Landis Smithers, This Is What Golden Globes Trans Beauty Looks Like

I'm more than a little sick of people letting their inner transphobic bigot out and aiming transmisogynist comments at cis women for whatever jacked up reason.

Far too often they get aimed at Black women in positions of power like Serena Williams and First Lady Michelle Obama.   It's even more odious and heightens my pissivity about it when the trans misogynist comments come from someone who is a member of the TBLGQ community

Last night, Landis Smithers the VP of Grindr, took to Twitter to make a comment about actress Kristen Wiig's new short hairstyle and tweeted this:

Well Landis, guess your ignorant behind wasn't aware of it last night, but there were actual trans feminine beauties attending the Golden Globe Awards last night and slaying the red carpet in actresses Trace Lysette and Rain Valdez

Rain's Golden Globes red carpet pic is gracing the top of this post, and here's Trace's red carpet slayage:

Landis, this is why I have a major problem with your tweet.   At a time when the Republican Party, the conservative movement, right wing 'christians' , my home state of Texas and several others are openly attacking the humanity and human rights of trans people,  I'm beyond sick and tired of white gay men like you thinking that you can disparage trans women or aim trans misogynistic and shady comments at cisgender ones and arrogantly think you won't get called out on it by us.

Trans women are women,even if your behind doesn't get that simple point.  Some of us when we transition hit the genetic lottery and turned out gorgeous.  The long stylish line of trans models going back to the 60's drives that point home.

There's also an ever growing list of trans actresses in Hollywood in addition to Rain and Trace like Alexandra Billings, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Laverne Cox, Mya Taylor, Amiyah Scott, Zackary Drucker and Jamie Clayton just to name a few of them who will be slaying red carpets and hopefully getting awards for their trailblazing work in the near future.

I also can't forget Aleshia Brevard, who was blazing the Hollywood trail that many of these women are following

And FYI  Landis, short hair doesn't make a woman less feminine.  Ask Toni Braxton, Halle Berry, Lupita Nyong'o and countless others who look fab with short hair and have walked red carpets while doing so

Trace and Rain are just two examples of the diverse beauty of trans women that exist not only in Hollywood, but across this country and the world.

And we trans women will continue being our fab selves slaying runways, red carpets, beauty pageants and just being our amazing selves in whatever setting we find ourselves in.

Yo One Million Moms, This Is What A Trans Feminine Fashion Model Looks Like

Was chuckling to myself when I saw the story in the UK based Pink News about the right wing hate group One Million Moms (actually 3500 men)  who are trying to start another failed boycott against a retailer they accuse of being too trans friendly.



H&M has a new 'She's a Lady' ad campaign featuring several diverse women of all ages and body types modeling different styles of clothing.

One of the women involved in this campaign is female Muay Thai boxing champion Fatima Pinto, who One Million Haters transphobically misgendered and attacked.

But while I'm chuckling about the loud and wrong One Million Haters reactions, this is in reality a serious issue that I, other trans people and our allies have been talking about for some time in terms of trans misogyny not just affecting trans women.

The One Milling Haters peeps were so busy focusing their faux faith based transphobic ire on Ms. Pinto that they completely missed model Hari Nef, who was also featured in the ad.

Far too often the unwoman meme is not only aimed at transgender women, bit it is aimed at cisgender women, and especially cisgender women of color like First Lady Michelle Obama, Serena Williams to demonize any woman who doesn't fit the stereotypical feminine societal mold

This also points to something else I've talked about on this blog and elsewhere in terms of not only the beauty of non-white women being demonized. it also plays into for trans women the far too often a stereotypical and media perpetuated 'that's a man' assumption of what a trans woman is or isn't supposed to look like.

Let's start with the Trans 101 basic tenet that trans women are women.  Once we start taking estrogen, doesn't take us long to look the part.  Some of us when we start hormone replacement therapy also got the genetic luck of the draw and morphed into very attractive and beautiful women.

