This week I had a post lined up to be about comic allegiance and blah blah blah, but instead it's going to be about portrayal of transgender in comics and the recent furor over Batgirl #27 and what it means because some of us just haven't caught up yet.
Immediately I'm going to apologize if any of my language or naming conventions are offensive. It's most likely I'm not sure what the proper name should be. Please feel free to let me know how much of a philistine I am being. I do understand there are specific terms such as cisself and such cisgender, non-trans, and others to help describe people but since I don't clearly understand them I probably won't use them.
Now I'm not going to say I'm some professional in this because I'm not. I usually stay out of these conversations, and yes I understand that means I silently condone anybody who speaks out in offense of trans people since I basically don't do anything to help, and that's because I largely don't know what I should say. I don't personally know the struggles of those in the community, their daily lives, what they must feel, and largely what they want. If that sounds negative, it really isn't meant to. I want to say that I just don't know enough but feel that I really should say something at this point as a few people locally felt that "Since it's a comic it's harmless," and "Really what did people expect?"
I reject this. Comics are serious and are a reflection of us not only as a fanbase but us as a society in general. I've read people talking about, "In today's more civilized society this isn't a problem, and we really shouldn't treat it as something huge and turn it into something it's not." I am conflicted in this because: 1.) Society has been "civilized" since the dawn of civilization and every year we've felt ourselves across the entire world to be the pinnacle of civilized living, understanding, and being overall moral pinnacles when we do have a lot of problems we have yet to fix and some to even properly address such as this. 2.) Not addressing any problems under the guise of, "Let's not turn this into a thing," is a way of saying, "This isn't my problem I'm affected by, so I don't see why I should have to do anything about it. I definitely don't want to hear about it." 3.) Again, COMICS ARE SERIOUS. They are. Don't believe me? You're being ignorant. Comics are serious as both a social engagement and a business with people making billions of dollars with them at movies, using them in social sciences, enjoying them at home, and even crying when characters are hurt. If they weren't serious, we wouldn't be labeling Doug Moench a hack for his JLA: Act of God with it's heavy handed religion or feel anger over Rob Liefeld's very name due to his crap, Greg Land for his borderline plagiarism, get upset when Gail Simone is kicked off a book about women, or have such a division between fans on the subject of Brian Bendis. To us, and to the world, comics are important. So let's just dispel that notion right away.
Now that we can acknowledge that comics are both important and influential, we can now acknowledge more than just regular kids at the candy shop pick up comics and address that comics are really meant for everybody of all ages and creeds, not that Marvel and DC act like that all the time, but still. People will talk about how comics are primarily marketed at boys and how this makes it okay for comic companies to pull the crap they do, and that's a load of bullshiznaps. Comic companies complain about not strong readerships and having trouble getting into other reading pools precisely because of this reasoning, to the point I've seen girls put down the Red Hood title, stop reading X-Men, or other titles due to objectification of women. This is just women, a group which makes up 52% of the world's population of all humans. Imagine an even smaller minorities such as those who are non-white and LGBT. You may ask, "Mak, we don't think ill of them. Heck, I can't think of any black or gay people I hate." And I'd commend you on not being an outright bigoted racist, but that doesn't mean we as a society don't marginalize and sometimes make fun of them in unwitting ways. This was something of a big thing with Batgirl #27. I'll post the screen below:
Look at the scene and tell me what you as a person think is wrong. Most likely you're going to say, "Nothing, Mak. Looks normal to me. Batgirl is surprised Dagger Type is a guy. Just tell me what you want to try and guilt me with already you dag." Well, if you already know Dagger Type's name then you also probably have been reading Batgirl for some time and all it's awesomeness. You also know that Batgirl has a very personal friend by the name of Alysia Yeoh who is the transgendered friend of Barbara Gordon who came out and it was all very good. (In fact, DC has been making strides recently to be more inclusive in a bid to not only appeal to a wider audience but to show a greater understanding of other cultures in general.) So why is the image above possibly offending? Well, Barbara has previously and personally been exposed to someone who is transgender and then shows exaggerated shock to come across another. This is where things get murky, confusing, infuriating, and saddening. "Well, that's natural. If you were chasing someone who was running around looking like a woman you would be surprised if this person pulled off their mask and was clearly a guy." "Dagger Type is an artist, so I don't see the problem. Anyway, he's more crossdresser than trans." "Babs was excited and in the moment." A sampling of things I've heard in response. All of them wrong. Let's go back over them.
"Well, that's natural. If you were chasing someone who was running
around looking like a woman you would be surprised if this person pulled
off their mask and was clearly a guy." This is something I somewhat understand. If I were a costumed fighter tracking down my doppelganger in glittery clothes and I ripped their mask off just to find out they were another gender I would be legitimately surprised. I'll agree with you there. Would I throw up my arms in dramatic fashion with a, "You? But you can't possibly be a girl! You just can't!" No. This is pretty much what Batgirl did there and it taps deep into a stigma we as a society carry towards trans people when we find out they were different in assigned gender previously. "But weren't you a man?" "I have to say you looked better as a woman." etc. These things get brought up when comic characters pull this stunt. This was double damning given that Batgirl previously had a very positive reaction to a trans person previously only to go back to the ignorant shock and surprise later on in such an exaggerated way we're supposed to, as readers, also feel shock and not in a good way. Finding out Dagger Type was trans should be surprising to us as Babs was looking at someone who was her mirror reflection in everything from body type to voice and could never figure it out, has fought with Clayface, and really just has had all sorts of oddities that this is just... It just should have been handled better. When we look at this and identify with it and see it as nothing more than a problem, we basically say it's okay to show great shock and maybe even fear (given Bab's face) to trans people. It's not like their lives are bad enough without us pulling this crap to them and making them feel like they're an oddity, an outsider, and potentially even a sideshow attraction. Things they've definitely been told in life and have struggled with. Some still struggle today. Many will struggle tomorrow. If we are going to be "civilized" we need to stop being so shocked when this comes up.
