Violence, is not acceptable in any form to anyone. When I created this site I had the idea that it would be a place to let others know about how my transition was going. Over time a few things have changed to the point that I was not really prepared for the amount of wonderful people that I met on a regular basis. So many from so many different social and economical backgrounds. I have been treated so beautifully by so many that when something like violence happens it is a real shock. Last night when I could not sleep I started to read some sites that I read on a regular basis. I was confronted by a story were the 13th Transwoman in the US was murdered. I can say I am very lucky in my life that the few overtly attacks on my issues of being Trans have been simplistic and not to a point where I feared for my safety since leaving our home 2 years ago.
But I wanted to draw attention to the unprepared for violence that we as Transwomen will experience in our Journey. I started to think that the numbers of 13 in 6 months is a shocker. But then I hit me that we might be missing a hidden violence and not one that is directed towards Transwomen as a whole. This form of violence we could not ever be really ready for. There is no training or protection classes that we can take to protect ourselves from. It is even a violence that is being ignored by the Media and the Governments.
This violence is directed towards women as a whole. When we Transwomen step out of the shadows we need to understand that we are going to be entering a “Man’s” world for a horrible term – sorry. But we are most of the violence that women experience is from men. As Transwomen we are telling the world we do not accept the socail construct that we are “Men” and we have always felt different. We start to look at what we do feel like and that structure and design is that of the “Female” gender. In doing so we need to understand that we are going to be doing this in a society that currently accepts violence towards women. Mayim Bialik, yes the woman from The Big Bang Theory and other shows as well as a Phd. Addresses a lot of the hidden violence that women face everyday. Her YouTube channel that I linked in her name is a great place to review what I am talking about.
Transwomen need to understand that not all violence is directed towards us because we are Trans. In fact we need to take a deeper look into the realm of what women face everyday. It sould not be a shocker that we might not get a job because not only we are Trans we need to look at the fact it might even be part of the hidden violence towards women as a whole. That a large amount of men look and act as if women are below them and now you have willingly entered into this social group / construct. We have are then in some mens eyes equally available for said violence coupled with the hatered of us for giving up the “Male” privlidge. Yes, I understand that a small minority of this voilence might come from the hands of other women. But we must look at the fact that Cis-women also have to face the truth of that as well.
What is the solution i really don’t know….I know that does sound bad but this is the point where we must start to trust in the hands of strong Cis-women who are currently fighting for their fundimental rights and the right not to be abused by anyone at anytime. We must start to actively stand with them in their fight after all their win is our win aqs well. If we have children we need to start to turn off the TV and turn on our brains. Only show shows and movies where women are Strongly portrayed in positive ways. This does not just mean Wonder Woman or Super Woman / Girl. We need to allow our child to watch shows where women like Bailik are protrayed as Super Women! Then and only then will we start supporting the real change that needs to take place.
If you ever hear that intellectualism is of the Devil. Throw a book at them, and tell them to read it and then tell them that thanks to an Intellectual they can read something that was written in the first place.
