I'm frequently asked by friends both male and female, (who generally don't rock the boat or get involved in any kind of on or offline activism), why I don't just ignore trolls, why I "feed them" as it were.
I don't engage trolls to have any effect on the TROLLS. Unlike the trolls, I'm not an idiot. Whether it's an MRA being a sexist asshole, a TERF being an abusive transphobic twunt, a hyper conservative religious fundamentalist shitting on the chessboard, (500 points if you get the joke there), or just some juvenile loser being a douchebag for his own amusement, I KNOW that nothing I say or do will EVER, (barring one or two very rare exceptions), change the mind of the one trolling. I'm fully aware that nothing I say, no matter how rational, logical, factual and reasonable, will change what the trolls believe or make them stop being a dick.
I challenge them for the ones watching. The observers who aren't commenting but just reading. The ones who are sitting on the fence, who aren't well-versed or informed on the subject. When I see a troll spreading hateful lies and bullshit an uninformed fence sitter might mistake as fact, I call the troll out and rebuke their bullshit with facts. I tell the factual truth to counter their lies. I explain what feminism actually is, what misogyny means, who trans people actually are and the medical science behind it, and why a religious belief has no business dictating secular laws.
And I do it for the ones reading the exchange, who will see one person being a jerkass and see me calmly dissecting their claims, and hopefully learn both the truth from me, and how to spot a troll spreading hateful dishonesty.
And I know it works because I honestly cannot even COUNT how many times over the past nigh two decades someone has told me how informative I was and how much they learned that they didn't know before from reading my replies to trolls.
I engage the trolls so I can teach the audience. And it works. And if by responding trolls with facts and truth I can educate some good if naive people away from the hate and ignorance, then it's worth the abuse I have to wade through from the trolls to do it.
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
8/28/2014
9/09/2013
A Musing About Riddick and Rape Culture
Okay, so I've just finished watching Riddick. I'd been warned by friends and seen in various reviews that in the third act of the film Riddick does something that would likely upset me. I watched the movie anyway. And I feel a need to address what I've read and been told versus what I saw.
Spoilers below the jump.
Spoilers below the jump.
7/27/2010
The Predictable Tactics of Beaten Cowards
Crossposted on Pam's House Blend
UPDATE 2- Louis Marinelli has re-opened his blog, and, to his credit, realized how bad it looked to have wiped out hundreds of comments, especially ones that proved his bigotry and deception, and has replaced every single deleted comment unedited, including those which prove what he denies about his motives and actions. I'm a fair woman and will give credit where it's due. While I won't delete the parts of this blog entry about his deleting comments in the first place, because he DID do so, I wwill publicly commend Louis for finally showing he can be capable of honesty once in awhile.
***
No one with any modicum of intelligence and common sense believes the lies and distortions spread by the National Organization For Marriage and other allegedly civilized anti-equality groups like it. That's pretty much a given. I don't even need to point out all the abundance of proof out there that confirms the hypocrisy and bigotry that makes them all weepy whenever someone rightfully points it out and calls them bigots. Blogs all over the blogosphere have already dissected them in spades. Blogs like Good As You, Box Turtle Bulletin, Pam's House Blend, (which I occasionally cross-post to), and Holy Bullies & Headless Monsters all have numerous entries completely taking apart NOM's lies, fact-distortions, victim-claiming, and bullying. The evidence is out there.
No, THIS blog is about two specific big-time losers amonst the haters, who challenged me publicly, failed miserably, and tried desperately to spindoctor things to paint me as an emotional homofacsist who couldn't beat their arguments and resorted to screaming obscenities at them.
Of course since both men in question deleted major chunks of our conversation in history in their respective, (but far from respectable) blogs, they certainly can't prove that claim.
The two men, (and I use that term very loosely given their behavior), in question are self-proclaimed then vehemently denied NOM strategist Louis J Marinelli, and generally ignored and unheard of hate blogger and self-proclaimed hetero-separatist Carl Morris, AKA Mantronikk.
