Last I checked, transgender people represent considerably less than 1% of the US population…
…there is no conversion, we are not a threat. These “nattering naybobs” just cannot abide the fact that a small few of us upset their tidy wee black and white notions of gender and sex. The problem lies within themselves and their inability to conceptualize a range of gray, not androgynous or trans people. John Lewis, US Congressman and civil rights activist put that truth succinctly and pointedly when he wrote,
“…the hatred we experienced was not based on any truth, but was actually an illusion in the minds of those who hated us.”
John Lewis, ‘Across That Bridge’ pg. 25
I know this illusion from their side because when I was a young, hung-up & fearful young Catholic, sitting comfortably in a world I divided into black/white, right/wrong, on/0ff, I felt safe – everything in its right place and the way it was ‘supposed’ to be. Anytime I felt upset about something like this ad, it was because it triggered something within myself that I was afraid to look at. It really makes one wonder WHY they are so virulently upset by what is really quite an innocuous ad – I mean we see half nude women and men, androgynous women and men all the time. Donatello’s 1409 bronze statue of David was that of a nude, delicate and remarkably effeminate young man – androgyny is not new, nor should it be shocking. And gosh, if you don’t like it, keep going, continue scrolling, turn the page and forget about it.
Donatello, David, 1428 — 1432. Photo © Arte & Immagini srl/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images.
I must comment on this rather seething reply though:
«Sick of all this gender confusion crap. Stop poisoning our children with the new generation with these horrendous thoughts and campaigns that go against nature. BIG UNFOLLOW!»
This person, besides apparently being so angry they can’t form a coherent sentence, reflects the failure of whatever education system put them into the world capable of writing, but barely able to think. The reactionary lack of effort to think plays out via the following deficiencies:
1) A refusal to do even the minimum of research, paired with an inability to sit with uncertainty, form cogent arguments and to think critically.
2) A gradeschool understanding of human variation. The commenter alludes to the hackneyed ‘biological male/biological female’ argument by using the word ‘NATURE.’ Yeah we get it, men and women are real, they exist, there are differences between women and men, we are a sexually dimorphic species like all other mammals. Most people happily fit into whatever sex they are observed to be at birth and whatever roles, behaviours, habits or interests come with it — Indeed, some of those behaviours and qualities emanate from one’s physicality. Apparently though, these peturbed commenters don’t understand or refuse to accept that nature produces variation and anomalies. They are furthermore conflating the gonadal and chromosomal aspects of a person (i.e. their sex) with gender —that is, social gender coding …and yes, I know gender is become a rather muddy hot button word and this is but one definition of it . In the process of all this, and I use ‘process’ lightly, they reduce human beings to a sum total of their reproductive function and assume there are only and always two options for how a human can be. There are many things in nature that have more than one or two options – height, musculature and bone structure, eye, skin and hair color for example. One could easily say all of those fall within a bell curve…or an array…or (egads! a spectrum). Intrinsic inclinations in regard to personality and how an individual exhibits theirs is one of those more-than-two kind of options. But you know, “NATURE.” Gosh, why should it be impossible or unnatural that someone have an understanding of self that doesn’t align with their sex and the societal roles, interests and behaviours predominately associated with it? Such people are documented throughout history.
3) Ignorance of history. People act like gender-incongruent people are an entirely new thing spawned by left wing extremists who want to neuter the whole human population and pack those who don’t comply into pinko gulags. Variation in both sex and gender have been a part of humanity weeeeeell before even the complainers great-great grandparents were born. Look at the Donatello David — REALLY, look it up. We’ve all likely seen some version of Quentin Crisp and Radcliffe Hall on our playgrounds, in our workplaces, out and about, and in our art and myth both modern and ancient —they are and always have been here. And if gender-incongruent people and gender-transgressing behaviour didn’t exist, WHY on earth would the people who assembled the book of Deuteronomy between the 7th and 5th century BCE, bother to include injunctions against crossdressing? Hmmmmmm, gosh, maybe they just put it in there just in case because they predicted future issues with trans people needing the loo and Valentino running this ad? Don’t Laugh, some do indeed think that.
The commenter cannot see, while simultaneously trying to claim it is “natural” and therefore immutable, that what they did with their post is essentially acknowledge that a lot of what we refer to as gender is a set of attitudes and beliefs that are culturally coded, taught via socialization/acculturation and therefore mutable and open to interpretation across time and cultures: Gender expression can be variant, and many cultural gender norms influenced, and altered. If they don’t believe that, why the hullabaloo about “poisoning our children with the new generation with these horrendous thoughts and campaigns”?
So, this fashion model, rather than hyper-masculinise himself by say, growing a beard, cutting his hair and bulking out, has instead embraced and used natural qualities of his body to lean into the ambiguity of being in a body of male sex but also look feminine. And of course, there is likely a professional makeup person behind the scene and artistic manipulation of the image, they do that with women models A LOT, but androgynous people do naturally exist and do embrace and play to it.
This is the problem I have with social media, it gives a platform to uninformed, reactionary, unimaginative people who frankly lack the intelligence to look deeper and curiously query why it is they feel and believe a certain way. Why on earth should they be bothered that there are androgynous and gender variant people in the world and some of us who admire and celebrate them? Again, if you don’t like it, move on and don’t worry about it.
When I saw the tiny Valentino ad image on my phone screen, I thought he was an attractive nude woman. When I opened it though, I experienced a moment of confusion as I realized he was a man - I LOVE THAT AMBIGUITY, it was like the first time I saw David Bowie on television in the 1970s. That moment of uncertainty to throw viewers off center is obviously what they designed the ad to do. The sad thing is that there are many people who are incapable of sitting with that discomfort and digging through the muck of why they might feel uncomfortable. If they could muster that courage, they would come out the other side a more accepting and well-rounded human being.
It seems to me that the people complaining probably thought the same initial thing I did only when their expectations of a nude woman were confounded, found their disgust for anything trans or (scare quotes) “gay” heavily triggered. I think it is a similar fascination that spawned the term ‘trap’ and the trope-laden films patterned after the discovery scene in the fim ‘The Crying Game’ - people are terrified of their own inexplicable stirrings and that they themselves might be ‘othered’ for them. Sadly, this is what leads some of these people to both physically and emotionally harm trans people and any others they deem to be gender non-conforming. The attitudes presented in those comments to the ad are SO dangerous. I am tired of sitting quietly and politely, offering compassion to the compassionless because these aren’t simply harmless opinions, they are attitudes that ultimately inform and influence the way we value and treat other human beings.
