What does press transphobia look like?
1. Misuse of language. For example, referring to trans men as “girls”, referring to trans women as “trans identified men”. There are 2 significant issues with this. First of all, it ignores trans people’s identities. (1/n)
1. Misuse of language. For example, referring to trans men as “girls”, referring to trans women as “trans identified men”. There are 2 significant issues with this. First of all, it ignores trans people’s identities. (1/n)
Second, when this practice is widespread in the media, it makes it harder for trans people to talk to others about themselves or the issues affecting us, as people often don’t understand what a trans man is or what a trans woman is (often they get it the wrong way round). (2/n)
2. Language or insinuations that trans people are a danger to others. This is often in relation to trans women or trans feminine people. And ignores the evidence that trans people are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. (3/n)
3. Misrepresenting statistical information. For example, reporting that there are 25 trans students in a school whilst declining to mention that those students make up less than 1% of the school population. This style of reporting is most common when talking detransition (4/n)
4. Making inaccurate claims, ignoring facts and/or evidence that are easily accessed. For example, claiming that there is no research to say that hormone blockers are safe. Or claiming that there is no evidence that being trans is any more than a mental health condition (5/n)
5. Infantilising members of a community, for example consistently making the claim that trans people (especially young people) will later regret transition (despite evidence to the contrary, see points 3 and 4). (6/n)
Or portraying being trans as a trend, despite evidence to the contrary. This is not done in relation to regret rates around marriage or cancer related surgery, for example. It’s a double standard. (7/n)
The impact of this on trans people is multi-faceted. But one thing that happens is that for a trans person to be able to even start talking about their rights or their experiences of transphobia, they often first have to spend time explaining...(8/n)
...the nuances of the transphobic content people will have read in the press and on TV. And even having to explain the words they use to describe themselves, because transphobic misuse of language has stolen them from us. (9/n)
A trans person might easily have to spend half an hour talking about all of this before they even have time to talk about the issue they wanted to discuss. (10/n)
And that’s just one issue that press transphobia causes. The most dangerous of course is the legitimisation of discrimination, transphobic hate speech and transphobic harassment and attacks. (11/11)