That reality makes some of us who did get the genetic luck of the draw and are model height to get the call from the fashion world to strut the fashion runways of New York, London, Paris  Milan and Tokyo.

And FYI One Million Haters and everyone who shares their less than enlightened views about girls like us, trans women walking runways, gracing the covers of magazines or participating in multimillion dollar ad campaigns is not a new phenomenon.  

We've been doing so since the 1960's, and the long stylish line of trans models has continued into the 21st century.

FYI since y'all are woefully ignorant about the topic, here are just a few glamorous examples of what trans feminine models actually look like.

Meet the lovely and fabulous Geena Rocero.  And yes as someone who has met her, she's even more beautiful in real life.

And this is another trans model in Carmen Carrera

Another longtime trans model in Isis King

And just to rub it in some more, still another trans model in Andreja Pejic.

Noticing a pattern here?   Trans women's body types and shapes are as varied as our cis feminine counterparts, and all are beautiful in their own way.

That's why the long stylish line of trans models has been in existence since the 1960's, and will continue no matter how much unhinged ranting One Million Haters does.

And Still Serena Rises

One of the things I'm absolutely sick of along with other African-Americans is the racist hatred and trans misogyny that flows from the mouths of vanillacentric privileged white peeps mad that their European tennis glamazons weren't up to the task (again) of beating the world's number one ranked tennis player in Serena Jameka Williams.

It's not a new problem.  I've written about it previously, but it still pisses me off to see it.

Serena earned that sixth title, going through a three set match with Victoria Azarenka in the quarters, beating down Maria Sharapova for the (ho hum) 17th straight time since 2004 in the semis and taking out a tough Garbine Muguruza to claim that 'Williams'-don crown and the Serena Slam

But y'all still hate on her.

I'm tired of this ongoing pattern of successful Black female athletes like Serena Williams having their femininity attacked because they excel at what they do.  It is part of the same four century old racist pattern of whiteness and white supremacy demonizing Black women and Black womanhood in general.

If Serena Williams had the same number 34 ranking as Sloane Stephens and the same number of Grand Slam titles won (zero) instead of being the World Number 1 ranked player with 21 Career Grand Slams (and counting), white folks wouldn't be saying jack about Serena.


Neither would they be saying anything if she were mixed race like 18th ranked Madison Keys trying to downplay the fact she has a Black father. Then again Keys, like Stephens hasn't won a Grand Slam either.   Keys was vanquished by Serena in straight sets in the 2015 Australia Open semis.

Serena clearly being the best women's tennis player on the planet, repeatedly kicking European tennis glamazon azz, staking her increasingly unassailable claim to being the greatest tennis player of all time while being unapologetically Black and a curvy dark skinned Black woman who got back in a sport with predominately white players is clearly setting some people free and has since 1999.

And I'm enjoying every nanosecond of Serena's tennis superiority as the vanillacentric privileged haters try to find a reason to not give her credit for her decade of dominance. . 

I didn't appreciate the problematic July 10 New York Times tennis body image article by Ben Rothenberg that insinuated in thinly racist tones that Serena's was the body the glamazons didn't want to have. 

Well, Serena's happy with it, Black women are happy with it, her fans and supporters are happy with her fine brown frame, and so am I

As one person who slammed the article on Twitter remarked about the description of Serena as 'animal-like said and I concur with that,“This black people as ‘beast’ thing needs to go down with the #ConfederateFlag.”

Even David Frum's tired behind tried to shadily slime her by throwing out the steroid accusation before retracting after getting called out about it.

FYI dog, since tennis is an Olympic sport, it uses the same IOC drug screening protocol.to the point that during last month's French Open, Serena was playing and beating all comers at Roland Garros while suffering from a cold.

David, ask the former East Germans or Shirley Babashoff what women on steroids look and sound like before you have several seats and some strawberries and cream flavored Haterade.

And still Serena rises.  And y'all hate it.

See y'all in New York at the US Open.

