(20-05-2014 01:12 )JuanKerr Wrote: [W]hat have the last few pages taught us? That not everyone who is turned off by shemales is a homophobe?
Without wanting to fire up again a discussion we're all getting bored of, this middle 'lesson' (expressed as one of those rhetorical questions again!) is too loaded to leave to stand, as is. Yeah, another arid essay comin' up, sorry!
'Transphobia' (homophobia specifically directed at transgenders) finds expression in the same range of negative responses that other forms of homophobia do ("antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion or hatred"). While I'm not claiming it's impossible for someone to be 'turned off' by shemales
not to be categorised as homophobic, it's hard to imagine a single homophobe existing who would ever be, of their own volition, remotely passively accepting of shemales, much less ever (publicly!) admit to being
turned on by one, and so, if you see yourself as non-homophobic but choose to keep giving voice to your 'turned-offness' unbidden, you're going to leave yourself in a tricky position.
The best way to show you're non-transphobic is to demonstrate ongoing tolerance and acceptance of their right to be featured on a show along with non-shemales. Any dissent shown in the form of disparagement, however mildly worded or implicit or oblique, generally aimed at shemales as a gender sub-genre, or aimed at them by proxy, via antipathy shown towards their supporters, whether 'active' or 'passive,' is always going to be leave itself open to being construable as homophobic.
If you try to turn this into a 'battle,' negative comments about shemales will be seen, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, as trying to assert the 'rightness' of heteronormative behaviour and attitudes; i.e. a form of homophobia (discrimination based on disgust or fear or a misplaced, overarching feeling that heterosexual norms should be the dominant ones - which often takes the form of the 'breeders' argument' when homophobic people with religious convictions wade in!).
Better to incorporate tolerance of shemales within a more general stand for inclusivity and variety. Or, to put it more cheekily, while
(20-05-2014 01:12 )JuanKerr Wrote: we should all take more of a 'couldn't give a fuck' attitude towards other people's sexual preferences[,]
it's incumbent upon those sailing close to the wind of transphobia to be seen to be giving less of a fuck than those who have been seen to be openly shemale accepting!
You summoned the spectre of racism earlier, Juan. If anyone had expressed views and allusions about the ethnic background or however you want to phrase it of a performer or number of performers, in ways similar to those used by some in this thread to express their antagonism towards the presence of shemales on the shows, there would be no grounds for a debate.