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A Cliché Trapped in a Metaphor’s Body

Started by Natasha, October 23, 2010, 11:57:03 PM

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Natasha

October 23, 2010, 11:57:03 PM
A Cliché Trapped in a Metaphor's Body

http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=3310
10/21/10

I used this phrasing myself when I was first coming out. Coming out is, of course, a process of self-discovery and one that takes you down some very unforgiving pathways, and one of them is a crash course in the power of language. I didn't realise it at the time, but the phrasing of this (in)famous line lays all of the conceptual groundwork needed for news outlets like the New York Post to gleefully call Amanda Simpson an "ex-man" and for those same news organisations to think, again and again, that it is quite fine to ungender our murdered sisters and brothers- and that it is pertinent information to give both the coercively assigned name, and old photographs. The public's right to know- the public's right to your most personal and private existence. All because this metaphor has vastly outgrown its original intent.
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