TW: Discussions of Transphobia

When people go for a walk outside, they admire the atmosphere, surroundings, and the weather. But eventually, during that walk, they start to think about whatever topics are on their mind that day. Like what’s for dinner, how long it’ll take to get home, what their friends are doing, their hobbies, their lives, etc. But when you’re trying to exist in a society that has done everything to reject or be repulsed by you, it’s hard not to internalize it and ponder it. You start to wonder if your clothes look okay, how your face looks, your hair, and eventually you start to question your entire appearance and take it apart piece by piece until there’s nothing left. All just to make sure that you fit within this version or idea of yourself- what you should be or what’s “authentic” to your personality and ideals- but what truly defines authenticity?

This is what I thought of while I walked home after reading ‘My Words to Victor Frankenstein’ by Susan Stryker. In the reading, the author discusses how society viewed people who were transgender as otherworldly and perverted, and found disgust in their existence. They made a connection to Frankenstein because society thought that they mutilated their bodies to fit in and would never be accepted. By society’s standards, they could “never truly be whoever they want to be”. But the author triumphantly combated those views and wanted society to recognize that just because people feel uncomfortable, unseen, and not right in the bodies they’re currently in, they’re still human nonetheless and not just some inhumane creation that society draws them out to be. They’re actual human beings just like everyone else, with families, friends, thoughts, passions, and emotions. Yet society’s bias towards what’s authentic enough is what prevents them from acting like decent human beings to others who may just be even a sliver bit different than what they can fathom.