Monarch Fall 2015

Foundations of Trans Misogyny
By Roxanne Mariscova
bober.rm@gmail.com
Misogyny, according to the
Merriam-Webster online
dictionary,means a hatred of
women. Its first known use was
circa 1656. Applied to the
transgender community, it means
hatred of transwomen. Without
any disrespect to the experiences
of transmen, the peculiar
circumstance of transwomen are
worth serious thought. In Whipping Girl, Julia Serano uncovers
the foundations of this cultural attitude by her remark that men
and women may be considered equal, but masculinity and
femininity certainly are not. A little reflection unwraps the
underlying assumptions.
For the transwoman however, even her first assertion remains
in question. Statistics quickly demonstrate that society generally
does not regard a transwoman as equal, or even human. There
have been 19 murders of transwomen so far this year. That’s one
every two weeks. A generally accepted statistic indicates that
murder is the cause of death for 1 in 12 transgender persons, 1 in
8 for a transwoman of color. By comparison, the death rate for
our bloodiest conflict, the American Civil War,was 1 soldier in
15. In 49 of 50 states Trans Panic remains a legitimate defense
for murder.
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