This is gonna sound weird but I wish we were depicted with features that make us clockable like a brow ridge or shoulders or a blocky silhouette in art defending us.
Like I’ve been looking through comics and almost every depiction of a trans woman looks identical to a cis woman… which like, I get why a trans person would be uncomfortable with drawing dysphoric features, but I feel like it dulls the point of the political art.
Defending trans people who pass is easy, like even transphobes can do that, but defending trans people who aren’t conventionally attractive and don’t pass is much harder. Those are the people who get into confrontations in public bathrooms, and who experience the most hatred and constant micro-aggressions from almost everyone. The stage where you “don’t look good” is when you’re most vulnerable and is an almost universal experience for all trans women that tends to last much longer if you’re underprivileged.
I would just like seeing more stuff that affirms non-passing trans women are still women and that, in general, women don’t need to be pretty to deserve respect and basic decency from other people.
I wish that cis women were portrayed in all the various shapes and sizes they actually exist in. Then “passing” wouldn’t be a comparison to some idolized feminine form that even most cis women lose.
I do want that idolized feminine form, though.
Oh absolutely so do I. I feel like they already got me, if that makes sense? It’s too late for me to have realistic expectations or ever be satisfied, but things could be better for future generations at least
Right? 😭😭😭
The beauty industry brainwashing is real
I agree with the sentiment. You don’t want to put the idea in people’s mind that trans = passing. Which is in itself a kind of beauty ideal. I can see though, that no matter what you choose to do as an artist, someone will find some issue. If you make a character more ‘masculine’ some might think you do it to show that they are not real women. If they are full fem, it’s the beauty ideal, passing you describe. I have no solution.
I see trans women depicted like this all the time. In fact, it’s extremely rare to see trans women actually depicted as passing women. The norm in Hollywood is to cast a cisgender male to play a trans woman. And tumblr artists constantly draw trans women as men in dresses.
Sure, it’s fine to occasionally draw trans people like this. But it’s the NORM to draw trans people like this, not a rare exception. Those artists will always justify it by saying, “well SOME trans women have feature X, Y, and Z,” but then those artists ALWAYS draw trans women as these extremely manly caricatures that don’t even bother shaving. Often the “some trans women have…” is just used as an excuse to draw art that is indistinguishable from bigoted caricatures of trans women.
I loved the girl in American horror story, I feel like I resonated with her more and she was more genuine. It should’t matter what you look like, passing or not, trans women are women. It’s best to tell every kind of story though, to help combat the misinformation out there.
The opposite of this is so many times they just show us as a stubbly man in a cheap wig. Although that feels more like a 90s/00s thing, still see it sometimes.
Some of us really do look like that. I would be one if I wore a wig.
If it’s done to mock us then, no, it’s not good. I think something like that could only be done well by another trans person.
To a degree, in movies it’s often like they never try at all because they want it extremely intentional and derogatory looking.
What we really need is just honest representation, not picking from two extremes which will do exist aren’t accurate of all trans women.
What we really need is honest representation
Exactly! This goes for cis women too, and really for all minorities. The less media relies on stereotypes and actually tells our stories the better off we’ll be
Agreed, and if I may add another, I kinda wish there were more room for depicting more than “not passing --> passing”-narratives. Both with people who choose not to or are unable to pass.
I am in the group of people who can’t pass, it’d require at least FFS, and I just don’t have the money and might never have enough.
It is a permanent sadness I have to bare, a bit like grief, but it’s also not like my life is over.
I’ve been told a couple of times that I have to keep going because some time in the future, things will be better, you’ll feel comfortable in your body, you’re just baby trans, etc. I think telling that to people kind of justifies the thinking that leads them to deciding that their lives aren’t worth living.
Like I had to accept that I actually am stuck with this, and it really sucks, like really sucks, but my life is still worth living even if dysphoria will be with me forever. I would never insinuate to anyone in a similar situation that things are hopeless. Maybe one day it will be better, but I’m not betting everything on it anymore. There’s more than just trans stuff and relationships in the world.
(Or idk, take what I say with a grain of salt. I am like terminally mentally ill and I needed to develop a nearly infinite tolerance for suffering.)
spicy but well said. also, characters that are identical to cis girls but have a bulge are even worse
Yeah, the fetishized depictions of trans people, eugh.
The strange thing is also that transphobes often attempt to argue saying, “Don’t become a monstrosity”. To which I say: well buddy, I want to pass, don’t you want me to pass quickier and more seamlessly too? if people wished i wouldn’t look like a “freak” then just give tit/hair juice & their blockers informedly on the counter, and support people exploring themselves!
Because of the intermittent phase, I tried to make it as smooth as possible by lasering the face & using makeup, putting up more “neutral” clothing (rather than explicitly gendered), and the like. That helped and I didn’t get a lot of bad experiences, but still…
… I feel passing is something one decides by themselves. We have no duty to anyone to pass but to our own desire; it is society’s duty to accept one another, not ours only - we already put up with a lot of dreg.
About the restroom stuff
Frankly, the whole restroom shit is silly to me. I think it’d be all easier were it done as:
- Remove gendered symbols, just slap a toilet 🚽symbol on it.
- Add bins in the formerly “men’s” restrooms.
Simple and done, would probably cost less than €50 and improve everyone’s experiences. Queues eliminated & no “wrong people in the bathrooms” nonsense.
For more:
- urinals could be replaced with unisex versions, or stalls w/ proper privacy-respecting doors.
- more leg space, washing bassins that aren’t microscopic
- accessibility for handicapped and/or people wanting to change their baby’s diapers.
Freaky people should have our support too!
And, yeah, we should just have unisex bathrooms.
