No, Please. Use my Identity as an Insult. I don't Mind.

[bcholmes]

It probably comes as no surprise to the people who know me that I really, really don't like Ann Coulter. And I suppose I can understand that people might say that a glowing Time magazine article about Coulter is evidence that a Time reporter got laid. But imagine how I feel when I read comments like this:

I call her a tranny for fun (and because of the Adam's Apple), but there is no doubt, from what I've heard, that she is notorious for screwing around and doing one-night stands (Joe Conason hinted at this in his recent book, forget the name), also David Brock has hinted at drinking and cocaine binges Coulter used to go on (which, in my mind, accounts for her anorexic look).
-- Ally

---

Uh, Steve, you're usually much sharper than this. If there was pussy involved, then it had to have been a threesome.
-- Barry Freed

---

Don't forget "... firm breasts, soft kisses, giggling orgasms and SEVEN INCH UNCUT CLIT W/EXTROVERT OVARIES JESUS CHRIST - hhhuuahhhhhhggghh!"

Now since when have Coulter & pussy gone together? Lessee, Adams apple, check, laarge hands & feet, check, odd bass to voice, check, thin hips even for a 'person' that size, check.

No wonder s/he lives near South Beach, at least she's trying to blend in with the legions of trannies down there. But his/her makeup, jeeezus, at least the shemales TRY to look feminine.
-- chilledbruh

---

pussy? on whom? sure as hell not on "her."

show me birth records. show me a high school photo. show me anything that says she has been who she says she is, "her" entire life.

come on. do it. anyone. (crickets chirping)
-- Jim in LA

---

Hey maybe its one of those "Crying Game" situations. Except this time its a horny and ugly reporter who gets a BJ from a supposed woman who turns out to be a guy, but the reporter doesn't care.

Or its just Time mag becoming another propaganda instrument of Bushco - which IMO is more likely. I mean even the hookers in Los Angeles are better looking than Coulter.
-- Rodger

Comments

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Pretty sickenning, and I'm not transqueer.

People come in only two styles, yerright

[firecat]

Disgusting, not only for the trannie jokes, but also for showing yet again that many people believe if you don't like a woman's politics or personality, the best way to attack is not to criticize her beliefs or behavior but to call her ugly and unfeminine. (Oh, and calling her a slut always helps too.)

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

There seems to be more of this stuff about than usual at the moment. The other public target I've noticed is Camilla Parker-Bowles, whose main crime appears to be a failure to be young and conventionally attractive.

Apart from anything else, it makes me wonder how far the standard for feminine is narrowing when a perfectly average looking woman in her 50's without any surgery cops the "looks like a man in a frock" bullshit.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

And it's not as if there's any difficulty in finding nasty things to say about her alleged ideas.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you're saying. Having said that, I think that Coulter frequently brings questions of attractiveness and beauty into discussions of political ideas.

I'm reminded of the "why pretty girls aren't liberals" bit she did during the Democratic National Convention, ferinstance.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

We aren't?

Do you have a link to that speech. I'm so curious now.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

As for [why pretty girls don't like Democrats], I can only guess that it's because liberal boys never try to make a move on you without the U.N. Security Council's approval. Plus, it's no fun riding around in those dinky little hybrid cars. My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie-chick pie wagons they call "women" at the Democratic National Convention.

[firecat]

Ah, I have never paid enough attention to her to realize that. But it doesn't surprise me. It doesn't excuse other people for doing the same thing to her, though.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

*nod*

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

This seems to work for men too, albeit to a lesser degree. Take, for example, that one of the first joke-edits to the page about the new pop on Wikipedia was to say that he's, "the fuggliest pope in 275 years".

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Um. s/new pop/new pope/g

[firecat]

Yes, and Michael Moore also gets a lot of it.

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

yep. as i observed on supergee's LJ (i think), calling an aggressive woman a tranny is just a way of calling her a particularly feminine-looking man, which directly infers that all actual transpeople (the MTFs, at least), are really just the same thing. it takes the hyper-sexist assumptions of the "that babe's got balls" kind of attribution to their logical, and quite ugly, conclusion.

it's also indicative of our real current standing in this culture. we are, at best, a camp joke or a particularly pathetic kind of victim - and at worst, well, we're the worst thing anyone could possibly be.

lovely.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

What? You've been having all the cutting edge conversation with supergee? I'm so jealous!

