Allison Williams

9/17/21

GWS 100

Section 170W

Introduction of my response to Rayomah Williams’ snapshot

I agree with the snapshot that Rayomah provided for this class because of many people in society who are androgynous get harassed everyday for their appearance due to the way they dressed using a combination of both masculine and feminine fashion to address themselves with the pronouns as “they/them” instead of their true gender. Six people standing side-by-side next to each other in the snapshot and has their own colors each corresponds to the gender expressions. It also shows more than a variety of gender expressions for equility. According to the book “Beyond The Gender Binary” made by the author Amok Vaid-Menon, it expresses their experiences about people criticizing them on the clothing they worn in public and that they were also concerned about their own safety from society. They also thought that the public was against them for every move they made. The author goes on to mention about people interrogating about their body and they asked them with the quotes such as “Are you dressed up for a theater production?”, “Oh, it must be Fashion Week again!”, and about whether the author was wearing a “Halloween costume” (page 16). These sorts of comments made the author feel uncomfortable and violated, because it targeted them for the choices they made in society.
They are also afraid to go to public areas such as bathrooms, schools, parks, etc. The important example is that there’s transfeminine people of color who are at greater risk of harassment and violence. Because of the nature this, they become susceptible of having anxiety about entering the social world. Furthermore, the state of Tennessee tried to prohibit gender non-conforming people from entering public places. Throughout the country, there’s legislation that allows business to deny services to non-gender conforming customers and that’s already affecting the non-conforming gender community. For my experience, I have not seen any transgender people that I met in-person who have been harassed in public. But I have seen a documentary called “The Pregnant Man”, it is about a man named Thomas Beatie who was born a woman, who became pregnant from using IVF and fertility treatments and faced harassment once the public found out that he was born female. They often faced multiple threats from strangers ranging in phone calls, text messages and being chased by the paparazzi which led them to efforts in order to hide their family. A few months later, the couple had given birth to their daughter and the world was desperate to see a glimpse of the infant. They couple take their pride in raising their child with their families and enjoying what they wished for. Anyone can choose what gender they prefer to be called, whenever the gender pronouns are he or she or even chose not to disclose their gender as they like to retain privacy due to harassment wherever they go out in public. As in society, people should never judge a person by their intersex and appearance.