Both men are passionate bigots, hatemongers spreading fear through lies and distortions, both of whom swear up and down they aren't bigots or haters or liars but just good honest men fighting to protect traditional marriage from selfish gay folks. They don't HATE us mind you, they just expect us to believe their beliefs have more weight to define marriage law than true civil equality does.
I will pause for a moment while you all get your maniacal laughter under control.
...........................................
Okay, now that we've all laughed at the silly whining little bullies claims of persecution, let's get to the meat of things.
Both of these men have, in their arrogance, publicly challenged me, (why I don't know, Pam or Alvin or Timothy are FAR more famous and could get the little weasels a LOT more press than an obscure paegan blogger like me ever could), to a debate (Carl) and to prove dishonesty (Louis). Both men were convinced of their superiority. Both men failed, BIG time.
First of all, as I said in my update last night to my last blog entry, Carl proved very clearly, in his own words, on his own blog, and in the comments of said last blog entry of mine, that, while publicly challenging me to a mature intelligent debate over marriage equality, his only real goal was to attempt to goad me into screaming at him so he could dismiss me as a nutjob with no valid points.
He of course failed miserably. Instead of freaking out on him, I continued to post, calmly pointing out his hypocrisy, and telling him our debate was on hold until he apologised for unneccesary childish insults like "The She-Man of Hedon" and "The Shemale of Heroin", agree to keep the discussion civil, and I would happily continue the debate. Predictably he tried to twist this into me making excuses to flee the debate in tears because I couldn't refute any of his claims. I once again, on his blog, my blog, and even Louis' blog where Carl first issued the challenge, that I was more than happy to continue once he apologised, and that the debate was on hold only because of his refusal to do so.
Realizing that he could not bully me into playing his game his way, and that he was NOT going to get the big nutjob freakout he needed to discredit me, he posted a blog publicly admitting that he deleted my last three comments, citing my refusal to answer one of his deceitful questions, of course completely disavowing the whole part about me simply waiting for him to apologise, which included me PROMISING to answer that very question once he did so. Like a true collossal failure he honestly believes he beat me while being completely oblivious to how his VERY OWN WORDS prove his bigotry and his failure to even come close to challenging me, let alone beating me. As evidenced by his childish comment to Louis' blog last night.
He followed up with the even more delusional "I've already banned her from my blog. She's all about her emotions and false accusations and name-calling. I think I'm finally rid of her. ". Sorry Carl, but the facts and evidence prove otherwise.
On the subject of Louis' blog, you might notice the comments section in that screencap looks different. That would bge because Louis completely deleted his entire blog's ENTIRE COMMENT HISTORY and switched from the default Google/Blogspot comment system to Disqus.
Except as we all know, Louis isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and his attempts to censor and distort the truth often backfire on him. First of all, I'm hardly the only one who's pointed out the sudden mysterious disappearance of hundreds of comments that wipe the floor with Louis' failed lies and prove his deception and bigotry. Secondly, while he himself has not, and of course will never acknoweldge the deletion, or that any older comments ever existed, (I'll bet money he swears there were no comments on his blog ever prior to adding Dusqus if pressed for a comment), his lack of thorough thought has screwed him once again as it has so many times before.
Ironically, on a blog entry targetting me to begin with. And after deleting his blog's comment history, he predictably forgot to go back and edit THIS blog. Why is that important?
Because Louis used a screencap of one of my now-deleted comments to his blog, proving unequivicobly that comments against his lies did in fact exist prior to yesterday, and that he did in fact wipe them all out like a coward.
Oh and notice how in that first screencap a few paragraphs back how Louis admits, (though for fabricated reasons) that he can't wait to blacklist me? Yeah Louis, censorship is the biggest indicator of a coward. When you cannot with fact or logic refute the facts and logic used to counter your stance, a reasonable intelligent person adapts his stance to the facts. An unreasonable bullying coward distorts the facts until they suit his stance.
Carl, Louis, you are both unreasonable men. You have both been caught lying, and even better, like the idiots you sadly are, you yourselves both confirmed everything I say about you IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You've both publicly said things that, while in your delusional worlds were awesome witty dismissals of me, were in fact only successful in vindicating me and destroying your lies. You yourselves have caused your straw houses to crumble. And all I had to do was confront you with facts that you can't ignore or distort, and you both fell apart like Legos.
