Off the back of Meta's new policy, which bans allegations of mental illness unless the person is LGBTQIA+, let's talk about the sanism inherent in transphobic rhetoric.
Beautifully expressed. Loved the way you linked the various ideologies at play. One thing I would add that I’ve been thinking on lately - so much of this stuff seems rooted in fear. I think a lot of people see a correlation between phobia and repression when we talk about fear in queer hate. But, I think it’s broader than that.
For a transphobe, it’s fear that, if ‘we’ allow ‘deviation’, that they will themselves be ‘contaminated’ and ‘deviate’ - not necessarily in terms of they’ll turn out to be trans or queer, but that something they worked hard to align and condition in themselves will be allowed to flourish and they’ll grow ‘crooked’, in a way.
I think so much of it is rooted in the fear of ever being different or abnormal or on the margins. And, I think that’s perpetuated by the way in which we treat the marginalised as a society. Self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s awful to be different because we make it awful to be different to make sure nobody has to go through the awful experience of being different. Round and round.
At this point so many fears have been twisted into this, it's hard to tell which individual fears each person associates with trans people.
Butler describes this well in “Who's afraid of gender”.
I believe some of it may have started with men being under high pressure to perform as men and a constant fear of being deemed a lesser version of man, they still had that security of a “biological essence” that couldn't be taken away from them.
But on the other hand Gill-Peterson in “A short history of transmisogyny” describes a whole other vector of transmisia going on for centuries related to colonialisation.
And then we have a lot of (older) feminist theory conflicting with trans people of being interpreted as such.
And on the other side we have women seeking strength in essentialising their gender in order to distance themselves from men.
And don't get me started on the Catholic church…
It's a huge hotpotch and clever right wing actors have galvanised it all into a single movement of hate.
Yeah, well observed. Since I made that comment, I’ve had a lot of thoughts and realised I was doing that thing of projecting my ingrained fears onto a much broader swathe of people and intentions. Thanks for providing a snapshot of the bigger picture.
(However, I’m also going to decide that it all comes down to people being afraid I’ll beat them at arm-wrestling, because it’s fun to simplify into absurdity :P)
A really great read that provides the kind of insight needed in order to truly understand the evils of this current climate that bubble beneath the surface evil that people have seemingly chosen to embrace.
Beautifully expressed. Loved the way you linked the various ideologies at play. One thing I would add that I’ve been thinking on lately - so much of this stuff seems rooted in fear. I think a lot of people see a correlation between phobia and repression when we talk about fear in queer hate. But, I think it’s broader than that.
For a transphobe, it’s fear that, if ‘we’ allow ‘deviation’, that they will themselves be ‘contaminated’ and ‘deviate’ - not necessarily in terms of they’ll turn out to be trans or queer, but that something they worked hard to align and condition in themselves will be allowed to flourish and they’ll grow ‘crooked’, in a way.
I think so much of it is rooted in the fear of ever being different or abnormal or on the margins. And, I think that’s perpetuated by the way in which we treat the marginalised as a society. Self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s awful to be different because we make it awful to be different to make sure nobody has to go through the awful experience of being different. Round and round.
Fear and pain underneath everything.
At this point so many fears have been twisted into this, it's hard to tell which individual fears each person associates with trans people.
Butler describes this well in “Who's afraid of gender”.
I believe some of it may have started with men being under high pressure to perform as men and a constant fear of being deemed a lesser version of man, they still had that security of a “biological essence” that couldn't be taken away from them.
But on the other hand Gill-Peterson in “A short history of transmisogyny” describes a whole other vector of transmisia going on for centuries related to colonialisation.
And then we have a lot of (older) feminist theory conflicting with trans people of being interpreted as such.
And on the other side we have women seeking strength in essentialising their gender in order to distance themselves from men.
And don't get me started on the Catholic church…
It's a huge hotpotch and clever right wing actors have galvanised it all into a single movement of hate.
Yeah, well observed. Since I made that comment, I’ve had a lot of thoughts and realised I was doing that thing of projecting my ingrained fears onto a much broader swathe of people and intentions. Thanks for providing a snapshot of the bigger picture.
(However, I’m also going to decide that it all comes down to people being afraid I’ll beat them at arm-wrestling, because it’s fun to simplify into absurdity :P)
"It definitely mean they should be trusted over us to decide, as a society, how we manage it."
Did you mean to say "doesn't mean"?
my mistake, that edit never went through. Thank you!
A really great read that provides the kind of insight needed in order to truly understand the evils of this current climate that bubble beneath the surface evil that people have seemingly chosen to embrace.
OMG that Transgender Trend article is a pile of transphobic horseshit... I can't help but relate to a lot of what you've written...