{"id":26607,"date":"2022-03-20T12:20:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T19:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26607"},"modified":"2022-03-20T12:24:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T19:24:42","slug":"cartoon-trans-people-just-dont-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26607","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: Trans People Just Don’t Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A cartoon by me and Becky Hawkins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Help us make more cartoons by supporting my Patreon!<\/a> Here at Barrypatreon headquarters, we will serve no sheep before it sleeps and brew no glue before it’s true.<\/p>\n

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When I think about how I became a cartoonist, I think of a original Sunday Pogo<\/a> page that my parents had on their wall when I was a kid. It was hanging over a sofa in the den; I remember standing on the sofa, facing the wall, reading and rereading that Pogo strip. I was fascinated by the way I could, when I looked closely, see traces of Walt Kelly\u2019s blue pencil lines still visible under the lush black brush strokes.<\/p>\n

That childhood experience is part of my personal \u201cchildhood clues Barry would be a cartoonist\u201d narrative. It was an early sign of whatever I have in me that\u2019s obsessed with telling stories with sequential pictures.<\/p>\n

But by telling that story, I\u2019m not claiming that all children who are obsessed with comics for a while are cartoonists.<\/p>\n

There are many (but not all) trans women who, thinking back on their own childhoods, will remember early signs of their true sex – including wanting to play with toys that are traditionally associated with girls, like Barbie dolls. That\u2019s part of their personal narratives.\u00a0And after all, toy choices are a common way for children in our culture to express their gender.<\/p>\n

(Is it sexist that our society assigns gender to toys? Yes, of course it is. But acknowledging that our society has gender associations with different toys, and that commonly affects the toy preferences of children, isn\u2019t the same as endorsing<\/em> those gender associations.)<\/p>\n

When supportive parents of trans kids try to explain how they knew their child was trans, they often mention gendered toys or clothes their child was drawn to. Again, this is part of their and their kids\u2019 life stories – not a claim that all tomboys are actually trans boys.<\/p>\n

But transphobes, in transparently bad faith, pretend that\u2019s what\u2019s being claimed<\/a>. (That link is to a transphobic op-ed piece, so don\u2019t click if you\u2019d rather not see that.) \u00a0It\u2019s something I\u2019ve seen tranphobes argue or allude to in countless arguments, and it\u2019s annoyed me each time. They have a pre-existing narrative, and they\u2019ll warp and misinterpret what trans people say to crowbar it into that narrative. So that\u2019s what this comic strip is about.<\/p>\n

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Becky created \u201cThe JAQ Off\u201d TV talk show for a strip she drew back in May<\/a>. It seemed natural to bring it back for this strip – although now that I think about it, this may be the first time that two #PoliCartoons I\u2019ve worked on have been set in the same shared \u201cuniverse.\u201d Watch out, MCU!<\/p>\n

Becky and I went back and forth on if we should reuse the host character from that earlier strip, or if Becky should instead model the host visually on Kathleen Stock, a well-known British transphobe. \u00a0In the end, Becky reused the host character, but not before she\u2019d also penciled the strip with the Stock-looking character.<\/p>\n

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[The following was written in December 2021, when I originally posted this cartoon on Patreon.]<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the last cartoon I\u2019ll post in 2021. Thank you all so much for supporting these comics! I\u2019m really proud of the body of work me and my collaborators have created in 2021 – both artistically, and that we frequently do cartoons on subjects that almost no other professional political cartoonists cover. And it literally could not have happened without y\u2019all.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very lucky to be spending this New Year\u2019s Eve with my sister\u2019s family in New York. We\u2019ve had a bit of a Covid scare earlier this week – my niece tested positive for Covid and was under the weather for a couple of days. But she\u2019s feeling much better now, and the rest of us (who are all vaccinated and boosted) also feel fine, and so far have tested negative for Covid (knock wood).<\/p>\n

It could have been SO much worse, and it\u2019s made me think about how lucky my life is, and I\u2019m grateful (although, being an atheist, I\u2019m not really grateful to anyone in particular) (it occurs to me that I\u2019ve never done any comics about atheism! Maybe in 2022\u2026.). I hope we\u2019ll all be lucky in 2022. Have a fabulous New Year, everyone.<\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows a TV talk show studio; there\u2019s a table that the host and guest sit behind (the table has the words \u201cJust Asking QUESTIONS\u201d printed on it in large letters), and a couple of large potted plants on either side of the table (the planters have \u201cThe JAQ Off\u201d printed on them), \u00a0We can see a couple of big TV lights hanging down from the ceiling, lighting the scene.<\/p>\n

Behind the table are two women. On the left is Nadia, a woman with wavy light brown hair, wearing a pink blouse with a white jabot tie. On the right is the host, a woman wearing a pink blouse under a dark gray blazer; she has catseye glasses and her neck-length dark brown hair looks professionally styled. Both women have a coffee mug on the table beside them.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadia looks straight into the camera, smiling with a wide-eyed \u201cwow I\u2019m actually on TV!\u201d expression. The host has turned to face Nadia. She\u2019s smiling, and raising one palm in a \u201cjust asking a question\u201d sort of gesture.<\/p>\n

HOST: Our guest today is Nadia Alves, of the \u201cValley Trans Coalition.\u201d Welcome, Nadia.<\/p>\n

HOST: Nadia, can you explain why trans activists insist that all boys who like dolls must \u201creally be girls?\u201d<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadia looks bewildered. The host, ignoring Nadia, has dramatically clutched her hands to her sternum, and has her eyes closed and an \u201coh the tragedy\u201d expression on her face.<\/p>\n

NADIA: What? Of course boys can like dolls.<\/p>\n

HOST: I<\/strong> was a tomboy \u2014 \u00a0if I were a girl today trans activists would force<\/strong> me to be a boy!<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadia explains, looking worried about the turn the conversation has taken. The host is suddenly furious, pounding the table so hard her coffee mug bounces up. To indicate the host\u2019s fury, Becky has colored the background of this panel red, and the host\u2019s head is suddenly much larger than it is in the other panels. (Plus the host has a furious expression, of course.)<\/p>\n

NADIA: Nobody is doing that. Obviously not all\u2014<\/p>\n

HOST (yelling): Why are trans activists so regressive? Newsflash: Not all girls wear dresses! It\u2019s like you\u2019re stuck in the 1950s!<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadia is turning her head left and right, looking around with a confused expression. The host smiles and talks directly to the camera, making a \u201ccan you believe this person?\u201d gesture indicating Nadia. Unnoticed, the host\u2019s coffee mug has spilled, and coffee is dripping off the front of the table.<\/p>\n

NADIA: Who are you talking to? Is there someone else here?<\/p>\n

HOST: I try<\/strong> talking to trans people, but they just don\u2019t listen!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This cartoon on Patreon.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cartoon by me and Becky Hawkins. Help us make more cartoons by supporting my Patreon! Here at Barrypatreon headquarters, we will serve no sheep before it sleeps and brew no glue before it’s true. When I think about how … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26607"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26613,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26607\/revisions\/26613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}