Share

Share this

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

By Quimey Ramos

Last Monday, I was interviewed on the program "Involucrados" on the América channel, about the trans character played by Maite Lanata in the Telefé series "100 Días para enamorarse." During the program, we had a disagreement with the panelists, mainly with Luis Ventura, a television journalist who has been entrenched in television for 30 years. This happened because he reproduced some prejudices about the trans community that, not coincidentally, I heard repeated on every program I've participated in. Why does it seem like they're interested in us now?

[ALSO READ: After criticism, Scarlet Johansson will not play a trans man]

This column aims to challenge some of the rather fixed ideas prevalent in the media about the trans community. I want to show why the phrases, disguised as ignorance, that I heard the panelists so flippantly utter are not at all naive, but rather reproduce commonplaces fraught with violence and prejudice.

1- “The gender identity law can be used by criminals to hide their identity by agreeing to physical changes for their own benefit.”

– The answer is very short: the ID number and fingerprints remain the same, so there's no room for using the law in this way. However, it's one of the most used arguments to question the law and suggest the need for some entity to “regulate” it. The answer to what these journalists are asking is what happens in Spain, Canada, parts of the US, the Netherlands, Finland, and right here before the law: if you want the State to recognize you, let a mental health professional determine it.

[READ ALSO: Gender in media dispute: “They use this to roll back rights”]

But luckily, Argentine law makes it clear that we base our decisions on self-perception, not on what others see in us, not even what other trans colleagues see. And despite Sergia's case (whose existence I still doubt, given that she was never seen!), it must be said that I don't think transitioning can be a privilege for anyone. I suggest Luis Ventura and Cinthia Fernández try it one day and go out on the streets.

2- “You have to seek acceptance”

– This continues the previous discourse. It's the same shit, in another part of these journalists' brain-intestinal process. Let's understand that the idea comes from the fact that society (a heterosexual majority), like a castle, has left us poor trans servants (a minority) out. So we trans people must stand in front of the castle door and say, "Will Martin (or Luis), heterosexual, let me in?" - "You'll get in, you'll get in, only if you take hormones."

[READ ALSO: What we talk about when we talk about trans beauty]

The idea that we should seek acceptance stems from the idea that trans people are a minority that must knock on the doors of the vast hetero-normal majority to make room for us. We are neither a minority nor outside of society: we are their uncles, lovers, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbors, etc. We are in the same geographic space, therefore not outside. But our place is on the margins, and that is the same reality as that of many others. In this, Luis Ventura was not wrong when he responded, "Well, you're not the only ones who have problems," in an attempt to demand that my claim be added to the queue of minorities patiently waiting to be heard. No, Luis: this "minority" suffers from the same problems as many other minorities, and if we were to join them, we would be the vast majority. The minority that should start waiting and listening is you.

3- “Let's celebrate that they're now represented on TV”

– It's true that for many people, especially those far from big cities, a trans character in a series can be a glimpse into our existence. But the fact that it's played by a cis* person is unfair, not because of who gets to play whom, but because, given the difficulty we face in accessing work (remember, we're demanding a trans job quota ), it could very well be a source of work for a trans actor. Furthermore, these characters are "advised" by trans people, but scripted by cis-hetero people: they're still representations from a cis person's imagination of what a trans life is. A media standardization of a trans experience, from a cis perspective.

4- “You're very aggressive”

– Any non-submissive body that has ever faced a macho man knows this. It's the historical strategy to cancel your voice, to delegitimize your claim: calling you aggressive, intolerant, crazy. From the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who were called “the crazy women of the plaza,” to the current dissident and women's movement, where the “feminazi” appears. Let's add a stop to the history of these insults, and let's stop at the lost corner where we transvestites used to stop, and let's hear the familiar refrain: “You're a crazy man in a wig.” The answer is simple: comrades, there's no room for this nonsense!

5. Why, despite everything, do they give us more cameras now?

– There are many factors at play. But there's one I prefer to emphasize, and that is the closet: the closet as an expression that differentiates the private from the public sphere. Trans people, unlike many gays and lesbians (not all), haven't had the opportunity to be closeted until now. Embracing our identity means always embracing ourselves publicly: from the moment we do so, we will be visibly subjects breaking into the beauty of public space.

But for some time now, thanks to the further development of gender technologies, especially in hormones and genital, facial, or breast modification surgeries (implants or mastectomies), many trans people have the possibility of being closeted. The possibility of not even having to call themselves trans at all. And for it to remain a secret, even from your partner (but always an inescapable truth for yourself).

[READ ALSO: When being trans “shows”]

And that's when the media, governments, and hegemonies embrace us: I'll give you the key to enter the castle, in exchange for knowing how to deny yourself. However, let's be clear: there's nothing wrong with modifying our bodies however we want. The bad thing is that it becomes a paradigm, and the anxiety and sadness this society makes us feel for doing it quickly and "right."

I chose to have my body modified, but when I did, it was more out of a desire to go out in peace than to see my body changed. That's why it's not naive to link the trans experience to the experience of hormones, which is what journalists constantly ask about. That's why, when Cinthia Fernández asked about physical changes, I responded that I want social change.

* a person who identifies with their sex and gender assigned at birth.