why do trans* blogs only show ftm people for the most part? like, is it some sort of male privilege thing in which they only show ftm transitions and they don’t realise it?
most of the people they show are white, too.
Because trans women are told that we are ugly and undesirable, and we are sexualized to the point where our transition is only relevant to the community if we’re hot. But, when we are attractive, we are fetishized, and our bodies become objects of sex centered around our genitals. And since our bodies are objects of fetishistic sex, they are not respectable, and they are not fit to be seen in a non-sexual context.
Basically, trans women are ugly until proven fetish.
(via everythingbutharleyquinn)
Another Young Trans woman Lost In Ohio
While I was in Charlotte for the just concluded TransFaith In Color Conference, heard about another young African-American transwoman who has been killed in the Cincinnati suburb of Walnut Hills, OH. .
And as usual, we have another case of a n African-American transwoman beingdisrespectfully misgendered in the media, followed up by transphobic comments in the jacked up story on that media outlet’s website.
And what aggravates me even further about the developing story besides the pimping of the Black trans prostitute meme, is before I left for Charlotte had to report about another Chicago trans woman who had been killed.
WKRC-TV. read your AP Stylebook as to the proper way to report on trans persons. Umm, never mind, I’ll do it myself since you trained professional journalists can’t seem to get it right the first time.
Before I do your job for you, here’ the pertinent section of the AP Stylebook you need to pay fracking attention to since this probably won’t be the last time you end up reporting on trans personstransgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.
If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.
Shortly after 10:30 PM EDT Saturday night, police were called to the parking lot of a Dairy Mart on E. McMillan Street near Victory Parkway Drive where they found 26 year old Kendall L. Hampton suffering from a gunshot wound She was rushed to University Hospital where she died
Anyone with information about this homicide is asked to call the Cincinnati Police Criminal Investigations Section at (513) 352-3542 or Crimestoppers at (513) 352-3040.
See WKRC-TV? That wasn’t so hard was it? So what’s your excuse for the piss-poor reporting in your story?
This is early info on the latest transwoman to die in 2012 Until I find out what Ms Hampton’s femme name was, I will refer to her in this and subsequent posts by her initials.
And if someone has some more flattering photos of her than this po-po mugshot or info about Ms Hampton, please e-mail it to me ASAP.
(via agender-queer)
Why I am trans-critical
A woman is not something a man can become.
A woman is not something a man can become.
A woman is NOT something a man can become.
Being a woman is having a vagina. Being a woman is menstruating. Being a woman- and I’m talking biologically, here - is having a uterus and ovaries.
Being “female” on the other hand is something different.
But men cannot, should not and will not ever be women.
It would be nice if radical feminists could make up their minds which term is which, because this is the exact opposite of what most “trans-critical” radical feminists say in defining “woman” versus “female”.
I love how, on top of the transmisogyny and general lack of consistency, this also totally excludes entire groups of people - like they don’t exist. People who have vaginas but no uterus? What- half women? People post-menopause? NOT WOMEN. Oophorectomy? NOT A WOMAN. Using birth control (or other methods) to not have periods? NOT A WOMAN. Apparently you have to have a fully functioning set of Radscum Certified baby-growing organs to be a woman. And worship those organs. And hate everyone who doesn’t have them or chooses to use them for anything other than worshipping and making babies (which is rape, of course, because sperm comes from the patriarchy).
FFS
Fantastic:
Being a trans hooker is hard work these days. Not only do you have to navigate a potentially dangerous work environment, try to stay out of the criminal justice system, possibly deal with being HIV+, often live precariously without immigration status in the country you work in, worry about violence and harassment from other sex workers, and deal with a society that puts so much stigma onto your profession that you might not be able to get stable housing, you also have to hear just about every non-sex working trans person alternately use your existence as a political pawn in their campaigns for middle-class privileges (often called “rights”) and condemn you for either being a victim or making the movement look bad. As I said, it’s hard work.
All sex work is survival sex work, in exactly the same way that I could describe all jobs at McDonald’s as survival food service jobs.Here are some of the dumbass things you’re probably going to hear regularly when you enter non-sex working trans spaces, especially trans activist spaces (and these activists will, of course, lament the lack of involvement from sex workers in their efforts).
Sex work is perfectly fine as a choice, but we need to talk about how survival sex work and “trafficking” are hurting our community!What they’re actually saying here is that sex work is fine if you have an MA in Women’s Studies and work in queer feminist porn (which they can happily jerk off to without feeling like bad feminists). These same people usually have only a tenuous grasp on the concept of trafficking, probably don’t have any sex workers in their close circle of friends (unless they have the aforementioned MA in Women’s Studies). They are quick to become angry if you suggest that coercive sex work is actually rare, statistically, or that you chose street sex work because it made sense for your life at the time.
All sex work is survival sex work, in exactly the same way that I could describe all jobs at McDonald’s as survival food service jobs.
I wish the media would stop making it look like we’re all hookers!
I actually hear this as: you sex workers are making the rest of us look bad! How will my parents/grandmother/best friend/dog ever accept me if they think that I’m a HOOKER?
Let’s be real for a minute. Media representations focusing on a single stereotype suck for every oppressed or underrepresented group. That’s totally fair. What’s not fair is when the rest of the community backlashes against this by trying to distance themselves entirely from those represented by the stereotype. At the end of the day, I don’t care if the fact that I and a lot of my friends are or were sex workers makes your grandmother uncomfortable. What I care about is the fact that sex work is still illegal in so many countries, leading to more violence, stigma, and murders of trans and cis sex workers, yet there’s been little effort by mainstream trans (or queer) organizations to help sex worker organizations fight for their rights. Nevermind that our entire movement in North America was founded by sex workers. Do the names Silvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson mean anything to you?
Trans Day of Remembrance is about the murders of transgender people simply for being transgender.
This happens a lot. I try to come from a place of compassion when responding to this, but my first thought is usually “You must be new here.” Trans activists will be more than willing to “fight for your rights” as long as you’re dead and they can list you on their TDOR list. Most of the organizations that hold TDOR events, especially those on college campuses (organized by the army of Aydyns), won’t mention that you were a sex worker. They won’t mention that you were murdered while doing sex work. They won’t mention sex work when they speak at the event about how hard it is to be a white, male, queer, trans University student. Won’t somebody please think of how hard that is for them?!
I am often the only person in the room at trans organizing events who has sex work experience. I know that I am there because I hold a position within the community that is seen as important and because I’m a former sex worker, rather than a current sex worker. The trans men in the room (who inevitably make up 90% of those in attendance) will often ask me, together or in private, how they can make the space more accessible to trans women and to trans sex workers. And I think about the things that they say about sex work, the way that they treat having their cis femme girlfriends in the room as being “inclusive of women’s perspectives,” and the fact that almost all of them either have degrees or are students. And I just smile say “I really don’t know.”
I have been
Through enough shit, enough circumstance and abuse to have wanted to kill myself, to have struggled in and with life, in and with myself, in and with the world around me.
And it makes me REALLY, REALLY angry, that so many other people do not have the luck or luxury of getting some of the breaks I’ve gotten, accessing the resources I’ve been able to access, having their struggles eased, even a little bit.
THAT is why I give a fuck about issues that ‘have nothing to do with’ me. Guess what? If someone’s suffering is because of a system that I am a part of - whether intentionally/by choice or not - it is absolutely something I should be involved in finding a solution to.
And you know what - even if I wasn’t a part of that system (impossible!), there is NOTHING wrong with wanting that big, seemingly unattainable fantasy of ‘everyone is happy and healthy’ to someday become a reality.