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!