Literally sick to death of twitter throwing a fit every single day about art depicting visibly trans people, GNC trans people, etc, and calling it a hateful caricature. ESPECIALLY when often it turns out to be explicitly based on someone the artist is friends with, and people still say the most horrible things about their appearance.
Like, I get it. Many trans people feel defensive because there absolutely are a lot of shitty caricatures of us. And since two out of the three 'controversies' I've seen most recently were transmasc artists drawing transfem characters - Yes, trans artists should think about the ways they depict other types of trans people and ideally not stereotype them and show their diversity too.
But all too often people just project their own issues and judgements on a particular piece of art and basically end up making up a guy to get mad at.
This is the one I saw today -
It's not even a drawing of a trans woman, turns out. According to the trans man artist who drew it, the piece is called 'genderless' and it's based on a real person he knows. It's at a gay bar.
And it bothers me that people were so quick to assume, and many even to double down on gendering the person depicted in this drawing. This is just a clear representation of a trans person whose gender and sex are ambiguous, intentionally. They are intentionally visibly trans, but crucially, not in a way that tells you anything about what type of trans person they are.
Or do these people just not realise there are transmasc people who look exactly like this? Who have stubble and hairy chests and small, 'deflated' breasts. It's not uncommon at all. There are trans women who look like this. There are nonbinary people and genderfluid people and agender people and genderqueer people who look like this.
So it's honestly really shitty to assume a trans artist just decided to draw a hateful caricature at a gay bar instead of simply representing one of these people. Which is what actually happened.
Frankly it just feels like weird respectability politics, and some people having a disgust response to a visibly non cis, non comforming body presented in a neutral way. And finding ways to justify that after the fact.
(At least in some cases. I have no issues with trans women who didn't personally like it and suggested at least the name of the art piece should be available for context in a little plaque or something. That makes sense!)
Hot take even trans people who "look like" transphobic caricatures deserve to be celebrated and perhaps we should instead be targeting people who think looking like that is a bad thing.
YEAH thank you!! Like I don't know how that's not obvious to more people
There were so many replies just absolutely insulting this person's appearance and reinforcing the idea that looking like this is wrong or disgusting. Someone said "my partner looks like this and I think they're beautiful" and got told they were insulting their partner with the comparison. As if looking like this is some unthinkable flaw
This is honestly something that has tanked my self esteem lately. I was really happy with the changes I was getting from HRT, but with the general state of the world and the constant influx of anti-trans hate and a little sprinkling of scrupulosity, when I look in the mirror I see a caricature. I put on outfits I used to love and think to myself "I can't go out like this- it's an insult to other people" because when they look at me they won't see a human being, they'll see a caricature of a trans person
Real people cannot be caricatures by simply looking like themselves. The way you look doesn't say anything about anyone else, it's just part of who you are, and there is nothing wrong with it. I'm really sorry you have to deal with this. It's really just such bullshit.
