We’ve all heard about trans women and their struggles with trying to fit in our society. They’ve always felt unwelcome and perceived to be unusual which may not make sense to most of us but that does not change it. We have all talked about these topics and want change but have never done anything about it.
It’s always about what is happening and what is wrong and never about what is being done to diminish it. It has always been enormously difficult for me to believe that even today, we live in a world where people are judged on the basis of their decisions and for the way they chose to live their life. Trans women are also women and deserve to live normally just like every other human being.
How Trans women are hated on;
Trans women have always been hated on for various reasons, some painful ways are;
Trans-phobia, as Wikipedia defines it is,”a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Trans-phobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence, anger, or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to social gender expectations”, which inevitably invites hate speech and prejudices that not only harms trans women but also basic humanity.
Trans phobia is just another type of discrimination, very similar to racism and sexism and is mostly experienced by people who are strong enough to speak up about their reality only to make sure they don’t do it ever again.
“Trans-misogyny is the confluence of Trans phobia and misogyny” in an article on Trans-misogyny by BWSS titled ‘Trans misogyny 101’– which is also defined as hate speech and actions against the female gender to make it look like every other gender but female, is superior. This does not mean that trans women don’t fall prey to these unethical actions, trans women, more than any other gender experience such crimes and have to deal with these issues on an everyday basis.
Trans misogyny is an another form of tearing women down, if not worse because it also focuses on trans women and not just cis women.
“Similar to the experiences of non-transgender women vying for equal rights, transgender women experience dramatic disparities in civil liberties, legal protections, and cultural equity.” in an article by ‘The Affirmative Couch’ titled as ‘Trans women ARE Women’.
Trans women not only have to go through hate speech and actions but also live unsupported and walk out of public washrooms without even using them, simply because of people’s lack of understanding. It is not something we could imagine going through, it involves so much pain and almost feels like a mistake, which in reality, it isn’t.
Not just basic discrimination, trans women also have to go through problems that non-trans women have been going through since ages, such as;
Unequal PayNon-trans or trans women experiencing this issue simply does not make sense as we’re entitled to our rights and equal pay for the same work done my men or women is simple common sense.
Human rights should also be considered as basic necessity for trans women, as they most definitely fall under the category of ‘Humans’.
Sexual ViolenceWomen since ages have experienced many atrocious crimes and sexual violence definitely tops the list. It’s extremely upsetting to hear about crimes that have such hideous depths to them and the very fact that it all revolves around women.
Hate CrimesIt is no surprise to us all that women also fall victims to hate speech/hate crimes. Long before women knew Feminism, women have always been treated in the most petrifying way and what’s worse is that it still continues, even after tremendous efforts being made, over all these years to annihilate these practices, and we still continue to fight against them.
Trans women in India and their experiences:
There are of course, many trans women in our country that have experienced being mistreated and rigorously judged.
In an Interview with Tista Das, Founder, SRS Solutions, she spoke about how her parents found her desire to be women a ‘disorder’ and proceeded to have her given six electric shocks to cure it. She also spoke how she always wanted to be a woman and felt weird when she was forced to use the men’s toilet.
Nishtha Nishant, a researcher, in an interview said that no matter what her capability held, she always felt discriminated from others. There were times when she had to face rejection solely because of her gender and was never able to use women’s restroom at her work place.
Nishtha Nishant tells us what’s it like to be a transgender in India? – https://youtu.be/X4bIXqu1dXw
Manabi Bandyopadhyay, suffered from emotional and physical abuse by her own family and was suspended from her college only because she refused to behave heterosexual. She is now the principal at Krishnagar Women’s College in the eastern state of West Bengal.
What can be done to prevent this:
We humans have to understand that misogyny or any hate that is shared against women is not a disease but a choice and a thought process which can be corrected by us and only us, for it has been developed in the society, by us. A step towards changing people’s mindset or even upgrading it with new updates requires understanding from not just the information seeker but also the deliverer. It requires time and patience and also the will to change for the better, which here, completely depends on the person accepting the factual knowledge.
Almost all of us have come from women and yet we find women being assaulted and mistreated in almost all parts of the world. This is found disheartening by not just me but also every other woman in the world. Having to go through disastrous challenges every single day is beyond exhausting and needs to be stopped, immediately.
An attentive conversation with utmost solidarity is the key to more people understanding and supporting women, trans women and every other gender there is, because valuing humanity is above all.
Starting to have conversations at a family level would help vastly. Teaching kids about sex and Lgbtqa+ community will not only help in breaking down the stigma but also help in making sure that these topics don’t stay under the ’taboo’ blanket. These topics were never meant to be a ‘secret’, they were MADE a secret and that needs to change. Starting with kids and slowly making sure that people of all age groups respect this as an unchangeable fact will definitely solve a large amount of such problems that shouldn’t even be called problems in the first place.
Conclusion
It is for us to understand that men, women, trans men, trans women or be it any other gender, we’re all standing here as humans and need to value everything that comes with us. Violation of basic Human rights by simply standing against a gender or committing a crime against it is not how we’re all going to achieve the greater success, world peace.
Every gender stands equal and deserves to be respected. Any action against any of the genders is simple foolishness and requires rigorous correcting if not, punishing.
