The Trans* Erasure of Chelsea Manning

I was going to write a longer post about how the media (not surprisingly) mishandled Private Manning's transitioning, but this piece Jos wrote for Feministing is better than anything I could have done:

"NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, the Boston Globe, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Politico, the Telegraph, Reuters, and the Los Angeles Times all used masculine pronouns (I would typically link to all the articles I’m referencing, but I am not giving away traffic for shitty journalism. I’ve included contact information for these news organizations at the end of this article). The New York Times and the Associated Press used masculine pronouns, and they both have style guides that say you should use the name and pronoun preferred by the subject you’re reporting on. The AP’s standards are too strict – they say to respect the pronouns of people, “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.” Frankly, coming out publicly should count as presenting yourself in a way that doesn’t correspond with your assigned sex. Chelsea has publicly lost her access to maleness, even if folks aren’t respecting her female identity."

Roseanne's Transphobic Twitter Fight

Twitter may not be quite the downfall of humanity, but it's doing a good job of exposing the hidden bigotry of its most popular users. Roseanne Barr (who is running for president), angered the trans community after one of her followers tweeted that Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, "“is also in favour of letting men into spaces where little girls get changed." [the women's bathroom] Barr replied, "if she has a penis she is not allowed in." The full exchange can be viewed here.

Sigh. Cis people (and I am among you), just stop this right now. The bathroom argument also hearkens back to an outdated version of feminism  that excludes trans women on the principle that they were not "real" women, therefore didn't have a place in the movement. And unfortunately, that attitude still hasn't entirely died out.

More on Adrienne Rich and being a good ally

Yes, I've already written quite a few things about merging one's life as an ally while being a fan of things that are problematic. If I sound like a broken record it's because I think enough hasn't been said, and it seems like the only options are to purge from the canon anyone who isn't, or hasn't been, 100% ideologically perfect, or just ignore it all together, which implies complacency. This, from someone who commented on Feministe under the handle number9, really resonated with me:

"But I struggle with thinking about what to do with those feminist “icons.” I have no use for Mary Daly, but I can’t argue with the fact that she was formative for many feminists. So do we acknowledge the horrors of second wave’s transphobia, keep what’s useful, and move on to building a better movement? Or do we just strike Mary Daly and others like her from our “required reading” lists and just leave a footnote, “text removed due to incompatibility with feminism?” I’m sort of in the latter camp as far as feminist theory goes, but I mainly know Rich as a poet and without having read anything transphobic from her, I do mourn her passing. But I wouldn’t presume to tell a transgendered person what to think about Rich at her passing."

I've never read Mary Daly, nor do I have any real desire to now, but as I was reading Rich's 1982 essay, "Split at the Root, " yesterday I thought, "No, I don't want to banish her forever," and it's not that many people, trans or cis,  are suggesting that either. Maybe had I found more concrete evidence that she had been actively transphobic, instead of being referenced by a noted transphobe,  I'd think differently; and as a cis person, I have the privilege to make that choice. But I still have a lot of the same questions: what do we do with this information -- I mean collectively? It's not like there's formal hierarchal system in place that says, "this stays; that goes."

I  think we're just really afraid to have these kinds of discussion -- like anything less than outright condemnation makes one a bad ally.

Is it the media's responsibility to educate?

Last.fm

(TW for transphobic slurs)

When I read Lance Bass's apology for his using the slur "trannies" on Access Hollywood, and his subsequent HuffPo  post (via Queerty), I was a little put off by this:

I am disappointed that the media outlets don't reach out to me, or Neil, or Kelly, when something like this happens, but instead post their headlines first, excited that it will mean that they will get more traffic and possibly even picked up by a nightly entertainment news show. I am disappointed that our community isn't ever able to come together and educate each other and educate everyone else in the process from a constructive place, always coming instead from a defensive place. No matter what I say or do now, it will look as though I am trying to spin the situation and save face, when had we worked together, we could have put up a united front and shown that we make mistakes, but that we are in fact a community that supports its own.

One of the cardinal rules of activist work is that it isn't the community's responsibility to teach. Lance Bass  has access to plenty of information to why the word "tranny" is grossly unacceptable. This is transphobia 101 stuff, and yet celebrities keep making the same mistakes. Calling on the gay community to "educate" still smacks of privilege: "How do I know unless someone tells me it's wrong?"

However, the part of the community he's referring to is the media: The Advocate, Out, etc. Now to be honest, I didn't this as an "attack," but does the privilege that comes with having a platform that's wide-reaching mean the LGBT media should educate?

Links & Bits: 12/23/12

Avital Norman Nathan from Bitch Magazine finds some kid appropriate, but cool-enough-for-the-adults music.

Global Comment's Emily Manuel asks "Why does the media still refer to 'Bradley" Manning? The curious silence around a transgender Hero."

Anita from Feminist Frequency lists her top ten creepy christmas songs.

Happy Whatever-You-Celebrate-Or-Not Day! This is my favorite holiday song -- yes, I have a favorite holiday song -- courtesy of the Replacements:

Late Night Transphobia

last.fm

Chelsea Handler, host of Chelsea Lately and definitely no stranger to controversy, mocked Chaz Bono, who appears on this season of Dancing With the Stars, referring to him as "Chastity Bono before she got her penis." (Which in addition to transphobic is just wrong. According to Chaz's book, he hasn't had bottom surgery.) GLAAD is rightfully pissed off.

Jezebel reported this yesterday, condensing it to a single sound bite which was bad enough, but here's the full exchange on her show via GLAAD's blog :

(TW for transphobic language) 

Chelsea Handler: The Dancing with the Stars cast has been announced and, this is season 13, it includes Chaz Bono, otherwise known as Chastity Bono [laughs] before she got her penis [laughs]…. 

Out comedian Fortune Feimster soon said that she was personally most looking forward to watching Bono on the program, saying: 

Fortune Feimster: I’m, I’m like you, I’m excited about Chaz Bono. Cause I used to watch the show… 

CH: I wonder why. [laughs] 

FF: It’s like reality gold, he’s like four reality shows in one, like who doesn’t love that? This was immediately followed by jokes from comedians Bill Bellamy and Jo Koy, who has previously apologized for using anti-gay language: 

BB: I mean who do you vote off? Him or her? I don’t know which one you want to do. [laughs] 

JK: Does, does he/she have both parts? Like, like he’s like ‘I don’t want to use my penis, let’s use the vagina tonight.’ Like [laughs] I don’t know.

The Jezebel post spawned an interesting (and lengthy) sub-thread raising the question, should anything be off-limits for comedians? While I find stand-up comics like Sarah Silverman and Lisa Lampanelli equally problematic, the comparison isn't really applicable here. For one thing, their brand of off-color humor inevitably pokes fun at those who believe racist or homophobic tropes. Handler is a talk show host, and not one creating a character a la Stephen Colbert, so it's generally assumed she believes what she says.