and I’m a transgender woman and activist for LGBTQ+ representation.
While I am super grateful to have received quite a lot of support from friends and some family regarding my transition, I have also unfortunately been met with quite a bit of backlash from people who have misconceptions and unfounded beliefs regarding the trans community. I personally think that a big part of why we see such vehement opposition to transgender people, more often trans women, is because of the way that we have been portrayed in the media. From movies like “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” to beloved shows like “Friends” or ‘comedy’ routines such as Dave Chapelle’s special, transgender women have frequently become the butt of the joke, and transphobia or disgust is widely accepted as a natural reaction to trans bodies. According to popular media, trans women are seen as predators, unloveable, masculine-looking, and deceptive. That kind of representation is extremely inaccurate, damaging to young trans girls and unfortunately, this kind of representation doesn’t stop at just fictional media.
On October 26th, the BBC published a hotly debated article entitled “We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women”. The article is a 4,000-word piece that delves into instances where some lesbian women reported feeling pressured into having sex with transgender women to avoid being seen as transphobic and/or feeling forced to accept trans women as partners even if they didn’t fit their genital preference.
I want to first acknowledge that, my heart goes out to these women. No one should ever feel pressured into engaging in sexual intercourse or any sexual act by anyone and having a genital preference is absolutely valid. It’s terrible that the women in this article have been victimized and felt coerced to have sex with women they were not attracted to. I’m a firm believer that love is love and that people should be allowed to like and engage sexually whoever they like so long as the encounter is consensual and all party’s boundaries are respected.
That being said, I must also say that the demonization of transgender women that the BBC’s article encouraged is a big problem. Trans women, especially trans women of color are some of the most vulnerable people in society. In 2021 alone, 45 transgender/gender variant people were killed violently which is more reported transgender killings than there have been in the last 6 years. Trans girls, like myself, are also constantly harassed online by chasers, people who fetishize us, invalidated by people who think that we will “always be men” or treated like sub-human “exotic” sexual experiments. These experiences are terrifying to trans girls who have to navigate not just the everyday dangers of being trans but also people like Lily Cade who advocate for more violence against trans women.
The BBC article mentioned earlier quoted an ex-sex worker named Lily Cade, a lesbian woman who has been accused multiple times of sexual abuse by multiple women. After being interviewed, Cade posted a series of messages to her Twitter and her website calling for the ‘lynching’ of trans women amongst other hateful, violent actions. In addition to her reprehensible posts, Cade is a self-proclaimed TERF, which stands for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist” and her support for gender critical theory shows her commitment to making trans lives more difficult. People who align themselves with gender critical theory are in essence anti-trans and the fact that the BBC gave a dangerous woman like Lily Cade a large platform is damaging not just to the trans community but also to the women who spoke out against predatory trans women. By publishing an article that includes statements from women like Cade as well as including flawed surveys with small sample sizes, the article brands itself as an unreliable source of information, tarnishes the stories, and brings doubts into the reputations of the victims who actually have important and relevant information to share.
There are ways to combat the viral transphobia in popular media though. Pushing for accurate and informative reporting on the transgender community, advocating for non-vilifying more realistic representation of trans women in popular media, and ceasing exclusive focus on the select few cis women who are avidly anti-trans, are some of the best ways to uplift both trans and cis voices and help end violence against women. Shows like “Pose”, “Euphoria” and “La Veneno” for example do a great job of portraying trans women as complex individuals with the same virtues and flaws as everyone else. Documentaries like “Disclosure” and “Paris Is Burning” are also fantastic representations of the trans community and include firsthand accounts of life as a trans woman. I would highly recommend all of those shows/movies to anyone who would like to learn more about the transgender community. Other ways you can help are by supporting any trans people you may know, being friendly to them and respecting their new name and pronouns or donating old clothes to them if you can. It may not seem like much but it can be absolutely life-changing for trans people who could use the act of kindness.
Everyone deserves to have their voices heard and feel safe from violence at the hands of ignorant people. At the end of the day, we are a sisterhood and we should try to find more ways to support one another instead of allowing the vicious cycle of pitting sister against sister to continue.
P.S. Huge shoutout to all my girls who have helped me build a new wardrobe with cute fits and helped me put together a collection of makeup
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/14/us-trans-transgender-deaths-2021
