The Trans Agenda: Hands Off My Body

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Oct 30

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Have you ever felt the chilling embrace of a stranger’s grip around your waist as they not-so-inconspicuously pass by you in a club?

What about the unpleasant experience of having some drunken show-goer explore your body with their hands, under the impression that you are simply there to be touched on or gawked at?

Have you ever been made to feel like a trinket on a shelf, or a novelty toy, or a frou-frou play-thing by people who just can’t seem to keep their paws off of you?

These are things I experience most, if not all, of the time when I go out in public. As a six-foot-five glamazon with legs all the way up to my--well, you know the rest--it’s very common for people to feel entitled to my personal space. I am often invaded upon or picked at, like a frog in an adolescent’s dissection kit. My body is, quite literally, an easy target. There’s something very inviting about the presence of a towering individual that people can’t seem to get enough of. Tack on the role of being a performer, or the mere fact of me being a woman, and it’s game over.

I am constantly on display when I enter public spaces, but it’s not just statuesque beauties who experience this type of behavior. As I jokingly type these self-aggrandizing statements, I can’t help but recall that these are excuses I’ve been given for having my body infringed upon. Many trans people are made to feel like we have little-to-no agency over our bodies when we are out. We are, in a word, stripped of our ability to go unnoticed, and untouched, due to a societal fascination with trans bodies.

A lot of this behavior stems from the idea that trans people, and trans women in particular, are objects of desire. We are “asking for it” when we are in public, regardless of if we are wearing revealing clothing or not. We are “begging for attention,” despite our best efforts to blend into the background. Add to it the notion that “trans women aren’t even real women to begin with,” and you will hear the rhetoric that we should be so lucky to be disrespected in the way that our cis counterparts are. The sheer idea of us being is taken as encouragement, an invitation, or a challenge. But this is not a highschool biology class. We are not frogs to be peeled open and violated.

Take your pre-school teacher’s advice: keep your hands to yourself! Unless it’s consensual, of course. :)

Watch as I talk more about this topic in the newest installment of the Trans Agenda.

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Ivana Fischer is the Culture Editor of WUSSY and a film and media enthusiast who specializes in cultural studies. You can find her across all socials @iv.fischer

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