Anyone can just point at a hater and say "That is a hateful bigot". But when you can use brutal honesty to trick the haters into revealing their hate and bigotry plain as day in their own words, it's truly a beautiful thing.
Louis' credibility, while never very high to begin with, is now completely destroyed. And Carl's poorly planned attempt to discredit me and get some internet fame at my expense backfired horribly. Both men, through their very own words and actions, have proven them to be lying, dishonest, hateful homophobic bullies. And all I had to do was tell the truth to make them do so.
Louis believes all gay folks are polygamous pedophiles. Carl thinks all gays are facsists trying to destroy society. And both men claim they are neither liars, bigots nor hateful. Louis has tried to dismiss me by saying my marriage isn't real so he isn't obligated to answer marriage questions I ask him. Carl posted this bullshit in response to someone pointing out to him that he was in fact holding the debate hostage by demanding an answer in exchange for his apology.
"I wouldv'e been happy to have an adult debate with the delusions-of-grandeur-having "Shaman," until she spoke to me with contempt. I normally don't play these type of juvenile games, but I'm also not going to wear a tuxedo in a bar fight. The "Shaman" will not answer my SIMPLE question about someone teaching HER kids that homosexuality was wrong without her consent and seeks to distract me from that fact with false accusations of "bigotry" and "hatemongering" and a avalanche of words that still don't answer my simple question. I've gone out of my way to denounce hatred in my manifesto (click on the "h" to see it), the definition of a "heteroseparatist," and my logo, and the "Shaman" comes at me accusing me of hate. She's just mad that I was able to alter ONE letter of her lofty title and add a hyphen and collapse her huge ego. And the fact that she is definitely not a lipstick/feminine lesbian only added to the strength of my improvised-psychological-device. I'm done trying to get through to abusive homofascists, hence the creation of my word/website/blog/concept...heteroSEPARATIST. I don't want to fight anyone, but when I'm cornered and attacked, I'm going to really surprise my attacker".
And yet HIS OWN BLOG offers an abundance of proof that he is lying through his teeth. As I pointed out yesterday, he was juvenile and derogatory before the debate even began, and my so-called contempt was simply my brutal honesty dissecting his anti-gay claims. I suggest checking out the comments I left that he did put through and has yet to delete for proof of this.
But then what can you expect from a guy who cites Peter LaBarbera and his ilk as exoperts on homosexuality?
For the record, here is his definition of a Hetero-Separatist, as taken from his own website.
"heteroseparatist;
a: A person who rejects homofascism, homosexuality, and homophobia.
b: A person, entity, or organization that respectfully declines to associate with any or all divisions of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender community, but does not hate, fear, or persecute people that are GLBT.
c: A person who quietly shuns people and environments that are antihetero."
You know that sounds awfully familiar. Now where have I heard a statement like that before?
Sorry boys. You've both failed miserably, and you did so with your very own words and actions. And I'm still here, and I'm still an uppity lesbian, and I will still speak the truth whereever and whenever I can, and none of your lying or bullying or distortions will EVER shut me up.
The only way you will ever be rid of me is death. And even with a terminal illness, I am simply too goddamned stubborn to die.
Deal with it.
UPDATE 2- Louis Marinelli has re-opened his blog, and, to his credit, realized how bad it looked to have wiped out hundreds of comments, especially ones that proved his bigotry and deception, and has replaced every single deleted comment unedited, including those which prove what he denies about his motives and actions. I'm a fair woman and will give credit where it's due. While I won't delete the parts of this blog entry about his deleting comments in the first place, because he DID do so, I wwill publicly commend Louis for finally showing he can be capable of honesty once in awhile.
***
No one with any modicum of intelligence and common sense believes the lies and distortions spread by the National Organization For Marriage and other allegedly civilized anti-equality groups like it. That's pretty much a given. I don't even need to point out all the abundance of proof out there that confirms the hypocrisy and bigotry that makes them all weepy whenever someone rightfully points it out and calls them bigots. Blogs all over the blogosphere have already dissected them in spades. Blogs like Good As You, Box Turtle Bulletin, Pam's House Blend, (which I occasionally cross-post to), and Holy Bullies & Headless Monsters all have numerous entries completely taking apart NOM's lies, fact-distortions, victim-claiming, and bullying. The evidence is out there.
