Vivian Taylor has a piece up on Autostraddle about transphobia (both from within and outside trans* communities) and the perils of being a "good tranny." You should really read the whole thing (although mind the comments).
Vivian makes SO MANY good points:
Here's the thing: People fucking despise trans women. Often the nicest thing they can thing of to say to trans woman is "gosh, you are so little like a trans woman!" Being trans is something to avoid, to exclude, to escape, at worst to nobly bare up under.If only I had a vagina for every time I heard that bullshit.
That shit is not a compliment.
"Gosh, you are so little like a woman!" sure as hell isn't a compliment. There's just not a good way to spin it.
Yet so many cis people have been "impressed" by how I'm not as funny looking, or odd shaped, or otherwise as wrong as the rest of trans people. As if these same people would be filled with disgust by me if they hadn't had the opportunity of interacting with me.
"You, I like, precisely because you're not, you know, 'like you.'"
Yeah.
I do my best to be myself. If you don't care for trans* people, you don't care for me.
Maybe I'm wearing makeup. Maybe I'm drinking a beer and watching ballsport. Maybe I'm about to do all three. (I'm about to do all three.) Wev. I'll be doing it while trans*.
[Via Emily.]
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