Why Joan Rivers FLOTUS Comment Was Racistly Insulting

As an unapologetically proud Black trans woman, one of the cornerstones of this blog is working to build self esteem, confidence and pride amongst my sisters in being Black women of trans experience.

Joan Rivers'' transmisogynist comment aimed at First Lady Michelle Obama Wednesday pissed me the hell off on a lot of levels.  Here's why it wasn't humorous nor complimentary

There has been a determined effort by the conservafool slime machine and conspiracy conservawackos  to plant this meme in the media that the 5'11" FLOTUS is a transwoman.   While we in Black trans world would be proud to embrace her as one of our sisters if she was,  there is overwhelming evidence she showed up on this planet on January 17, 1964 in Chicago in a cis female body, has given birth to two beautiful daughters, and has spent the last 50 years of her life in that gender role.

Congratulations Joan, you just did the conservafools dirty work for them by taking that crap our of their cesspools of right wing crazy and injecting it in the mainstream media.

It's infuriating because this First Lady, even before her husband was elected to the Oval Office, has been subjected to unprecedented levels of disrespect up to and being compared to a simian, un-American, 'racist' , 'Stokely Carmichael in a dress', called ugly and having 'that's a man' shade thrown at her by comedian Jay Mohr in 2009. 

And yes, Rivers made a borderline racist 'Blackie O' comment in 2011, so this isn't the first time she's thrown shade at the First Lady.   Now she's weaponized 'transgender' and aimed it at the First Lady as an insult.

Another element of why I'm not happy about the comment is that it plays into the racist four century old pattern of whiteness and white supremacy pushing the unwoman meme that demonizes the femininity of Black women.

If you have a group of women that you put on a societal pedestal as the paragons of beauty, fertility and the femininity gold standard that all women should aspire to, then it stands to reason that you would set up a group of women as the ones to not emulate. 

Unfortunately Black women are the ones who have been saddled with that problematic situation for the last 400 years due to the toxic legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  With Michelle Obama being the defacto public face of Black womanhood as the president's wife, her femininity has been under severe assault.

It also fit into an ongoing pattern of throwing transphobic shade at any Black woman you dislike whether that woman is Fantasia, Serena Williams, Brittney Griner or the FLOTUS.   Any woman who doesn't fit the critic's narrow designation of what a woman is get saddled with transmisogynistic insults or 'that's a man' shade to police her gender presentation.

The fact the comment came out of a white woman's mouth, and one of Jewish heritage who have struggled at times through their own  tortured history with being demonized, also heightened the insensitivity and offense level of Rivers' transmisogynistic comment when seen through the eyes of Black women.

It's also telling to note that Michelle Obama's documented 50 years of life on this space rock, delivering and raising two Black female children of her own and being the First Lady of the United States still didn't shield her from being attacked by the Black Unwoman Meme and having her femininity denigrated. 

And finally, when you look at it from my vantage point as a Black transwoman, I'm pissed off by the comment because it fauxgressively implied to the world by cattily weaponizing transgender as a insult you hurled at the First Lady, that being a transwoman is something to be ashamed of, or makes you less than you as a elderly white woman with multiple surgical enhancements.  

Let me emphatically state it is not insult to be called or something to be ashamed of to be a trans woman. Neither is it shameful to be a Black woman no matter how hard whiteness and white supremacy tries to sell those woof tickets to us. 

The only person that has anything to be ashamed of is Joan Rivers for parting her collagen enhanced lips to say something that jacked up in the first place.

Jane's Letter Concerning The Attacks On Aaron

TransGriot Note:  Jane Vaughan is a former Winston-Salem State University student and past president of the WSSU Gay-Straight Student Alliance (now called Prism) .  She along with Chevara Orrin alerted me to the situation that is transpiring on the WSSU campus involving the homophobic hate being stirred up in social media and aimed at WSSU student Aaron McCorkle

This is her letter addressing it dated March 30th.