No, THIS blog is about two specific big-time losers amonst the haters, who challenged me publicly, failed miserably, and tried desperately to spindoctor things to paint me as an emotional homofacsist who couldn't beat their arguments and resorted to screaming obscenities at them.
Of course since both men in question deleted major chunks of our conversation in history in their respective, (but far from respectable) blogs, they certainly can't prove that claim.
The two men, (and I use that term very loosely given their behavior), in question are self-proclaimed then vehemently denied NOM strategist Louis J Marinelli, and generally ignored and unheard of hate blogger and self-proclaimed hetero-separatist Carl Morris, AKA Mantronikk.
Both men are passionate bigots, hatemongers spreading fear through lies and distortions, both of whom swear up and down they aren't bigots or haters or liars but just good honest men fighting to protect traditional marriage from selfish gay folks. They don't HATE us mind you, they just expect us to believe their beliefs have more weight to define marriage law than true civil equality does.
I will pause for a moment while you all get your maniacal laughter under control.
...........................................
Okay, now that we've all laughed at the silly whining little bullies claims of persecution, let's get to the meat of things.
Both of these men have, in their arrogance, publicly challenged me, (why I don't know, Pam or Alvin or Timothy are FAR more famous and could get the little weasels a LOT more press than an obscure paegan blogger like me ever could), to a debate (Carl) and to prove dishonesty (Louis). Both men were convinced of their superiority. Both men failed, BIG time.
First of all, as I said in my update last night to my last blog entry, Carl proved very clearly, in his own words, on his own blog, and in the comments of said last blog entry of mine, that, while publicly challenging me to a mature intelligent debate over marriage equality, his only real goal was to attempt to goad me into screaming at him so he could dismiss me as a nutjob with no valid points.
He of course failed miserably. Instead of freaking out on him, I continued to post, calmly pointing out his hypocrisy, and telling him our debate was on hold until he apologised for unneccesary childish insults like "The She-Man of Hedon" and "The Shemale of Heroin", agree to keep the discussion civil, and I would happily continue the debate. Predictably he tried to twist this into me making excuses to flee the debate in tears because I couldn't refute any of his claims. I once again, on his blog, my blog, and even Louis' blog where Carl first issued the challenge, that I was more than happy to continue once he apologised, and that the debate was on hold only because of his refusal to do so.
Realizing that he could not bully me into playing his game his way, and that he was NOT going to get the big nutjob freakout he needed to discredit me, he posted a blog publicly admitting that he deleted my last three comments, citing my refusal to answer one of his deceitful questions, of course completely disavowing the whole part about me simply waiting for him to apologise, which included me PROMISING to answer that very question once he did so. Like a true collossal failure he honestly believes he beat me while being completely oblivious to how his VERY OWN WORDS prove his bigotry and his failure to even come close to challenging me, let alone beating me. As evidenced by his childish comment to Louis' blog last night.
He followed up with the even more delusional "I've already banned her from my blog. She's all about her emotions and false accusations and name-calling. I think I'm finally rid of her. ". Sorry Carl, but the facts and evidence prove otherwise.
On the subject of Louis' blog, you might notice the comments section in that screencap looks different. That would bge because Louis completely deleted his entire blog's ENTIRE COMMENT HISTORY and switched from the default Google/Blogspot comment system to Disqus.
Except as we all know, Louis isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and his attempts to censor and distort the truth often backfire on him. First of all, I'm hardly the only one who's pointed out the sudden mysterious disappearance of hundreds of comments that wipe the floor with Louis' failed lies and prove his deception and bigotry. Secondly, while he himself has not, and of course will never acknoweldge the deletion, or that any older comments ever existed, (I'll bet money he swears there were no comments on his blog ever prior to adding Dusqus if pressed for a comment), his lack of thorough thought has screwed him once again as it has so many times before.
