Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2806-2810 (6th - 10th October 2014) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
tragic_pizza:
--- Quote from: AprilArcus on 15 Oct 2014, 12:46 ---Passing culture and passing privilege may be contemptible manifestations of an amoral, judgemental, cisnormative, objectifying patriarchal cultural apparatus, but that doesn't make it any less relevant to my life when a stranger on the bus is staring at me with death in his eyes telling me "you're a man, right?"
--- End quote ---
I am not in any way discounting your personal experience. I know it happens, and it's terrifying.
But is it not true that people can, and do, pass?
I'm way out of my pay grade. Maybe you're right, maybe I'm just thinking that's the way it should be in QC-verse. Please forgive me if I have insulted you in any way.
(Edited to remove an unnecessary word)
ZoeB:
--- Quote from: tragic_pizza on 16 Oct 2014, 00:25 ---But is it not true that people can, and do, pass?
--- End quote ---
And some standard factory model women don't. But when they get the glares, they have the self-confidence to do the "withering stare" back. Most of them, anyway. It's not as dangerous for them, though there have been unfortunate situations that mean it's not entirely safe for them either. You don't have to be trans to suffer the threat of transphobia, though it helps.
For all women, being too attractive, too traditionally feminine, is dangerous. For trans women, being too traditionally unattractive is even more so. Less so, but still not without risk, for cis women. The number of crones burnt as witches attests to that.
Now we're getting off-topic. This kind of thing really belongs in one of the Trans threads, if I want to discuss it further. Or even a Feminist thread.
tragic_pizza:
Agreed, and thank you for engaging me, and helping correct my thinking.
AprilArcus:
--- Quote from: tragic_pizza on 16 Oct 2014, 00:25 ---But is it not true that people can, and do, pass?
--- End quote ---
I'm 5'8" and wear my hair short and pass 99% of the time. Claire is 5'3" and has overtly feminine hair and probably passes 99.9% of the time. But you sure don't forget that 1% or that 0.1% when it happens.
My point is that a statement like "there's no trans-dar" is utterly false. People point their trans-dar at me all the time, because figuring out "what I am" is a fun game to them. People do this to everyone, all the time, because categorical perception is baked into our genes, and gender policing is baked in to our culture. You can wish the world were better, but saying won't make it so.
Back on topic:
--- Quote from: tragic_pizza on 14 Oct 2014, 23:26 ---I do have a bit of an issue with the idea that Tai or anyone else could "figure out" that Claire is trans.
--- End quote ---
Except that this already happened. Marten's reaction of utter un-surprise in Number 2323: Willingly Ignorant (heck, the title of the strip!) strongly indicates that he already suspected, but knew enough to wait for Claire to bring it up.
Neko_Ali:
hehe.. I had always taken the name of that strip in reference to the last panel, that they would rather not know what Faye and Angus are like when making out. But this explanation makes sense too. It's entirely possible that Marten did figure things out before Claire told him, and had enough sense to be chill and quiet about it. He had a pretty diverse exposure to LGBT people growing up with a gay dad and mom in the porn business. He's talked about knowing drag performers as a kid, it's no stretch at all that he knew some trans people growing up too. (not that the two are the same, but there is some overlap.) He and Tai talked about it as well and he seemed fairly savy then.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version