The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project

sixtyforty:

Transphobic tequila advertisement in Interview Magazine, April 1996.

The above ad is a clear illustration of trans-misogyny. The set up in the first image is the standard sexism that women generally experience to different degrees. The first image implies that all this woman’s social worth is tied to her looks and assumed availability to the target heteronormative male reader. And it reads like this target audience is being encouraged to participate in some sort of street harassment scenario.

The second image delivers the anti-trans “punchline” when it indicated that the woman, who was first read as cis, is actually trans. Or, rather, the second image misidentifies her as “a he.” By the very fact that she is trans, the woman’s social worth is reduced to absolutely nothing. And this is emphasized with the tag line: “Life is harsh.” So what started as an invitation for street harassment then takes a turn for the worst and escalates to one of possible physical violence against the woman in the ad.

This is something I’ve personally experienced in my everyday life. At first I might be mistakenly read as a cis woman. While I may experience street harassment when this happens, there is a clear shift in the form and intensity of the harassment once the harasser(s) realizes that I’m trans. The more the harasser found me attractive when he thought I was a cis woman, the more abusive and aggressive he becomes once he realizes that I’m a trans woman. He usually reacts as if I had intentionally tricked him. If he’s with a group of friends the danger goes up even more.

Not only is it assumed by the people who made this ad, the target audience, and the average street harasser that women exist to please them. But by extension, it is therefore assumed that all trans women want the attention of men. That is, as the trans-misogynist logic goes, since women exist to please men, then the only reason trans women would possibly transition is because they want the attention of men.

This sets up all trans women who are misread as cis as “traps.” Now, I’m your classic women-oriented dyke with absolutely zero interest in men. Nor do I try to pass for cis. But neither of those things stop those men who harass me from believing otherwise. When the anti-female intersects with the anti-trans life is most certainly “harsh.”