Ironically, on a blog entry targetting me to begin with. And after deleting his blog's comment history, he predictably forgot to go back and edit THIS blog. Why is that important?
Because Louis used a screencap of one of my now-deleted comments to his blog, proving unequivicobly that comments against his lies did in fact exist prior to yesterday, and that he did in fact wipe them all out like a coward.
Oh and notice how in that first screencap a few paragraphs back how Louis admits, (though for fabricated reasons) that he can't wait to blacklist me? Yeah Louis, censorship is the biggest indicator of a coward. When you cannot with fact or logic refute the facts and logic used to counter your stance, a reasonable intelligent person adapts his stance to the facts. An unreasonable bullying coward distorts the facts until they suit his stance.
Carl, Louis, you are both unreasonable men. You have both been caught lying, and even better, like the idiots you sadly are, you yourselves both confirmed everything I say about you IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You've both publicly said things that, while in your delusional worlds were awesome witty dismissals of me, were in fact only successful in vindicating me and destroying your lies. You yourselves have caused your straw houses to crumble. And all I had to do was confront you with facts that you can't ignore or distort, and you both fell apart like Legos.
Anyone can just point at a hater and say "That is a hateful bigot". But when you can use brutal honesty to trick the haters into revealing their hate and bigotry plain as day in their own words, it's truly a beautiful thing.
Louis' credibility, while never very high to begin with, is now completely destroyed. And Carl's poorly planned attempt to discredit me and get some internet fame at my expense backfired horribly. Both men, through their very own words and actions, have proven them to be lying, dishonest, hateful homophobic bullies. And all I had to do was tell the truth to make them do so.
Louis believes all gay folks are polygamous pedophiles. Carl thinks all gays are facsists trying to destroy society. And both men claim they are neither liars, bigots nor hateful. Louis has tried to dismiss me by saying my marriage isn't real so he isn't obligated to answer marriage questions I ask him. Carl posted this bullshit in response to someone pointing out to him that he was in fact holding the debate hostage by demanding an answer in exchange for his apology.
"I wouldv'e been happy to have an adult debate with the delusions-of-grandeur-having "Shaman," until she spoke to me with contempt. I normally don't play these type of juvenile games, but I'm also not going to wear a tuxedo in a bar fight. The "Shaman" will not answer my SIMPLE question about someone teaching HER kids that homosexuality was wrong without her consent and seeks to distract me from that fact with false accusations of "bigotry" and "hatemongering" and a avalanche of words that still don't answer my simple question. I've gone out of my way to denounce hatred in my manifesto (click on the "h" to see it), the definition of a "heteroseparatist," and my logo, and the "Shaman" comes at me accusing me of hate. She's just mad that I was able to alter ONE letter of her lofty title and add a hyphen and collapse her huge ego. And the fact that she is definitely not a lipstick/feminine lesbian only added to the strength of my improvised-psychological-device. I'm done trying to get through to abusive homofascists, hence the creation of my word/website/blog/concept...heteroSEPARATIST. I don't want to fight anyone, but when I'm cornered and attacked, I'm going to really surprise my attacker".
And yet HIS OWN BLOG offers an abundance of proof that he is lying through his teeth. As I pointed out yesterday, he was juvenile and derogatory before the debate even began, and my so-called contempt was simply my brutal honesty dissecting his anti-gay claims. I suggest checking out the comments I left that he did put through and has yet to delete for proof of this.
But then what can you expect from a guy who cites Peter LaBarbera and his ilk as exoperts on homosexuality?
For the record, here is his definition of a Hetero-Separatist, as taken from his own website.
"heteroseparatist;
a: A person who rejects homofascism, homosexuality, and homophobia.
b: A person, entity, or organization that respectfully declines to associate with any or all divisions of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender community, but does not hate, fear, or persecute people that are GLBT.
c: A person who quietly shuns people and environments that are antihetero."
You know that sounds awfully familiar. Now where have I heard a statement like that before?
Sorry boys. You've both failed miserably, and you did so with your very own words and actions. And I'm still here, and I'm still an uppity lesbian, and I will still speak the truth whereever and whenever I can, and none of your lying or bullying or distortions will EVER shut me up.
