B.G.M. on Respectability Politics through Misgendering and Victim Shaming

B.G.M. on Respectability Politics through Misgendering and Victim Shaming

I hate respectability politics! This will be a running theme on my blog because respectability politics impacts how we view and relate with each other.

One way that we often see respectability politics in the media is when they describe individuals involved in incidents.  For example, yesterday in Fort Meade, Maryland there was a shooting at the National Security Agency.  The NSA police fired at a car that was reportedly stolen from a man partying at a nearby hotel.  The individuals involved in the shooting were described as “two men dressed in women’s clothing.”

It has been learned that one of the individuals, was not “a man in a dress” but a transgender woman.

However, after this realization several major media outlets continue to describe, Mya Hall, as “a man in a dress” and mention the fact that Hall had a prior criminal history.

Now, let me be clear, I am not condoning criminal activity. I am not suggesting that people should disobey the orders of law enforcement. What I am suggesting is that respectability politics is being used to demonize someone who cannot defend themselves, and has a bigger impact of demonizing the transgender community and more specific transgender people of color. 

Mya Hall has been identified by a member of the transgender community as being a transgender woman.  Therefore, media outlets should take the journalistic responsibility of characterizing her correctly. Misgendering is a form of respectability politics because it demeans who the transgender community is and delegitimizes their identity.

Also, there is no need to bring up a person’s past criminal behavior, especially if they do not have the ability to defend themselves. Often times when this is done by the media it is a way to devalue the person by characterizing them as a criminal and therefore worthy of punishment or death.

We have seen this same victim shaming in the cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and many others who were killed by law enforcement. Instead of these individuals being seen as victims, any type of prior bad act is used to then characterize them as “less than perfect” and therefore not worthy of being viewed as “innocent” or a victim of a crime.

Once again, I am not condoning illegal activity. However, what I am suggesting is that we get away from the respectability politics that we use against each other in order to delegitimize each other’s humanity. Instead, let’s look at the facts of the case before we judge.

In Mya Hall’s case, we do not know what happened before she and her fellow passenger got into the car. We do not know what lead them to the NSA. They could have been in fear for their lives.  What we do know is that Mya Hall is dead. As such, she deserves to be addressed correctly and treated as an individual who has die, instead of being misgendered and characterized as a deviant criminal.

Just my take,

The BGM