Unfortunately, I'm not particularly shocked this occurred given the frequency and severity of violence against trans people (particularly people of colour). It doesn't make the video any less
deeply distressing or heart-breaking to watch, it's horrific when anyone is subjected to violence but especially so for me when the person in question appears to be vulnerable in multiple ways.
While I appreciate the content is highly edited and it's necessary to help people deal with realities, I can't accept resorting to violence at all, let alone with such potential force,
if it wasn't self-defence and can only accept reasonable force in that case. I also won't generally comment on things the victim did since I don't want to feed into a culture that will reduce the severity of shame directed at the attacker based on those things. I dislike the prevalence of violence and I hope one of the best ways to change that is to change the culture surrounding acceptance of excuses. Some things need challenging, I include what 'common sense' says people should expect to happen in that since I think it's often a self-fulfilling prophecy and needs to be dragged in a direction that leads to greater respect for bodily integrity. Additionally, commenting on conduct after-the-fact is quite different to preparing for hypotheticals, in my mind.
One major issue I do have is that this received rapid coverage in communities I know and beyond. I'm hoping that it's due to factors like the graphic nature of the footage but I find the possibility of a racial element disconcerting. I don't mean to suggest anyone on this forum is motivated by this but I have noticed that other groups are uncharacteristically willing to pounce on this when it's a black man ostensibly attacking a white trans person. When the race relationship is reversed, crimes often seems to get minimal coverage and attention from those same groups.
Quote from: Megan Joanne on July 03, 2014, 12:26:06 PMHer behavior was typical male. She got overly aggressive and even threatened to kick their asses.
I pre-emptively apologise if I'm misunderstanding and for commenting on such a trivial point but I object to this somewhat if my reading is correct. Specifically, I don't think it's fair to risk echoing a tactic of virulent transphobes when discussing a trans woman's behaviour. In my mind, characterising a woman's actions as 'male' comes awfully close to subtly misgendering and erasing identity for me. It's also very gender essentialist. For me, if a woman is aggressive and assertive as part of her gender expression then the fact it belongs to a woman inherently makes it impossible for it to be 'male'. I entirely understand if others disagree with that based on some male socialisation arguably taking place or think the comparison is a useful one.