The only way you will ever be rid of me is death. And even with a terminal illness, I am simply too goddamned stubborn to die.
Deal with it.
3/21/2010
Looking For Clouds In A Silver Lining
EDIT 04/24/2010 - I have since seen the actual film and am utterly horrified by much of it. But i stand by my opinion that we can use it to our advantage as a tool to teach people what NOT to believe about us. Therefore i'll leave this blog entry as is, with this added note that i think isreal luna is a fucking hateful little moron and needs his ass kicked.
************************************************************************************
Yesterday, on Twitter, my friend Autumn Sandeem from the always effervescent blog Pam's House Blend brought a movie trailer that she found horrifying and offensive to my attention. Video below.
Now, I love Autumn and she is a very smart cookie, but I look at this movie trailer and think something completely different than she does. Autumn's complaints are as follows.
- The film looks to be exploitative and trashy
- It potrays Trans Stereotypes
- It trivializes real trans violence
- Using real trans murder victims in the marketing is offensive
Now a lot of my trans sisters have openly admitted to being awed by my ability to stay positive about my hope for the world regarding trans issues when we still get so much shit just for being us, but I watched this trailer and I saw something completely different, and I'd like to take this time to explain to all my trans sisters why I think this movie is a good thing and should be supported and celebrated actively, not shunned and villified.
First of all, yes it's trashy and exploitative. It's an Homage to trashy sexploitation revenge movies from the 70's. It bloody SAYS so. But that's a good thing. Because the audience for cheesy trash like this is generally made up of cis folks who otherwise wouldn't pay much attention to trans issues. Seriously, do you know how many men realized how evil rape really is after watching I Spit On Your Grave? This is EXACTLY the kind of subversive message movie that changes minds. People who watch this movie will subtly be persuaded as they watch it how wrong transphobic violence is.
As for using the names of real trans murder victims in the trailer. This too is a GOOD thing. Why? Because at least half of the people watching this who aren't Trans are going to be curious about those names. Some guy for example who's never really been exposed to news about Transphobic violence, will see Angie Zapata's name and get curious. So he's going to go and Google her and read about an innocent vibrant young woman who was brutally murdered by a bigoted asshole who targeted her just for being different. He's going to read statements from her mother and siblings tearfully lamenting what that asshole stole from them.
He's going to learn about a real flesh and blood three dimensional young woman whose loss has hurt people and he's going to be horrified and he'll learn to be more sensitive to trans people.
That is a GOOD thing.
I'd also like to point out, however trashy this movie is going to be, the trailer makes it a point to call the acts it draws from, and the attack in the movie that sets up the revenge plot, HATE-CRIMES. It's not whitewashing it. It's not for a moment suggesting we deserve it. It never comes CLOSE to saying "These people are freaks and it's okay to hurt them".
No this trailer is saying "These women are going to go get revenge on some hateful douchebags who hurt them just because they were different".
Another point I'd like to bring up is that while, yes, most of the ladies starring in this movie look like drag queens, there's still diversity here. There's a fat one, there are a few different races among them, and a few of them just look like plain average women. The one who got hospitalized and comatose for example, NOWHERE in the trailer, even once she dresses to kill so to sopeak, does she ever look like any "tranny" stereotype. She always just looks like a woman, period.
I DO understand why some of my sisters hsave a problem with this movie, but I honestly think they're looking at this all wrong. This movie is a HUGE opportunity, if we react to it right.
Instead of screaming "TRASH! STEREOTYPES! EXPLOITATION!", which will just make a lot of people tune us out, here's what we all SHOULD be doing.
Support this movie. Get it played as often as possible to as many audiences as you can reach. And BOOKEND the movie. Explain what this movie gets right about us and then close with a Q & A. This movie WILL make people more curious about our real lives, and it WILL make a lot of people more open to seeing us as worthwhile and deserving of respect.
The truth is, the loud hateful bullies are NOT as numerous as you think. You just see more of them because they ARE loud. Most cis people don't hate us, they just don't understand us, and no one is educating them about us in a way that they can relate to. This movie will open that door for a LOT of people, and instead of screaming about how the door itself is decorated, we should be the concierge, showing people through that door and helping them to a comfortable table.