Good Afternoon:

Winston-Salem State University's LGBT community needs your help! In a vicious social media attack, WSSU junior, Aaron McCorkle is being bullied and harassed via Twitter because another student released a two-year old image of Aaron "dressed in drag." The trending Twitter topic, "Gay & Crossdressing Mr. WSSU Candidate Causing Major Controversy" has elicited numerous biased and bigoted comments from many in the campus community. While the university has been made aware of the release of the image, they are not proactively educating the campus body by providing sensitivity training or creating safer spaces for LGBT students who may be negatively impacted by this unfortunate incident.

Aaron is an openly gay student who is an active and respected member of the university student body. He was elected Mr. Freshman (2011-2012), Student Government Association Freshman Class Council (2011-2012), Mr. Sophomore (2012-2013), and Mr. Mass Communications (2013), and has served in numerous leadership roles within various student organizations including NAACP Student Representative, Campus Activities Board, and Prism (LGBT org). He is also a Thurgood Marshall College Fund Scholar. In addition, Aaron serves the broader community by volunteering with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Second Harvest Food Bank.

The disparaging and violent tweets question the appropriateness of his candidacy for Mr. WSSU and some even call for physical harm against him. Most disturbing are the tweets from Brian "BDAHT" McLaughlin. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is the newest cast member to Season 6 of Nick Cannon's Wildn Out on MTV2, Comedian on 102 JAMZ Wild Out Wake Up Show (since August 2005) and the PA Announcer for WSSU Athletics (since August 2005). As a radio and television personality, BDAHT has a wide following. As a campus ambassador, it is most inappropriate for him to attack a student in this manner. He tweeted, "If y'all let a drag Queen be Mr. #WSSU, I quit. Straight up."; "#WSSU: y'all really letting a dude, that goes out in drag #nshit, run for Mr. Ram? Have y'all lost y'all mutha fuckin minds, man?!"; "Yes we ARE talking about this putrid shit. Y'all have completely lost it. The nigga dresses in drag, & HE will represent our school?"; and "...Get the fuck outta here. Ya turning the position into a fucking joke. Clowns."

Although, BDHAT states in his twitter bio that his views are not the views of 102 Jamz or MTV2,  I believe that it is reflective of his roles and responsibilities within these organizations. From my perspective, BDHAT's representation of MTV2, 102 Jamz, and Winston-Salem State University is far more questionable than an authentically openly gay young man who may occasionally express gender variance.

I have spoken with many current students (gay and straight allies) who belong to the LGBT student organization, Prism that say they are afraid to speak out or feel that this issue does not directly impact them. According to Campus Pride, the leading national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBT students, "Like other forms of oppression, homophobia not only oppresses members of the target or minority groups (gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people), but also, on many levels, hurts members of the agent or dominant group (heterosexuals). As a result, everyone eventually loses, and more specifically, the negative effect of homophobia remains alive.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for appalling silence of the good people." I refuse to stand in silence. I stand in active solidarity with Aaron McCorkle and others at WSSU who are marginalized and victimized for being their authentic selves. 

As a former WSSU student and president of the WSSU Gay-Straight Student Alliance (now Prism), I am angered and saddened that people have stooped to such levels and caused dissension within the WSSU family while perpetuating stereotypes against the LGBT community in order to win an election. In 2013, at the University of Houston-Downtown, third-year social work major, student Kristopher Sharp was the victim of a vicious smear campaign that revealed his HIV-positive status in order to keep him from winning the student vice-presidency. Flyers and graffiti were plastered across the campus. Sharp ultimately won the election.

This is yet one example of on-going attacks against students at college campuses and schools across our nation. From the 2010 suicide of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University because his roommate released a video of an intimate encounter with another man to this past week's report of eight year-old Sunnie Kahl in Lynchburg, VA being told by school administrators that "she’s not feminine enough," those of us that belong to the LGBT community are being targeted and singled out.