"Dagger Type is an artist, so I don't see the problem. Anyway, he's more crossdresser than trans." I don't even... I can't... Where to start. This is a crap storm excuse of monolithic proportion. If you subscribe to this, you may think you're being level headed and understanding towards creatives and artists and you're not buying into any agenda or bias and you're just above it all. You can definitely take that back because you're wrong on all fronts. While there's nothing wrong with fostering creatives, this is truly just on the backs of those who suffer. Sort of like Jean-Paul Goude shooting a bunch of pictures of Grace Jones in multiple sexually and racially exploitative ways including "tribal makeup" armed with whips, and directly being put into a cage, and then even saying he has "jungle fever," and then claiming it's art so it's okay. Art should be expressible by all forms, and comic books ARE art, but when you're shipping this as not so much a personal expression as a professional one and it should meet up to the standards of society it should reflect that society. Also, screw Goude and those who think it's okay to subjugate entire groups of people because you just want to. Speaking of grouping or failure to understand groups, crossdressers and trans tend to fall under the same tent. When we talk about crossdressers, and the example (however unlabelled to whom it is) provided basically means that because Dagger Type isn't the full surgical male to female sort of trans it's okay to make fun of him or paint him in such a way and... well... no. There's no real reason to assume that since Dagger hasn't gone full surgery that what he is and what he does as identifying as a woman is any different. That would be like saying it's okay to make fun of or insult those of Protestant descent because they've become or are training to practice Catholicism as opposed to just being Catholic. While the weight of religion shift is nowhere near even close to the same ballpark as what the issue at hand is, it is a similar precedence in how choice and change can be scrutinized or even marginalized due to misunderstanding. In this instance, Dagger Type is not simply dressing as a woman for fun, he sees himself and is portraying himself as a woman. He's identifying as a gender, and that's what trans is. There's a distinct difference between those who "dress up" for fun and those who crossdress to be comfortable with themselves. Trans doesn't simply apply to those who have the funds and the courage yet to reassign their gender and not to those who still live a similar lifestyle without it. Not everybody can truly part with their born gender, and some do not even feel that a particular gender even fits them. Some crossdress by choice because being that way fits them best.
"Babs was excited and in the moment." Hahahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, that would make sense if Babs also showed shock and extreme disjointed surprise whenever anybody dressed up in a costume, left explosive gifts, etc. As someone who is actually fairly well adjusted from paralysis recovery to just being a costumed crime fighter, this really shouldn't be this surprising. Even in the heat of the moment. Now if they're going to assign this as a true characteristic for her, they need to have an issue where they address her shrieking and running from the bed during sex because during the heat of the moment her partner reached climax and surprised the hell out of her. "She would expect that." Yeah, screw off. Don't try to justify and marginalize crap.
There is one bit I didn't quote and I could have gone back and done it but whatevs. "Dagger Type is clearly unstable. Look at that makeup and why he is doing this. Babs was right to be confused and surprised by such an unstable person." That's more or less spelled out from what some people have implied. Well, this is more or less a real big part of what was wrong. Tropes of how trans people are portrayed. Now what I'm not going to do is get down with super specific examples and paste picture after picture of examples because if you really need me to do that, you're looking for an excuse to argue and then you're going to pull excuse after excuse and pictures of trans treated properly to say, "Aha! See! They can be treated right. You're making a big deal of this!" The truth is trans and the greater LGBT have been treated with disparity in a negative fashion over the years. The crazed, deranged, unstable trans stereotype is one of the bigger offenders. Trans people are often treated as crazed individuals unsure of their self identity or narcissistic and just otherwise crazy such as Dagger Type was. When we look at these events and say it's okay and we don't see the problem, it's because we look at it and agree that trans people must be unbalanced because they don't feel comfortable with their bodies and that would make people unbalanced. Trans people are rarely crazy unbalanced people. They may feel emotionally unbalanced at time while tackling just who they are, but everybody is prone to that for any reason. Trans don't' get "extra crazy" because of this, and to say it's okay to portray them as unbalanced, or even to just say it's okay, due to their trans status is ignorant and perpetrates the trope. This isn't to say we can't have unbalanced trans, or that no trans should be unbalanced as much as it is to say we should as readers and writers look at the issue and truly think and decide whether or not we're applying a personality to someone due to their status as a human or simply them as a person. Because while yes, crazy mad people exist and plenty of them are not trans, it doesn't mean we don't evenly portray others as well rounded humans. Trans people don't get that representation.
Truly, there is a messton more to write about this and I'm definitely not the best representative to do it. But I did want to talk and try to maybe help others understand why their feelings of normality might not necessarily be right. And I definitely don't want anybody marginalized just because others believe comics are silly works and so they shouldn't receive any attention or recognition. People are people, and the more we are exposed to our faults and strengths the more we grow. Take this time to learn, to reach out, and to find out more about your fellow person. It may just be you who makes their world a better place, even if just a little.
Also, as of writing this (the day it was released due to my compressed nature) I've found out Janine Schaefer's last day as talent scout for Marvel is tomorrow. She was well respected and liked as a talent scout and her decision to leave Marvel to move with her husband to Los Angeles will be a loss for us as readers. Thank you and good luck, Janine!
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