Airboy #2's Transmisogynistic Tropes and Their Dangerous Impact on Trans Women
http://www.themarysue.com/transmisogynistic-tropes-airboy/
by Marcy Cook Friday, July 3rd 2015 at 12:59 pm
Airboy issue 2 has just come out and it's really transphobic. It has multiple instances where the protagonists use the T-slur, this is the same as using the N-slur, and Image Comics somehow thought this was OK to publish? The story doesn't stop there, the abuse gets much worse. The protagonists are on a bender, getting wasted on drink and drugs with self loathing thrown into the mix. I could write that in a million ways, all of them not abusing anyone but the protagonists that I want to show abusing themselves. Instead this comic decided instead to punch down.
The trans women in the club don't speak, they function as sexual objects of the protagonists who are disgusted with themselves for finding the trans women attractive. In one scene we're shown two of the three male protagonists getting oral sex in the club bathroom. Afterwards the comic shows us that the protagonists don't feel good about having sex with trans women. This is playing into the idea that trans women are sluts, prostitutes, drunks and drug users, tropes that are inherently dangerous to trans women. It also clearly says that trans women are attractive, but that cisgender guys need to be wasted to have sex with them. It doesn't stop there though, it gets worse.
I haven't read the comic in question - sounds like it does a standard nasty job on trans women. The author, James Robinson apparently has some cred in that one of the mainstream comic characters he once created was a gay superhero. (?)
Maybe he's trying to exorcise some demons from his past via this semi-auto biographical piece, I don't know (as a creative writer myself I know how easy it can be for people to take one issue or even one page of a serialised piece of fiction out of context when they don't have the following issues/pages to make the intent of the narrative clearer). Robinson has indicated (http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/james-robinson-to-issue-statement-on-airboy-2-controversy) he will comment publicly shortly...