I know firsthand the pain of being alienated as an LGBT college student. While attending WSSU, I was “outed.”  My family rejected me after they discovered that I identified as a lesbian. Had it not been for the WSSU Gay-Straight Student Alliance, I would have had nowhere to turn. No support. No hope. Through the organization I was given a light of hope with the support structure, community leaders, career/job opportunities, and other endless possibilities!  The executive board of GSSA, including myself had the grand opportunity of being a part of the first LGBT panel at the Congressional Black Caucus, attended the OUT for Work conference and the Human Right Campaign’s HBCU LGBT Career and Leadership Summit. We also regularly participated in policy, advocacy and education discourse through our monthly organizational meetings. When I experienced discrimination from an instructor at WSSU, I was able to advocate for myself because of the leadership of our advisors and support they garnered from the broader community. I knew then that I would always be an active participant in addressing injustice against the LGBT community.

Those experiences, and others too numerous to name were life changing. We are all responsible should this matter escalate any further into an act of violence against Aaron or any other gender non-conforming WSSU student. This is our time to speak up and stand strong! I will not choose to stay in the closet with the door open enough for me to see the world and for the world to see me. I will not succumb to society’s discomfort by remaining silent. 

When will it end? Homophobia, transphobia and misogyny must be addressed at WSSU. We need to have honest discussions about black masculinity, hyper-masculinity, hyper-femininity and the impact on the LGBT community. We need honest, ongoing dialogue and training to combat discrimination against our students…our future leaders. We need honest dialogue to understand why the image of a man who does not conform to traditional clothing norms causes such immediate vitriol. We have created space in the black community for Tyler Perry as Madea, Martin Lawrence as Big Momma, Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier as Men on Film, Flip Wilson as Geraldine, and Wesley Snipes as Noxzema. Perhaps we are more comfortable with caricatures that continue to perpetuate gender biased and sexist stereotypes. We have created space for Prince, Lenny Kravitz and Janelle Monae. Why can't we create space for Aaron McCorkle and other students who may be gender variant?

Winston-Salem State University’s mission states, "Preparing diverse students for success in the 21st century...” Diversity on the campus is not limited to race, nationality, and religion but also includes sexual orientation. In 2008, former WSSU administrator Chevara Orrin and WSSU Student Services Specialist, Thomas Clark co-founded the first-ever WSSU GSSA. Seven months later the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to expand protections to include "sexual orientation" for the first time in the university's history. While we celebrated this triumph, it was clear that the journey for equality was far from over as the original language had been amended to exclude "gender identity" and "gender expression."

The recent chain of events highlights clearly the importance of broader protections that include gender non-conforming and transgender students. The university's mission also states, "As a comprehensive, historically Black constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, Winston-Salem State University contributes to the social, cultural, intellectual and economic growth of the region, North Carolina and beyond. " Now is time for WSSU to take action with those words. The University must address the issue of the bullying and harassment of Aaron McCorkle if it seeks to be a leader in our nation.

Join me in speaking for those who have no voice. Let us use this incident as an opportunity to educate, build bridges between the heterosexual and LGBT people and create a platform to expand the current discrimination policy and strengthen our campus community.

Homophobia has a cure: EDUCATION! 

**Attached, please find images of the twitter discussions.

Sincerely,

Jane Vaughan

Past President
Winston-Salem State University Gay Straight Student Alliance

Transmisogyny Isn't Just Being Aimed At Black Trans Women Anymore

Y'all know I love my people and my culture across the African Diaspora.  But damn, I wish elements of y'all would grow up and join the 21st century when it comes to gender identity issues.

One of the things I get tired of in the Black community is the at times willful ignorance around gender and gender identity issues.   News flash, they just don't affect trans folks, they affect all of us because everyone has a gender identity and expresses it in different ways.

As I have pointed out before, you get half your genetic material from mommy, half from daddy.  We are all blends and combinations of traits from our parents. 

As medical science is increasingly proving, there's a thin line and series of events that happen during pregnancy that determines whether you come out of mommy's womb in a masculine or feminine body.. 

