Lost Girl‘s Trans Fail

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Lost Girl‘s Trans Fail (http://www.geekgirlsrule.net/?p=1734)


The Canadian supernatural drama Lost Girl, which recently returned for a third season on Showcase in Canada and Syfy in the US, has consistently had positive portrayals of bisexual and lesbian cis (meaning non-trans) women. Its main character, Bo, is a bisexual succubus who is part of a wider community of supernatural beings known as Fae, and the show has handled her sexual and romantic relationships with both men and women very well, even groundbreaking at times.

However, the first episode of the third season, “Caged Fae,” demonstrates that there’s a difference between being cis women-friendly and trans women-friendly, with a story that was the most blatantly transphobic one I’ve seen on television recently.

[Tenka]

I don't watch the show, but I read the full linked article. A real understatement it would be, to say that episode was in poor taste. Holy scheisse.... :(
They need a new writer or something.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I was still upset days after I watched it, so I wrote that blog post.

[DancingEmma]

Danielle, I'm so sorry that you had to see such a horrifically transmisogynstic thing in one of your favorite TV shows. I can see how it would really feel like a shock and a violation. Hugs if you want them.

[Quail]

I've never watched the show, but it seems especially bad that a show that you think handles bisexuality really well could portray trans women in such a terrible way.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Danielle, I'm so sorry that you had to see such a horrifically transmisogynstic thing in one of your favorite TV shows. I can see how it would really feel like a shock and a violation. Hugs if you want them.
Thank you. Hugs are always welcome. :)

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I've never watched the show, but it seems especially bad that a show that you think handles bisexuality really well could portray trans women in such a terrible way.
Yes, that's what makes it worse, that a show that deals with bisexuality so well could fumble so badly with a trans woman. The producers saying "but it's just a mythological being" is a cop out because the main character is also a mythological being and that doesn't stop them from giving her bi positive storylines.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Sounds like lazy writing. It does make me think that, maybe, all that previously bi-positive writing was just a selling point in order to cater to a niche audience with 'progressive' social views. Of course, apparently not too progressive.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

This is sad to hear. I know how emotionally distressing it can be to have one of your favorite programs, bands, or idols to virulently attack who you are, especially when it appeared as if they were progressive enough to accept everyone. I can empathize over how it must have felt to witness such a reactionary episode.

To hel build awareness I posted your entry to my own blog: http://thequeerproject.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/lost-girls-transgender-fail/

[A Sovereign Womb]

The concern over trans "infiltration" among radical feminists has more to do with fundamental losses of solidarity and integrity than a belief that they are committed rapists.

But yeah, this kind of narrative would absolutely appeal to a great many of them. From your synopsis, it really does seem like pandering.

[Tenka]

The concern over trans "infiltration" among radical feminists has more to do with fundamental losses of solidarity and integrity than a belief that they are committed rapists.

But yeah, this kind of narrative would absolutely appeal to a great many of them. From your synopsis, it really does seem like pandering.

To be honest I had never heard before reading this that Transwomen as committed rapists was a Radfem idea. I always thought it was something believed/told by sick conservative arseholes who want to keep public toilets segregated. Granted, radical feminism is not very well defined and differentiated in my head, and I've found myself agreeing with scattered things before that were called radical feminism (which might have only been so-called for being seen as ridiculous by some people present...).

All I know, is that the laughable idea that male-bodied persons who identify and/or dress as women do so in order to "get at" and rape women, is by no means exclusive to these "radical feminists" with which I'm not familiar: a great many stupid arseholes with conservative or no politics also possess it.

[DancingEmma]

All I know, is that the laughable idea that male-bodied persons who identify and/or dress as women do so in order to "get at" and rape women, is by no means exclusive to these "radical feminists" with which I'm not familiar: a great many stupid arseholes with conservative or no politics also possess it.

Tenka, I agree with your overall point here. I just wanted to point out, however, that it's a bit problematic to imply that trans women are necessarily "male-bodied." I'm not sure if that's what you were implying, of course, but it sort of sounded like it, so I thought I should say something just in case. I know a lot of trans women personally whose bodies don't look particularly "male" at all, and some of those bodies I have even, ahem, seen kinda close up (sorry for the TMI).

And yes. Radical feminists have a long tradition of saying trans women are rapists, even though they are hardly the only ones making the claim. Notorious radical feminist/piece of shit Janice Raymond (who just turned 70 years old today! Happy birthday Jan!) said in her book The Transsexual Empire: "All transsexuals rape women's bodies." That's is pretty much par for the course when it comes to radfems and their views of trans women, unfortunately.

[Tenka]

Tenka, I agree with your overall point here. I just wanted to point out, however, that it's a bit problematic to imply that trans women are necessarily "male-bodied." I'm not sure if that's what you were implying, of course, but it sort of sounded like it, so I thought I should say something just in case. I know a lot of trans women personally whose bodies don't look particularly "male" at all, and some of those bodies I have even, ahem, seen kinda close up (sorry for the TMI).

