what media coverage of online "transvestigators" & the Imane Khelif ordeal get wrong

Hi everyone, I just published a brand new essay: Why Does "Transvestigation" Happen? On Gendering, Ungendering, and (Mis)Perceiving Trans People! 

I have read and viewed numerous solid articles and videos about both the online "Transvestigator" communities that focus on ungendering celebrities, and the recent JK Rowling/Elon Musk/Fox News ungendering and harassment of Olympian Imane Khelif. But I worry that they set up a false dichotomy, where these groups are imagined to view gender “abnormally” or “incorrectly,” while the rest of us who are not in these groups (including the majority of cis people) supposedly perceive gender and trans people “normally” or “correctly.” 

And frankly, nothing could be further from the truth! 

So this essay is a deep-dive into how we (mis)perceive & (mis)interpret trans people and gender more generally. It draws from research I carried out and insights I forwarded in my books Whipping Girl and Sexed Up. It is a "long-read", but I believe it communicates many aspects and nuances of this story that most people are currently overlooking. You can read it at:

Medium (friend link): https://juliaserano.medium.com/why-does-transvestigation-happen-d2c19847afb9?sk=dfabc9bd0962eaab89b54d03097cee28

or Substack (no paywall): https://juliaserano.substack.com/p/why-does-transvestigation-happen

As always, please share widely and give it lots of claps and likes and such! 

my Medium Day talk on Debates About Gender-Affirming Care and Trans Youth

Happy to announce that I will be giving a virtual talk this Saturday, August 17, 2024, at 2–2:30pm Eastern time (11–11:30am Pacific) as part of Medium Day – you can register (for free) to watch it & the many other talks they have at mediumday.com.

My talk is entitled Making Sense of Debates About Gender-Affirming Care and Trans Youth. In it, I will highlight the unconscious biases, unstated presumptions, and the underlying forces and dynamics that are driving the ongoing moral panic about this issue. Hopefully, the talk will provide audiences who are relatively new to this subject with the necessary background to make sense of these debates.

Since there is far too much to say about this subject, I made the above Resource Page, which includes links to over a dozen essays I've written related to this issue over the last 8 years. You can read it (no paywall) on Medium (at the link above) or on Substack. Please share widely and give it lots of claps and likes and such! 

I'm very proud of to have finally compiled all my writings on this important subject in one place, so that I (and perhaps you) can readily share it with others who have questions or concerns!

As always, this resource page was made possible by my Patreon supporters  – if you appreciate that I make pieces like this freely available online, please consider supporting me there!