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

it's the happening place, baby.

(i've been watching a lot of orginal series kojak)

[supergee.livejournal.com]

And it isn't locked.

[lisiblac.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Also it's difficult for some people to accept the image of an exceptionally strong, opinionated woman without mentally re-casting her gender as male.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

Those writers are ignorant.

As my mother likes to say: Consider the source. Bigoted people will always say bigoted things. I haven't seen trannie as a mainstream insult yet, and I hope I never will.

I guess there's still a lot of educating left to do.

Now people know that people like you exist. The next step is for the ignorant frightened people to meet some and learn that it's not a negative thing to be one.

One of the things I find odd about this is that Ann Coulter, in her pictures, looks stereotypically "feminine" to me. Why would anyone think that just because someone is a woman, it's not possible for her to be a conservative, and therefore, she must really be a man who is either pretending to be a woman or who has been surgically altered to be one? Armchair shrink here: I wonder whether these people are highly attracted to Ann Coulter, and need to find a reason that they can't be.

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

>I wonder whether these people are highly attracted to Ann Coulter, and need to find a reason that they can't be.

bingo. you have just put your finger on the central aspect of transphobia among heterosexual men.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I'm just boggled by the idea that the way to insult a person is to call them THE OPPOSITE SEX OMG.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of similarity between the political arena and a playground full of 8-year-olds.

Too generous

[chemlabgoddess.livejournal.com]

I think 3-year-olds is more accurate, IMO.

[madamwu.livejournal.com]

So glad to hear you say that. It has always been a pet peeve of mine. Last year at Southern Comfort I lit into one of the TGs because this person, who was a man dressed as a woman, in casual conversation, make some crack insulting a coworker by calling him a girl. I just blew up. He didn't see the irony of him dressed like a woman yet thinking it was okay to insult a man by attributing female characteristics to him. I thought someone claiming to be transgendered would be more sensitive. I kid Tashi that I am going to write a book/teach a course to crossdressors called "Feminism for crossdressers--its not just the clothes."

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeugh. And gnar. :/ I'm not full of insight this morning, but I *am* full of irritation.

[lcohen]

oh for the love of....

when do we stop insulting people by telling them they look and act outside that very narrow strip of looking and acting that is societally approved?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

*rolls eyes*

Because "real" women can't be loud, opinionated and influential.

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

the flip side of this - or really, more like the slightly to the right but pretty much the same side - is that transwomen get exactly this shit all the time. as a transwoman, nothing will get you smacked as "being just like a man" if, as a transwomen, you emit loud, opinonated behaviors. because of course, as you point out, it's not "real".

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

dear goddess that syntax sucked.

need coffee.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I got your point though, and it's a very valid one. :-)

[didactic-cudgel.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. Not that there isn't a fair amount of disdain for Ann Coulter's often-bilious ways on the right, but the real mad-on for her comes from the left. Therefore, my operating assumption would be that these commenters would be left-leaning individuals. Thus, one should be able to safely presume that they otherwise advocate equal rights for women, minorities, gays, transfolk.

In fact, were I or anyone who is centrist or right-of-center to make these comments, we would immediately be branded a hate-monger, homophobe, racist or worse by these very people. Do these people think that because their target is beneath contempt (by their lights) that such horrid debasing is justified if not laudable? Not asking you to answer for these vile people, of course. Just a rhetorical question. I'm legitimately stymied here, trying to understand how the irony of their comments doesn't just slap the in the face...

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

Recounting a recent conversation with fans who asked about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) political prospects, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh stated on the April 19 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: And, they're all [asking], "What about Hillary? What about Hillary?" So, I told them, "I'm not worried about Hillary. She puts her pants on one leg at a time like every other guy does."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200504200002

i wonder exactly what the trigger is that moves this kind of thing from "she's really a man" (janet reno got this kind of thing a lot, too), to "she's really a tranny." the only thing i can think of is that it's dependent on the extreme femininity (passing privilege, if you will), of the subject.

Re: No, Please. Use my Identity as an Insult. I don't Mind.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i let them know what i think about that sort of crap.