One of the things I'm also tired of is the scourge of transmisogyny being gleefully spread by the TERF's and clueless cis women for the last 40 years.   While we trans women are the main targets of it, because the right wingers are giving up on their War Against Marriage Equality, they are shifting targets and money to ratchet up the War on Transwomen.

And because they are doing that, their sliming of transwomen will also have collateral damage effects in terms of that transmisogyny backed by right wing money hitting Black cis women as well.  
What a lot of peeps don't realize is that when you transition, in addition to having to deal with sexism, being walking targets for sexual assault, and all the issues that come with walking Planet Earth in a feminine body,  Black trans women also inherit all the baggage that Black cis women have had to deal with for the last four  centuries in terms of the 'unwoman' meme. So what am I talking about when I say the 'unwoman' meme?

If society has set up one group of women (white women) as the paragons of beauty, virtue and fertility for all women to aspire to, then it stands to reason that you also have to come up with a counternarrative of women you point to that are the ones you don't want others to wish to aspire to be and hate on..

And guess what group of women got that narrative assigned to them?   Yep, Black women.

They are called every pejorative you can throw at them. They are called 'ugly', even by fools that are social scientists.  Even their own men, who are supposed to be their defenders and protectors join in the assault on Black womanhood by leveling a weaponized level of the b-word at them courtesy of gangsta rap music. 

And one of the words they'll get to throw at cis Black women as a weaponized insult since the b-word will increasingly come under attack is the t-word.

If you're 4' 11", 5' 11" or 6' 11" with your heels on, you don't have that classic Coke bottle feminine curves, are on the darker end of those 23 shades of Black skin tones, don't possess the sistah booty, are an athlete or don't fit the stereotypical standards of femininity, your femininity will get called into question, especially as a Black woman.

One of the pejoratives they will use while doing so is the t-word.  

And it won't be just Black men engaged in the process of doing so, it will also be Black women policing the femininity of other Black women using 'that's a man' shade.   

If you think I'm kidding about that, check out the Black gossip blogosphere and see the comments that get aimed at Wendy Williams, Fantasia, Brittney Griner and Joseline Hernandez

If Black cis women are getting their femininity disrespected, what hope is there for Black transwomen to even have ours acknowledged by the greater Black community?   Until we girls like us are recognized as the beautiful women we are inside and out, it's going to be difficult to bring down the levels of anti-trans hate violence the transmisogyny fuels inside our community.. 

Bottom line Black community is you need to cease and desist with aiming transmisogyny not only at us, but at Black cis women.   It's not cool, and the off the charts anti-trans violence directed toward is is spilling over to affect the lives of cis Black women .  

     .  

Black Men, You're A Misogynistic Punk If You Hit Any Black Woman, Cis Or Trans

One of the things we definitely have to work on in the rapidly approaching New Year is eradicating this misogynistic attitude amongst young Black men, (and men in general) that it is okay to hit and fight women.  That attitude gets ratcheted up a few notches if the woman in question is trans

That transmisogynistic attitude needs to be checked especially in the wake of Islan Nettles death two months ago.  Because some punk was upset to discover she was an attractive trans woman, he brutally attacked her on the street and rendered her unconscious until she died a few days later.

That's right, I said punk.  

I was alerted by Jaila Simms concerning a video of a man fighting and body slamming a woman, subsequently knocking her unconscious and her friend fiercely coming to her defense. 

I'm still trying to gather the information as I write this as to whether the woman who was attacked is a cis or trans woman.   Some of the misogynistic and transphobic comment in the thread accompanying this video on Facebook claimed she was trans, but that hasn't been confirmed yet.   

So let's run with the assumption for a moment that the woman in question is trans.   If she isn't the following comments still apply to her as a cis woman.

I don't care what lies you cis peeps were told or disinformation has been fed to you, but a trans woman is a WOMAN, and should be treated and respected as such. 

And this bull feces of you alleged Black men trying to justify swinging your fists at Black women cis or trans is disgusting, unacceptable, nekulturny behavior that needs to cease and desist.

Trigger warning for the upcoming video that sparked this post. 

