TransRadical

Mar 31

cliffchiang:

Forgot to post this earlier in the week, for Lady Gaga’s birthday. This is a strip I illustrated in 2010 for GQ’s End of the Year special, written by the GQ staff and art directed by Benjamin Bours, with lettering by Jared Fletcher. Enjoy!

[TW: Sh-word]
When this post originally appeared on Tumblr a couple days ago, it was uncensored (as was the version that appeared in GQ) and referred to Gaga as “the She-Male Pope” [sic]. I contacted Chiang about the use of the slur, and he responded quickly:

To be honest, I had agreed to the job before seeing the final script, and there wasn’t much I could do at that point. But thank you for pointing it out, and I’ll do my best to educate others on that point in the future.

He also edited out the offending word, as seen above.
As an unrepentant comics nerd, I have been a fan of Chiang’s work for a while now. (Chiang is the currently the artist on Wonder Woman, his second work opposite writer Brian Azzarello. Their first work together Doctor Thirteen: Architecture and Morality is a wild, hilarious ride no comics fan should miss.)
As most people are all but ignorant of trans* issues (and the mainstream LGB(t) organizations has no intention of combating such ignorance), mistakes are bound to crop up from even the most well-meaning people. I would like to thank Mr. Chiang for his prompt action on the issue and the willingness he has shown to give transgender people respect.
GQ, on the other hand, is a sexist rag and they should have known better than to publish such as offensive word. How many editors did that word have to pass through, and none of them took pause? It’s hard to get too upset over an article that’s over a year old already, but really?!
Then again, maybe they were just trying to present Lady Gaga accurately.

Forgot to post this earlier in the week, for Lady Gaga’s birthday. This is a strip I illustrated in 2010 for GQ’s End of the Year special, written by the GQ staff and art directed by Benjamin Bours, with lettering by Jared Fletcher. Enjoy!

[TW: Sh-word]

When this post originally appeared on Tumblr a couple days ago, it was uncensored (as was the version that appeared in GQ) and referred to Gaga as “the She-Male Pope” [sic]. I contacted Chiang about the use of the slur, and he responded quickly:

To be honest, I had agreed to the job before seeing the final script, and there wasn’t much I could do at that point. But thank you for pointing it out, and I’ll do my best to educate others on that point in the future.

He also edited out the offending word, as seen above.

As an unrepentant comics nerd, I have been a fan of Chiang’s work for a while now. (Chiang is the currently the artist on Wonder Woman, his second work opposite writer Brian Azzarello. Their first work together Doctor Thirteen: Architecture and Morality is a wild, hilarious ride no comics fan should miss.)

As most people are all but ignorant of trans* issues (and the mainstream LGB(t) organizations has no intention of combating such ignorance), mistakes are bound to crop up from even the most well-meaning people. I would like to thank Mr. Chiang for his prompt action on the issue and the willingness he has shown to give transgender people respect.

GQ, on the other hand, is a sexist rag and they should have known better than to publish such as offensive word. How many editors did that word have to pass through, and none of them took pause? It’s hard to get too upset over an article that’s over a year old already, but really?!

Then again, maybe they were just trying to present Lady Gaga accurately.

Mar 26

Understanding the Costs of Reclaiming “Tr***y”

[TW: Uncensored t-word on click-through]

I’m at a small local performance hall. It’s the annual queer women’s music festival. In this small college town, events like these only happen a couple times a year, and after an anti-social northwest winter, it feels good to be out. I sometimes forget how many friends I have here; some that I haven’t seen in over a year. The loud music washes over us as we dance in the semi-dark. This is what I needed. But in one moment, all that comes crashing down.

Somewhere in my head, I should have known this would happen and prepared myself. “Tr***y got pack!” shouts the performer on the stage. The crowd begins cheering, but suddenly I’m crestfallen. I just can’t join in the celebration on this one. I withdraw from the crowd and move to the back of the room. Looking around I see a few others who had the same reaction, and I can’t help but notice that out of the small number of trans women in attendance at this show, each of us are removing ourselves. I raise an eyebrow towards one friend and we share a moment of, “Yeah, I know.”

