https://www.readtpa.com/p/transphobia-and-right-wing-paranoia
Thanks to Ali for the link to this article. As the article mentions, the trans scare is simply because some people are not manly enough or feminine enough to fit in with other random people’s ideas of what men or women should look like. As I have posted that leads to cis women being accused of being trans and assaulted trying to use the bathroom. Hugs.
The Barbie movie was fun, but the right-wing reaction to it shows that we’re living in a scary time for anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into a box.
JUL 31, 2023
Hello readers. Parker here.
I finally saw the Barbie movie over the weekend. I liked it! Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are both fantastic, and it was good fun all around.
But today, I want to talk about something tangentially related to the movie (I promise that this will be my last post about Barbie or Oppenheimer… probably, at least). So, if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll probably recognize this actress as Doctor Barbie.
That’s Hari Nef. She’s transgender. This doesn’t come up at all in the movie. Still, Fox News went so far as to claim that Barbie was pushing a “trans agenda” by… uh… allowing a trans woman to have a job. “They gave Barbie the Bud Light treatment,” said a Fox guest, who was both upset that a trans woman was in the movie and upset that the movie’s marketing didn’t involve mentions that Nef is trans (though, I’m sure if the movie had included that in the marketing, she’d have complained about this being shoved “in her face;” the truth is that these ghouls just don’t want trans people to exist in society at all).
And this was kind of an ongoing thing on the right… though it created a few funny situations. For instance:
“Last I checked the Barbie movie is promoting biological women,” wrote Dom Lucre (a.k.a. Dominick McGee) on Twitter X. “I can’t disagree with little girls being influenced to remain a girl.” Attached to the tweet post was a photo of six of the film’s Barbies, including Nef (2nd from the right, wearing the sailor hat).
Here’s a clearer picture:
People were quick to note that a.) you have to be truly deranged to see a movie and immediately try to shoehorn it into your obsession with trans people1, and b.) that there is literally a trans woman in this very photo. Har har, he he, etc. Very funny stuff.
But I wasn’t interested in his post so much as I was interested in the specific genre of unhinged responses from his supporters.
Lots of his followers correctly deduced that there was a trans woman in the movie. What they didn’t do was accurately identify which character was being played by a trans woman. Let’s look at some examples (click the images to expand them).
As you can see, you’ve got a mix of people convinced that the actress playing the character on the left in the green dress, Ana Cruz Kayne, is trans. Others are convinced that Margot Robbie, herself, is transgender. And then, just for good measure, there were people insisting that not only is Robbie secretly a trans woman, but that Ryan Gosling, who has been on TV since he was 13 years old, is secretly a trans man.
None of those people are trans. It wouldn’t be a big deal if they were, but they’re not. This is awkward, yet instructive.
Are you familiar with “transvestigators?”
If not, buckle up, because it’s going to be a ride.
You may see the certainty of the people in the above screenshots calling Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling secretly trans and think, “Oh wow, what strange one-off claims!” And it’d be nice if that were true. Unfortunately, there’s a whole bunch of people on the internet who are absolutely convinced that pretty much every person in Hollywood is trans.
Here’s a video by Jamie Raines, a trans man, about the “transvestigator” conspiracy theory:
And here’s a longer video, by trans woman Mia Mulder, that contains even more examples and gets at the core beliefs of the conspiracy theorists:
And as Mia and Jamie both highlight in their videos, the targets of these sorts of “transvestigations” are often some of the world’s most attractive people. Like, oh, Brad Pitt was born female? And Angelina Jolie is male? Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, both trans? Sure! Why not?
Here’s the kind of stuff “transvestigators” will post online as evidence of someone’s transness. It’s pretty bizarre stuff. In an effort to out secret trans people, they begin seeing trans people everywhere they look. When all you have is a hammer…
But setting aside how weird and creepy it is for people to be staring at photos of complete strangers like, “Oh yeah, as you can see from the shoulder-to-hip ratio, that person is clearly…,” you may be wondering why this matters. After all, the “transvestigator” conspiracy theorists are a very small group of people. They’re not representative of your typical person who is opposed to trans rights, and they’re certainly not representative of society. That’s true. Still, this all ties together.
“We can always tell” … except for when they can’t.
The seemingly common belief that one can “always tell” who is and isn’t transgender is not only flawed but dangerous when combined with rising anti-trans sentiment and policies. And it’s not just harmful to trans individuals, but to anyone who doesn’t look “man-enough” or “woman-enough” to be a “real” man or woman — something that is itself a moving target that’s changed throughout history.
It’s built on a narrative that has led to women being accosted in restrooms, harassed on the streets, and physically assaulted. It’s a narrative that has seen little girls playing sports falsely accused of being “boys.”
Transphobia affects anyone who doesn’t look enough like complete strangers’ ideas of what a man or woman should look like, and that’s why we all should care about just how intense the anti-trans sentiment is getting right now in society.
Transphobia is a belief that is being used to police bodies, scrutinize appearances, and justify discrimination and violence — all in the name of “safety” or faux concern for “the children.” This is all by design, since the current anti-trans movement has never actually been just about trans people. It’s all part of a larger effort to roll back rights for the broader LGBTQ community, women, people of color, the disabled community, and more.
Just look at this June 2015 “Issue Analysis” for “Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement,” put out by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council. Right from the start, it calls feminism, the gay rights movement, and the trans rights movement part of the same “assault on the sexes.”
Scottie's Playtime 