Post by Tàs Mi.

So let me repeat what I said before the video break.  I want you cis Black men and you cisgender men of other ethnic backgrounds to burn this in your brains, too.

I don't care what you were told, a trans woman is a woman.  Putting your hands on her in anger is never justified or acceptable behavior.   When she or any woman is out and about in the world, should be respected and treated as such even if she is screaming in your face millimeters from your nose because she's pissed off at you. 

I don't care who started this incident that is on this going viral videotape.  Bottom line is that as long as you walk this Earth in a male body, you are NEVER justified to hit ANY woman whether she is cis or trans.

The societal rules don't change just because a woman is trans, cis men.  By dint of you being testosterone based lifeforms, you are still stronger than any woman you will ever come in contact with.  A trans woman may have been born in a male body, but after a year on estrogen has less body strength than the average cis male because of her hormone replacement therapy (HRT) even if you are the same height. 

She being a trans woman doesn't give you the right if you get into an argument with her to hit or strike her either.   If you're a so-called man, you will back the hell away and out of that situation without using violence because that what men are supposed to do.  

If you don't like the fact a transwoman transitioned, that's your transphobia talking and you need to get a life and some counseling to help you get over that, not her.  The trans woman is just simply trying to live her life to the best of her ability.  She gets enough micro and macroaggressive crap from society for simply existing.  She does not need a beatdown or being body slammed by you just so you can grab your crotch afterward like a gangsta rapper and feel more secure in your manhood.

Neither is swinging your fists at this woman going to alter the fact she is still walking Planet Earth in a female body, and has to cope with all the baggage that comes with that.  Multiply that societal baggage load as a Latina, Asian or Native American woman, and triple it as an African descended woman.  

Black women have been demonized as the 'unwoman' for the last four centuries vis a vis the beauty standard that exalts white women as the penultimate in beauty and fertility.  Not only does the Black woman not need you Black men, who are supposed to be their defenders and protectors, demonizing them with the b-word or worse epithets, we don't need you swinging at us as if we were a boxing ring opponent with you. 

Megathanks, props and prayers go out to Jamisha Smith for standing up for her friend who was unconscious after being body slammed and possibly saving her friend's life.   Our prayers go to this young woman who was attacked as well.  

And FYI to the waste of DNA who put his hands on this sistah, karma is not only a you know what, she wears a dress and stiletto heels, too.  

Instead of proving your manhood, all you proved to the world is that you are a violent misogynistic punk who is not worthy to date, much less be intimate with ANY woman. 

And Black community, it's past time we said no to and diligently worked hard on eliminating in 2014 and beyond the misogynistic violence being directed at all Black women cis and trans that is injuring or killing far too many of our sisters.

The Joseline Hernandez Transmisogyny Op-Ed Got Published!

I've been griping about the out of control transphobia in the Black gossip blogosphere lately that has found a new target around VH1's Love and Hip Hop Atlanta's Joseline Hernandez.

I penned an op-ed piece that was published at Loop 21.com  over the weekend entitled The Transmisogyny Aimed At Joseline Hernandez Is An Outrage.

***

One thing that bothers me as a proud, African descended transwoman is the ongoing sexist attacks aimed at women of color.

Women come in all shapes, sizes, skin tones and body configurations, but women of color have had to deal with a centuries old ‘vanillacentric’ beauty standard that was not created with them or their bodies in mind and uplifts white women as the ultimate templates for femininity while negatively impacting women of color.

Because of that beauty standard, far too often black women get ‘that’s a man’ or ‘ugly’ shade hurled at them. You only need look at Satoshi’s Kanazawa’s May 2011 Psychology Today ‘Why Are Black Women Ugly’ article as an in-your-face example of the ‘unwoman’ meme gone pseudo-scientific. One of Kanazawa’s assertions in the article was black women were ‘more manly’ due to extra testosterone in their systems.  Thankfully, the article was taken down after it generated a worldwide firestorm of criticism and outrage. 

