Journal 6

“Cisgender Privilege, Intersectionality, and the Criminalization of CeCe McDonald: Why Intercultural Communication Needs Transgender Studies” by Julia R. Johnson gives us a better understanding of the complexity of gender, sexuality, and intersectionality. McDonald is a black transgender woman who was assaulted by a straight homophobic white male. After the attack McDonald was unjustly accused of second-degree murder because her self-defense resulted in the man’s death. This atrocious event not only shows us how this system is built on prejudice and discrimination, but that heterosexual people encounter a privilege that is invisible to the eye of many. Cisgender privilege is the privilege of people whose morphology (sex) aligns with gender. Many heterosexual people cannot see this privilege because it is not being called attention to. For example, if I am Mexican living in Mexico my ethnicity is not highlighted because everyone around me is also Mexican, on the other hand, a Mexican in New York City is well aware of this identity, especially in this discriminating political climate. What I am trying to say is that if you are part of the dominant group, you have little to no challenges of that identity, this can lead you to be unaware of the power you possess. Being unaware of your power can lead to cissexism (in the case of being cisgender), which is the belief that identifies others who are not cisgender as less authentic. The constant assumptions in McDonald’s case reaffirm the lack of education many face. Being transgender limits you today, and McDonald’s case comes to show that not only being transgender led her to have unfair treatment, but the fact that she is black became an additional challenge. We cannot study intercultural communications without taking intersectionality into account, assuming everyone is cisgender or heterosexual reinforces the idea that the LGBTQ+ community is not authentic. This is very eye opening because as a straight cisgender female, I do not encounter insecurity challenges of my gender or sex.