This is a situation we can use to our benefit. Kneejerk reactions to the trashy stuff won't help any of us in the long run.
For now let's just help as many people as we can through that door. You can complain about the paintjob later.
************************************************************************************
Yesterday, on Twitter, my friend Autumn Sandeem from the always effervescent blog Pam's House Blend brought a movie trailer that she found horrifying and offensive to my attention. Video below.
Now, I love Autumn and she is a very smart cookie, but I look at this movie trailer and think something completely different than she does. Autumn's complaints are as follows.
- The film looks to be exploitative and trashy
- It potrays Trans Stereotypes
- It trivializes real trans violence
- Using real trans murder victims in the marketing is offensive
Now a lot of my trans sisters have openly admitted to being awed by my ability to stay positive about my hope for the world regarding trans issues when we still get so much shit just for being us, but I watched this trailer and I saw something completely different, and I'd like to take this time to explain to all my trans sisters why I think this movie is a good thing and should be supported and celebrated actively, not shunned and villified.
First of all, yes it's trashy and exploitative. It's an Homage to trashy sexploitation revenge movies from the 70's. It bloody SAYS so. But that's a good thing. Because the audience for cheesy trash like this is generally made up of cis folks who otherwise wouldn't pay much attention to trans issues. Seriously, do you know how many men realized how evil rape really is after watching I Spit On Your Grave? This is EXACTLY the kind of subversive message movie that changes minds. People who watch this movie will subtly be persuaded as they watch it how wrong transphobic violence is.
As for using the names of real trans murder victims in the trailer. This too is a GOOD thing. Why? Because at least half of the people watching this who aren't Trans are going to be curious about those names. Some guy for example who's never really been exposed to news about Transphobic violence, will see Angie Zapata's name and get curious. So he's going to go and Google her and read about an innocent vibrant young woman who was brutally murdered by a bigoted asshole who targeted her just for being different. He's going to read statements from her mother and siblings tearfully lamenting what that asshole stole from them.
He's going to learn about a real flesh and blood three dimensional young woman whose loss has hurt people and he's going to be horrified and he'll learn to be more sensitive to trans people.
That is a GOOD thing.
I'd also like to point out, however trashy this movie is going to be, the trailer makes it a point to call the acts it draws from, and the attack in the movie that sets up the revenge plot, HATE-CRIMES. It's not whitewashing it. It's not for a moment suggesting we deserve it. It never comes CLOSE to saying "These people are freaks and it's okay to hurt them".
No this trailer is saying "These women are going to go get revenge on some hateful douchebags who hurt them just because they were different".
Another point I'd like to bring up is that while, yes, most of the ladies starring in this movie look like drag queens, there's still diversity here. There's a fat one, there are a few different races among them, and a few of them just look like plain average women. The one who got hospitalized and comatose for example, NOWHERE in the trailer, even once she dresses to kill so to sopeak, does she ever look like any "tranny" stereotype. She always just looks like a woman, period.
I DO understand why some of my sisters hsave a problem with this movie, but I honestly think they're looking at this all wrong. This movie is a HUGE opportunity, if we react to it right.
Instead of screaming "TRASH! STEREOTYPES! EXPLOITATION!", which will just make a lot of people tune us out, here's what we all SHOULD be doing.
Support this movie. Get it played as often as possible to as many audiences as you can reach. And BOOKEND the movie. Explain what this movie gets right about us and then close with a Q & A. This movie WILL make people more curious about our real lives, and it WILL make a lot of people more open to seeing us as worthwhile and deserving of respect.
The truth is, the loud hateful bullies are NOT as numerous as you think. You just see more of them because they ARE loud. Most cis people don't hate us, they just don't understand us, and no one is educating them about us in a way that they can relate to. This movie will open that door for a LOT of people, and instead of screaming about how the door itself is decorated, we should be the concierge, showing people through that door and helping them to a comfortable table.
This is a situation we can use to our benefit. Kneejerk reactions to the trashy stuff won't help any of us in the long run.
For now let's just help as many people as we can through that door. You can complain about the paintjob later.
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