As the Williams sisters, Fantasia, Ciara, Wendy Williams, Grace Jones, Brittney Griner and Caster Semenya can tell you, women who are deemed to have a non-standard feminine presentation, larger-than-life personality, a thin, athletic frame, are 5’7” or taller, wear a double digit shoe size or have a combination of physical traits that are deemed to be more apropos to the masculine gender have ‘that’s a man’ derision hurled at them. Even the late Donna Summer battled rumors in 1978 that she was a transsexual despite being the mother of two children.

Flinging the 'you're a transwoman' accusation at a ciswoman has sadly become the weaponized insult of choice by men and women when they wish to disparage any woman they don’t like. 

[ALSO READ: A Transgendered Woman On Love And Hip-Hop]

We’ve had an off the charts epidemic of transphobia breaking out in the black gossip blogosphere for several years. While much of it has been aimed at Ciara and Wendy Williams, the latest target in the transphobes sights is Joseline Hernandez of the VH1 reality television show "Love And Hip-Hop Atlanta."
Because Joseline has some traits that are deemed by the Black Blogosphere Femininity Police as belonging to the opposite gender, she has been savaged by rumors that she is a transwoman. She overreacted to those rumors by tweeting a frontal nude photo of herself that showed her female genitalia backed up by a tweet proclaiming she was ‘100% female.’

Transmisogny is gleefully trafficked by the editors of the blogs and runs amok in their comment threads. In one post by Bossip, they used the derogatory anti-trans slur word ‘shim’ in a post about Ms. Hernandez before it was changed.

Some of the transphobic ignorance displayed in the black gossip blogosphere aimed at Ms. Hernandez is fed by stereotypical and false assertions on what a transwoman looks like. It also has its roots in loud and wrong transphobic writings penned by a depressing long list of radical feminists for four decades such as Janice Raymond, Germaine Greer, the late Mary Daly, Sheila Jeffreys and Julie Bindel.

It hasn't helped that since trans people began a renewed push in the mid-90s to gain trans human rights coverage, right-wing fundamentalist Christians, including some right-wing gay and lesbian fundamentalists have engaged in anti-trans bigotry and tactics to stop this coverage.

The white trans community has had a plethora of sympathetic popular culture trans characters on shows such as All In The Family, Ally McBeal, The L Word, Ugly Betty, Dirty Sexy Money and the movie Transamerica. The last time a Black transwoman was portrayed on screen without being cast as a sex worker, drag queen or a murder victim was The Jeffersons ‘Edith Stokes’ in 1977, Sheryl Lee Ralph's ‘Claire’ in Showtime's Barbershop the Series and Tyra Banks' ‘Roni’ on the show All of Us. 

[ALSO READ: Public Perception Of Trans Women Of Color]

Because the trans narrative has predominately been a white, upper, middle class one, far too often the people tapped to speak for the trans community on panels and talk shows, do the activism, or write articles for the trans community have been in that demographic. The invisibility of trans people of color in the media and LGBT movement resulting from that dynamic has led to a perception that transsexuality is a ‘white thang’ or trans people don’t exist in our communities.

Thanks to the rise of the trans blogosphere and Afrocentric blogs such as TransGriot, supportive trans allies and bloggers such as Womanist Musings and What Tami Said, increasing trans activism, ally organizations such as GLAAD, out and proud transwomen such as Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, Valerie Spencer, Angelica Ross and Tona Brown, a tradition of Black trans activism that began in Philadelphia with the 1965 Dewey’s Lunch Counter Sit-In and the 1969 Stonewall Riots, we have begun to push back against the lies, negativity and outright distortions about who and what a transwoman is.

Our media outlets and legacy organizations such as the NAACP, the National Black Justice Coalition, and new ones like the Trans People of Color Coalition are beginning to facilitate the badly needed discussions inside and outside our community about transwomen and how we fit into the kente cloth fabric of it.

It’s a necessary conversation we need to have if we are going to stop the trans misogyny aimed at transwomen.