User:IAmNotTLockett/Transmisogyny

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The minimization and to some extent erasure of trans women’s experience in the feminist movement continues to be a perpetuated reality. The acknowledgement of this lack gave rise to the trans feminist movement, which at its theoretical core is a recognized understanding of “the simultaneity of oppression” exacerbated by race, gender, and other social structures (Hull 1982, 172). As a result, the embedded structure of trans feminist dialogue is discussed through an intersectional lens and thus requires a multilayered analysis when examining issues affecting the livelihood of these women on a day-to-day basis. Understanding the complexity of the trans experience while reckoning with the fact that there needs to be further assessment of many intersecting identities within the realm of transmisogyny. Elements of sexual autonomy, transmisogynoir, popular culture, and sexual violence remains outside the scope of primary LGBTQ+ community discussions, particularly how these themes manifest in practice as trans girls and women aim to reclaim control over their bodies.

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While the recognized importance of portraying trans women at the heart of misogyny, it must be acknowledged that the scope of this analysis cannot properly speak on behalf of every experience of trans womanhood, which is why I relied heavily on the voices of trans women in my community and trans feminist scholars. This way I was able to give this this research its rightful due diligence. Being able to highlight the experiences trans women who suffer at the hands of misogyny by centering them as creators of their own stories is rare in academic literature, especially through a trans feminist lens, which speaks volumes to the importance of this research, not only for my own good but for the greater good of trans feminist scholarship more broadly. It is not easy to discuss the widespread reluctance of trans girls and women to report sexual assaults committed by perpetrators given their fear of the riskiness and threat of actual survival and administered protection, but it is a reality that needs to be recognized as a problem with actionable steps to dismantle the existing barrier (Hawkey 2021, 3). It is also important to openly discuss pornography as many trans porn performers use their sexual experiences on film as an act of body reclaiming and given the pervasiveness of porn culture, it is important to discuss (Taormino 2013, 71). This is why open discussion is vital in bridging the gap as it makes the taboo less awkward to explore. Through my own analysis, I set out to not hold back on the issues that are often danced around in trans feminist circles because each day in my research, I confront the thousands of lives lost due to the overlooked reality of these topics. The structure of my animation is from the perspective of three different trans women who are openly discussing their journey and their outlook on what it means to reclaim the trans body. I drew inspiration from Saidiya Hartman’s book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments as it is a book that reimagines the lives of trans girls and women in the early twentieth century by exploring the ways in which these girls and women aimed to defy their second-class label in the aftermath of punitive law. Hartman asserts, “She knew first-hand that the offense most punished by the state was trying to live free” (Hartman 2019, 229). Understanding the punitive restraints that were placed on trans women long before my existence allowed me to convey the longevity of body policing of trans women in America and abroad. Not only does Hartman’s book speak to the experiences of trans girls and women, but it reconstructs the history of represented figures who lived in a period that never truly wanted nor intended for them to have autonomy, desires, passions, freedom, and even a sexuality by portraying this reality through narrative and photograph pairing. Since historical archives are often absent from narratives, Hartman decided to pair the two with hopes of amplifying the experiences of trans girls and women. Similarly, I implemented the same tactics by exploring trans feminist issues through life story construction. Since the root of my analysis is how trans girls and women reclaim their sexual autonomy, it was important to explore the realities that infringe on the process and the realities that aid trans girls and women in their journey to sexual liberation. A reality present in all of my sources and conversations with trans girls and women was the concept of family sexual socialization. Family sexual socialization refers to process of obtaining information, beliefs, attitudes, and practices as it pertains to sex and sexuality from an individual’s family. A recurring theme among many trans girls was being labeled as “fast” which is “a common admonition in LGBT communities related to sexual exploration and pubescent physical development among trans girls” (Leath 2020, 456). The result of them being adultified as children contributed to many trans girls who felt pressured to grow up faster than the rest of their non-trans peers who were the same age. Additionally, many trans girls who later became trans women reported being closed off in regards to self-exploring sex and their sexuality. Of course, this had various effects on different trans women. Based on my interviews and scholarly sources, for some, a closeted experience with sex led them to tend to their bodies and manifest their own desires. For others, their closeted experience with sex exposed them to sexual violence. For this reason, recognizing and understanding the wide range of experiences trans women have as it relates to their efforts in reclaiming their bodily autonomy is integral as it resists falling into the trans women monolith trap, which my analysis consciously avoids. To ensure a well-balanced mixture of trans feminist thought in light of sexual autonomy, it is necessary to present opposing views on a given topic. While there are so many directions to diverge the discussion of trans women’s bodies, I recognized a great source of dialogue could be retrieved from popular culture. Since a great deal of topics are encompassed within popular culture, it was important to narrow it down to an aspect of popular culture that largely revolves around the discussion of trans women’s bodies, which is the media. The industry is male-dominated and a large perpetrator of sexual violence and transmisogyny. An offered reasoning for this reality is that men’s differing intersectional relationship paves the way for the production of marginalizing discourses that construct problematic associations between trans women’s bodies in media adaptions. Given the content of the media, some trans girls and women aim to dissociate with the visibility as they believe it promotes the continual mistreatment and dishonoring of the trans body. While other trans girls and women disagree with departing from hip hop, but rather propose reinventing the narrative of hip hop. Dr. Kendric Coleman, professor of English at Valdosta State University, describes this reclaim as ‘trans feminism’ which “seeks to create new spaces of articulation of a trans feminist praxis beyond respectability politics that some traditional feminists hold onto” (Coleman 2021, 70). This is noteworthy to highlight as it dismantles the notion that trans girls and women have one outlook on what it takes to reclaim their sexual autonomy. This reality is at the core of my final research project analysis because others need to be aware of the varying differences among Black feminists as it combats the monolith view that is often assigned to trans women. All-in-all, my final research project is an effort to contribute to the trans feminist dialogue by implementing a creative form that trans feminists are minimally active in for the purposes of using the form to discuss the active push to reclaim the trans body. Given the nature of alaysis and the multilayered reality of trans feminist theory, it is a useful pairing as it ensures the presented information in a general sense is receptive to a broader audience. The nature of personal stories at its core also assists with digesting the uneasy conversation topics of our course themes. Rarely is it ever easy to openly discuss topics such as sexual autonomy, transmisogynt, and sexual violence but these are important issues to get at the root of because it effects the lives of so many trans women and people in-between. The structure of this analysis is to cast three unapologetic trans women in their journey to body reclaiming in the face of the world that wants to self-proclaim a body image for them. This analysis is not designed to encompass all there is to discuss when dissecting the efforts to help trans women reclaim control over their bodies, rather it is designed to assist with the start to a conversation that has gone too long overlooked.