Shocking article trampling over transgender woman
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helenium
Posts: 546 Member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/15818910
go to the main article for the images, but I'll quote the important text:
This is on the BBC's website in the UK, reporting on something that happened in the USA.
a) Why is this woman's transgenderedness relevant to the story whatsoever? I wouldn't out a potential criminal as gay just because they happen to be.
b) Why did the BBC refer to her as a man, when she self-identifies as a woman? (Also see picture in main article.)
c) WHEN WILL THE MADNESS STOP?
go to the main article for the images, but I'll quote the important text:
A man accused of injecting a woman's buttocks with a mixture of cement and tyre inflater has been arrested.
Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was detained in Florida on Friday and charged with practising medicine without a licence and causing serious bodily injury.
The woman, who paid $700 (£446), later suffered with abdominal pain, infected sores and flu-like symptoms.
Police photographs suggest that Oneal Morris may have had a similar procedure done on himself.
Detectives describe Oneal Morris as a transgender man who dresses as a woman and claim he used a tube to inject a woman in several places on her buttocks.
The victim's body was filled with a mixture that included cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant and the incisions were apparently sealed with superglue.
Sergeant Bill Bamford, from Miami Gardens Police, said that when the pain had become too much Oneal Morris had told the woman: "Oh don't worry, you'll be fine.
"We just keep injecting you with the stuff and it all works itself out."
This is on the BBC's website in the UK, reporting on something that happened in the USA.
a) Why is this woman's transgenderedness relevant to the story whatsoever? I wouldn't out a potential criminal as gay just because they happen to be.
b) Why did the BBC refer to her as a man, when she self-identifies as a woman? (Also see picture in main article.)
c) WHEN WILL THE MADNESS STOP?
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Replies
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I assume, though the article apparently doesn't state, that the "medical procedure" in question was related to some sort of cosmetic enhancement to appear female. That may just be me filling the gaps.
And yes, their use of pronouns and "dressing as" is certainly insensitive and likely due to ignorance.
Quite frankly, taken at face value, it kind of sounds like the woman deserves to be trampled on, though not for being transgendered. And I didn't really see it as a trampling so much as a, "look, the news media doesn't know what it's talking about, yet again."0 -
I don't think you can have a go at the writer here. After all it was the detective who describes Oneal Morris as "a transgender man who dresses as a woman".
I take the point about why is transgender relevant to the story, but if that's what the police have used to describe this idiot instead of other characteristics or traits the person might have then question the police not the writer of the article.
I think it's all about performativity. The word transgender is associated with confusion and being weird by social constructions (people are afraid of what they don't understand), so it appears that the detective may have chosen to use this word because of it's association with the weird and the fact that pumping cement in to someone's *kitten* doesn't get any weirder.
I don't find the article shocking.0 -
I mean I don't find the article shocking because of the transgender reference, but cement butt fillers certainly are.0
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I mean I don't find the article shocking because of the transgender reference, but cement butt fillers certainly are.
Yeah.0 -
I'm not surprised - the media often struggles with using appropriate pronouns.
It does irritate me that a person being transgendered is often specifically pointed out in an article, even when it has nothing to do with the story. I do feel that it's often used to add to the "wierdness" factor, or to make it more sensational.
Unfortunately it is rare to see the news get it right, at least on first try. Although the situation was unfortunate, and the story itself was sad, I was pleasantly surprised to see a news report about the death of a local woman who'd transitioned from Male to Female not mention anything of her transition. (I knew her personally.)0 -
This is local news for me, down in south FL. One thing they did that might have contributed to this was that the newspaper posted her photos of her from the front and from the side, but made it seem like the photos were of the victim referenced in the article because, due to privacy laws, her name and photos could not be released. The "doctor's" mugshots surfaced later, and they then stated that she was transgendered and posted her mugshots next to the body shots. So in order to make "sense" of their mixup, they stated that she was transgendered. Obviously, the writer could have taken steps to mention that the original report was misunderstood by the media and released wrong. Instead they're sensationalizing something many people are still ignorant about.
See, here is a local link for you to see how the media obscures this. In the slide show there's a tab for "More fix a flat victims" and it shows the *doctor's* picture as though she were a victim.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
On the day this news broke, this woman's photo was front page with an article beneath it that talked about the victim. The photo did not state that this woman was the "doctor" either.0 -
"a transgender man who dresses as a woman". -_-
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"a transgender man who dresses as a woman". -_-
^^because this pretty much sums it up for me. I had to quote because it needed to appear a second time.
I read this story in an article on msnbc.com yesterday. They did a better job with the pronouns, but still flubbed up with "Morris, who police say is a man but appears to look like a woman and sports an apparently enhanced rear herself in arrest photos".0 -
it always happens in fkin florida...0
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I mean I don't find the article shocking because of the transgender reference, but cement butt fillers certainly are.
new meaning to rock hard glutes? lol0 -
I think they put it this way because many readers wouldn't understand what "transgender woman" means. They would be wondering whether that means someone who is physically male and identifies as female, or the other way around. So this explains it, even if it's clumsy."a transgender man who dresses as a woman". -_-
Of course there is the possibility that the writer didn't know any better either.
And again, why did they need to mention it at all?0 -
"a transgender man who dresses as a woman". -_-
This did do my head in because it SHOULD mean a man born with a vagina who now dresses as a woman... Which I don't THINK it meant...0 -
"a transgender man who dresses as a woman". -_-
This did do my head in because it SHOULD mean a man born with a vagina who now dresses as a woman... Which I don't THINK it meant...
._. Wow. I hate the English language sometimes. I would have NEVER gotten that.0
