Friday, April 22, 2011

McD's beating victim a trans woman

The Bilerico blog reports that the person beaten at the Rosedale McDonalds was a man biological male transgendered woman.
Posted by at

9 comments:

Bil Browning said...

No, as the author of the post you linked, that's not what I said at all and it's really offensive that you put it like this. That's the exact attitude that got this young woman beaten in a McDonalds while people stood around and watched. She is a transgender person, but that doesn't make her a man.

Fri Apr 22, 06:41:00 PM EDT
Maurice Bradbury said...

does "biological male" work for you?

Fri Apr 22, 07:41:00 PM EDT
Cham said...

You'd probably have to go with "born biologically male". We may not know what might have happened in the the interim between then and now.

Fri Apr 22, 07:48:00 PM EDT
Bil Browning said...

Thanks for responding. It's nice to know you're willing to talk.

No. In this case it's not appropriate to gender the victim as a "man" when she obviously wasn't. She was using the female restroom, for cryin' out loud.

She may have been born male, but she's not now. And that's the important part when you're reporting on these issues. You should refer to the victim as they presently are. You wouldn't use someone's maiden name after they've been married for 20 years, would you? Same situation - you just don't know how long it's been since the woman transitioned.

If you want to report on the victim as a transgender woman, why not just say "a transgender woman"? It's the words that fit, plenty descriptive to the reader, and - according to all of the major journalism style guides - the correct media usage.

Does that make it easier to understand?

Fri Apr 22, 07:49:00 PM EDT
Cham said...

Yeah MB, you wouldn't use someone's maiden name after they've been married for 20 years, would you?. Let's think about that. First you'd have to be able to get married, and that poses a whole bunch of challenges. Second, let's think about all those people like my sister who haven't parted with their maiden names and have been married far more than 20 years.

Damn it, we have rules, lots and lots of rules. We better start memorizing them and adhering to all of them stat. Otherwise Bill Browning is going to come get us.

Sat Apr 23, 07:58:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

The maiden name similarly, is an irrelevant and narrow minded perspective.

Sadly you are both demonstrating your deeper held prejudices, rather eloquently.

This poor lady is the victim here, lets not forget that.

Sat Apr 23, 10:31:00 AM EDT
Maurice Bradbury said...

I'm not trying to offend anyone, which is why I edited the post, and left edits visible so people reading comments won't be lost.

Sat Apr 23, 10:43:00 AM EDT
hilzoy said...

MB: Thanks for doing the edit. Think of it this way: imagine you have felt, as far back as you can remember, that you are just not the gender you seem to have been born as. It's all wrong; it makes you unhappy; and besides all that, most of the rest of the world thinks that this is just the craziest thing they've ever heard. Possibly you yourself think that.

Finally you figure out that you can, in fact, do something about this, and make the person you seem to be actually match the person you know you are, for the first time ever. And that's all you really want: just to be accepted as that person, to have it be no big deal for you, the way it is for everyone else.

Then someone beats you up for using the bathroom. And then people start describing you as the wrong gender, the one you spent all this time and effort trying to get away from, when all you ever wanted was just to be the gender you feel you are.

Thanks for making it right.

Sat Apr 23, 04:24:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...

Cham, don't you have a Nancy Drew mystery to solve?

Sun Apr 24, 12:00:00 AM EDT

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)