I thought that this week’s class discussion was very
interesting an informative. There were a lot of facts and information that I
did not know about the transgender community, so having an open discussion
with the possibility to ask a lot of questions was very helpful. There seemed to be some confusion with in the
class and a lot of different opinions. To me I think it is important to learn
about the transgender community since they are a group that is often discriminated
against. I believe this is due to the lack of education and the feeling of not
understanding.
Initially
when I thought about how transgender women are represented in the media the
image of a drag queen popped up. The fact that this was the first thing that I
could think of shows how I am falsely grouping people together. It also shows
that transgender women do not have an accurate representation, and they often
get portrayed based on stereotypes people have about this group, one being the
idea that all transgender women are drag queens striving to be “hyper
feminine”. The different clips that were
shown during class really showed a different view than the one that first popped
up in my head, but they still have many stereotypes embedded within the images.
Some of the common themes that we saw in all the clips was the idea that “all” transgender women want to have reassignment surgery, they all want to be feminine, that us
as an audience should feel pity and sad for them, and lastly that most of these
roles are never played by a transgender women instead they are played by a
woman. This last point made me look back at all the different groups of women
we have discussed throughout the semester. Looking back at many of these groups
history in the media, many times they are never played by a woman from that
particular minority group, instead they are played by a white woman or in this
case a woman not a trans woman.
Overall
I think for things to change people need to become more educated and aware that
transgender women are not “abnormal” or “freaks”. They are humans just like
me and you. Here is a video that I came across on YouTube. It is a discussion
between the first transgender American top Model contestant Isis King and transgender
advocate Janet Mock, where they talk about some of the issues we discussed in
class.
I absolutely agree with you Sarah! Someone at the end of class on Wednesday had made the comment that prior to this class she was quite indifferent about transgendered individuals and even now learning more about them she did not care. I am not one to judge but my question is how one can be ambivalent, still, after obtaining such an extensive amount of information about who they are and their struggle to just "not care". With education comes the responsibility of using what you have learned to educate the masses. Now, I'm not saying to go and become an activist of any sort, but ambivalence is just as bad as being a witness to a hate crime; our lack of motivation to want to exact change makes us a perpetrator of the brooding hatred and disgust for transgendered individuals as well.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great conversation! Isis King and Janet Mock are simply two beautiful women. They not only overcame the transgender stereotypes, but also racial stereotypes. At one point they address the use of the "tranny" and the "n.." words. These reflects how engaged and aware of the whole picture they are, and brave to face it. In my mind, it is just crazy the idea of juggling with both the sexual identity and the negative reaction from the society. These women just did it graciously!
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