Like many trans women, I’ve got a complicated history with the term “tr***y.” Burned into my consciousness are societal insults about “tr***y makeup,” jokes about celebrities who “look like tr***ies” and fashion tips for how to avoid looking like a “hot tr***y mess.” There is the “tr***y alert” website that encourages people to take and post pictures of suspected trans women they see on the street and log their locations — presumably so that straight men can avoid them, but more realistically so people on the internet can laugh at them. TV crime shows have “tr***y hookers” that are depicted as worthless trash or murder victims. And of course, there is my own experience briefly working in “tr***y porn.”

I’m not so sensitive that I can’t stand to hear the word uttered — but having it repeatedly chanted from the stage is a bit much. This is especially so because every negative message attached to “tr***y” that I know is pretty clearly about women (if you have any doubts, just do a search for “tr***y” in any social media, like Curiouser Jane did last month), yet it’s a guy who’s singing the song. I know he intends for the message to be about empowerment, a celebration that he’s strong enough to reclaim the term. However, I find it to be a forceful reminder of the violence and oppression aimed at trans women like me and that I don’t have the luxury of taking this word (and the stereotypes that go with it) lightly.

(Read more)

Mar 10

If you read Queerty, you’re an asshole.

(Sorry for no TW.)

Feb 6

Blake Lively Slurs Trans People... Again [TW: T-Word]

Lively [used the t-word again in another interview for the March issue of Elle magazine she’s on the cover of.

She had this problematic full of fail comment embedded in it when expressing her hopes to have children one day:

I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies. Because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated.

Notice the subtle implication that “trannies” aren’t really girls, just boys who like to play dress-up.

Jan 27

“

Openly gay entertainers Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris recently used the word while kidding around on television, and they subsequently apologized. Openly gay Project Runway star Christian Siriano teased people as “hot tranny messes” during the show’s fourth season in 2008. In a recent interview that appeared in the Huffington Post, drag entertainer RuPaul said “no one has ever said the word ‘tranny’ in a derogatory sense” then he went on to say that he wished Bass had told his critics “F-you, you tranny jerk!”

The T-word has a long history of being tossed around in both media and casual conversation, so people are wondering why it’s suddenly a slur. The truth is that the T-word has always been depreciative. It was coined by the porn industry to fetishize trans women and boost sales.

A Google search of “tranny” brings up 169,000,000 hits, the vast majority of which come from online porn that is also tied with the equally derogatory term “she-male.” When someone says “tranny,” they’re expressing a sexual fetish that degrades women who happen to be trans. So it’s not “suddenly” a slur. The difference today is that trans people are finally feeling empowered enough to stand up and demand that they be treated with dignity.

When gay celebrities use language that publicly ridicules trans people, it sends a clear message to our lesbian, gay and bisexual youth that, despite anti-bullying efforts to protect them, it’s still OK to bully those who identify as trans or who are otherwise gender variant. So it never gets better for trans youth while they are being bullied not only by their straight peers, but also by their LGB peers who simply mimick their adult role models.

” Jake Finney, “The T-Word Hasn’t Changed, We Have”

Jan 16

"Tranny: An Evidence-Based Review" at The Transadvocate

“Tranny” seems to be a contentious term within the GLBT community. For many in the trans community, we’ve known “tranny” to be a term associated with the gay (specifically gay male) community; a term used by gay men to talk about the trans experiences in a pithy, ironic or comical way. The term is usually spelled one of two ways: “Tranny” or “Trannie”. Recently a number of notables have begun experiencing the ire of the trans community when the term is used in a public forum. The trans community asserts that “tranny” is a term akin to “faggot”. Some have asserted their right to use the term in public while others assert that the public use of the term is disrespectful.

Instead of quibbling over opinions, let’s instead look at the historical context this term has been used (and by whom) during its short existence as a word associated with the trans experience.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Slang (p. 336) has the following entry:

Trannie: Noun. A transvestite. 1983 -. GAY TIMES “By 11 pm they seem drunkenly immune to the influx of trannies, trendies, and other creatures of the night” (1990). [From abbreviation of transvestite + -ie.]

TransRadical

News and commentary for the transgender, gender-nonconforming and allied community.

Understanding the Costs of Reclaiming “Tr***y”

Blake Lively Slurs Trans People... Again [TW: T-Word]

"Tranny: An Evidence-Based Review" at The Transadvocate