Transgender Awareness Week 2020 #4 - #PassItOn
Today I’m going to talk a bit about “passing”, as part of the #PassItOn trans awareness campaign on Instagram.
For more info on the campaign, go here:
“PASSING /ˈpɑːsɪŋ/
In the context of gender, passing is when a transgender or non-binary person is perceived as cisgender.”
(Note : Cisgender is when a person’s gender identity and body are in alignment or match up, often shortened to cis)
“Passing” is an issue for both transgender and cisgender people.
Trans People and Passing
For trans people, the desire to pass comes from many different sources, such as alleviating gender dysphoria or pressure to conform to gender stereotypes, but the biggest reason is that of safety.
Because if you can pass as a cisgender person then the likelihood of being the subject of a hate crime of the victim of violence decreases exponentially.
If you are not seen as a trans person, you cant be targeted as a trans person.
Within the trans community it can also be known as “going stealth”.
The pressure to pass can also put a strain on the mental health of trans people, but upholding often unattainable standards as an ideal that can never be achieved.
However, not all trans people can pass, and not all trans people want to pass.
Often, it is associated as something trans women or trans feminine people in particular should aspire to, but it affects all trans people. Binary trans people (those whose identity align completely with that opposite of their birth assignment) will often try to pass
By making it socially acceptable to be “visibly transgender” we help to remove the social stigma associated with being transgender.
How the idea of Passing harms Cisgender People
Passing presents a problem for cisgender people too, on a number of fronts.
The first and most obvious is that it reinforces stereotypes of gendered appearance.
Here’s an example.
If a trans woman wears a dress, make up and heels, she may stand a much greater chance of “passing” and being accepted as the woman she is, and decreases the likelihood of being targeted for hate for being transgender. However, if she is read or “clocked” as transgender, then she will be accused of adhering to and reinforcing gender stereotypes, as well as other, more unsavoury insults.
If a trans woman doesn’t wear a dress, makeup and heels, resulting in being visibly transgender and not passing, she is often accused of “not making enough effort”, not being “feminine enough” and being “really a man”.
In other words, conform to and reinforce gender stereotypes or you wont be accepted.
Underlying this, especially from a trans feminine perspective, is the same type of toxic standards of presentation and beauty, often from a Caucasian perspective, that affect all cisgender women - the pressure to have a particular body type and look or present yourself in a certain way in order to “fit in”.
However, accepting trans people as “visibly trans” broadens the scope of what is seen as acceptable, which in turn also allows cisgender people to break gender stereotypes.
Consider - if you saw someone who obviously identified a man wearing a dress in the street today, what would your reaction be?
If that reaction is negative, then the chances are that you place considerable value in both gender stereotypes and gender conformity.
The second is that it enforces conformity to the gender binary - that is, the belief that there are only two genders that align with two sexes, and that the differences are immutable and part of the “natural order”.
Conformity and stereotypes go hand in hand, but ultimately conformity is about social control.
For example, if a government can group people into two distinct groups, those groups can be more easily managed if you wish to apply different rules and standards to them. Such as by historically paying women less because they have less “value” than men, or by refusing to educate women because they have “inferior brains”.
The gender binary is a relic that stems from a combination of religious belief and social evolution that places traditionally male traits such as physical strength as the most desirable, and anything that does not conform to that as inferior.
In such a model, men who do not conform to such standards (such as by being feminine, or attracted to men) and women are all regarded as inferior.
And such attitudes are still very prevalent today, both in men and women, despite many advances being made in terms of equality.
How is conformity enforced?
Through shame and shaming.
The example above shows how shaming is used to reinforce gender stereotypes.
Fat shaming (not conforming to ideal feminine body standards) and slut shaming (no conforming to values of chasteness in order to show increased sexual value to men) are other examples of this.
Visibly transgender people do not conform to the gender binary, and that is seen as a threat to the social order.
By accepting visibly trans people, cisgender people become freer to both express exactly who they are through expression (how you dress, act and the things you like), and it becomes more acceptable to be involved in jobs, careers and activities that interest you as a person without being shamed for it.
I will leave you with a personal example.
I’ve always had an interest in cross stitch as a hobby. As a “man”, social pressure and the way I was brought up dictated that this was not masculine and therefore unacceptable behaviour, so I never even tried it.
When I accepted myself as a trans woman, it was the first thing I decided to try, and a hobby I enjoy to this day. By talking about it on Facebook and showing my work I have found that one of my male friends does it but has never talked about it, and several other male friends have expressed interest.
As a “man”, conformity and shame kept me from an activity I really enjoy, which I felt I could only explore when trying to conform as a woman. And yes, I’m fully aware of the irony of that!