mermaidofspace:

unsanitarycontemplations:

mermaidofspace: kutekweer: This bothers me SO MUCH that they refer to Chelsea Manning by the wrong name. some put a u tried sticker on this Let’s talk about intended audience, shall we?



This cartoon is intended to communicate an idea to white cissexual readers who may be largely ignorant of proper pronoun use.



The comic itself is concise and delivers the proper message. Semantics should be a secondary concern.

Okay really? Like maybe with the other comic we discussed that case could be made, but here’s the problem with “intended” audience: It will never reflect the actual audience that takes this. Because even if it was just for white cis people (because poc can’t be transmisogynistic??) it’s not like the comic is somehow magically invisible to people who aren’t in that group. If all representations and discussions of trans women in the media are problematic (and trust me, the vast majority are) then to have the “good” folks still actually be pretty disrespectful is just really painful. Chelsea Manning deserves better. Trans women deserve better.

Now, the intended message is nice. “Look at these douchebags! They need to be educated!” but it also implies that the OP has already been educated when clearly they did not do so properly. And there is no reason why the first two panels had to mention Manning’s old name. It is not like we would be confused about which PFC Manning who revealed war crimes we’re talking about. (If they want to present the douchebags as misgendering her that’s a separate story, clearly these two are to be mocked for being blatant transmisogynists… though I wonder if the comic creator even knows that term.)

If trans women have to choose between the bad people who want them dead and “good” people who still can’t avoid using their birth name and birth-assigned pronouns than we really haven’t created any space where they can feel safe enough to come out. I think we can do better.