And yes. Radical feminists have a long tradition of saying trans women are rapists, even though they are hardly the only ones making the claim. Notorious radical feminist/piece of shit Janice Raymond (who just turned 70 years old today! Happy birthday Jan!) said in her book The Transsexual Empire: "All transsexuals rape women's bodies." That's is pretty much par for the course when it comes to radfems and their views of trans women, unfortunately.

I myself don't think "male and female bodies" are even black and white like that; there is considerable variation and overlap in general shape. What I meant by "male-bodied" was merely the possession of "male" genitals, as in the context of this topic.

Would appreciate some greater context for that miserable quote attributed to Janice Raymond, if there's anything on the internet. I've not read her or heard of her before.

[DancingEmma]

OK Tenka. . .in that case we basically see things eye-to-eye! I think that bodies and their many physical attributes--including genitalia--exist along various spectra, and the idea that bodies are objectively either "male" or "female" is a social construct.

***TRIGGER WARNING FOR TRANSMISOGYNY***

As for Janice Raymond! She is a radical lesbian feminist, and in the late 1970s she wrote a book called The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. The book basically said that trans women, who she usually referred to as "male transsexuals" are dupes of the the patriarchal medical establishment, paying tons of money to "mutilate" their bodies in a misguided attempt to escape from gender roles. And that in so doing, they actually make gender roles stronger, and they make a mockery of real women's bodies and "rape" them by nonconsensually taking something for themselves that isn't theirs, namely, the female form. And also that the transsexuals who claim to be lesbian feminists are invading women's spaces and the feminist movement and trying to take it over for themselves. Needless to say, it's all a bunch of a paranoid garbage, and I disagree with it very strongly and hate Janice Raymond with the fire of lots and lots of suns.

This wasn't just a shitty book though. It had an significant impact on the wider world. Raymond dedicated an entire section of her book to tearing apart a lesbian trans woman named Sandy Stone, who was a member of the all-woman Olivia Records music collective. As a result, a bunch of radfems launched a boycott of Olivia Records and said they wouldn't buy any more albums from their any of their artists while Sandy Stone was a part of the collective. As a result, Ms. Stone had to leave the collective to prevent the whole enterprise from going out of business.

Raymond's text was also part of the theoretical backdrop that influenced many feminists for an entire generation to be horrible transmisogynists. These feminists instituted policies in shelters for abused women that stated trans women couldn't access their services. This quite literally resulted in the deaths of countless trans women. Raymond's ideas have also been used to justify excluding trans women from medical care and excluding them from all sorts of women's spaces, including public accommodations such as restrooms.

So yeah. Basically, she's a massive tool and douchebag. Her other positions on sex work and so on are also almost uniformly shitty, just as a side note.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

To hel build awareness I posted your entry to my own blog: http://thequeerproject.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/lost-girls-transgender-fail/
Thank you! Much appreciated!

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

And yes. Radical feminists have a long tradition of saying trans women are rapists, even though they are hardly the only ones making the claim.
Or another radfem, Robin Morgan, who wanted to keep a trans woman singer from performing at a conference in the 1970s, saying the trans woman was "an opportunist, an infiltrator, and a destroyer--with the mentality of a rapist." Which is exactly how Lost Girl portrayed the trans woman character.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Sounds like lazy writing. It does make me think that, maybe, all that previously bi-positive writing was just a selling point in order to cater to a niche audience with 'progressive' social views. Of course, apparently not too progressive.
No, I think the bi-positive writing is genuine, but even people who are LGB-positive can have a blind spot where trans people are concerned.

[DancingEmma]

Or another radfem, Robin Morgan, who wanted to keep a trans woman singer from performing at a conference in the 1970s, saying the trans woman was "an opportunist, an infiltrator, and a destroyer--with the mentality of a rapist." Which is exactly how Lost Girl portrayed the trans woman character.

Yes. Beth Elliott. I'm familiar with that incident. :(

If I may be allowed to ramble a bit more. Feminism was one of the first forms of political theory and activism that I really got into. A lot of second-wave radfems were influential in my intellectual development: Adrienne Rich, Andrea Dworkin, Mary Daly. I even swallowed their line on issues like sex work at one time. And while I never hated on trans women, I bought into a lot of common cissexist prejudices, surely partly under the influence of these feminists' gender essentialist views. Anyway, it was really disappointing and shocking for me as I got older and learned more about the world--and then realized how many of the feminists I had admired had said and done things that were horribly transphobic, racist, and all other kinds of fucked up.

I think radfems' negative views on trans women both reflected the negative views of the broader society and further influenced the development of those views. This resulted in many oppressed women being further oppressed just for being transsexual--and sometimes even needlessly dying. I believe that as a feminist dyke revolutionary I have a personal responsibility to acknowledge the frequent destructiveness of my ideological tradition and make sure it changes going forward.