The Transmisogyny Aimed at Joseline Hernandez is an Outrage

The ongoing sexist attacks aimed at women of color is something that bothers me

^{The views expressed in this Op-Ed do not reflect that of Loop 21.}

One thing that bothers me as a proud, African descended transwoman is the ongoing sexist attacks aimed at women of color.

Women come in all shapes, sizes, skin tones and body configurations, but women of color have had to deal with a centuries old ‘vanillacentric’ beauty standard that was not created with them or their bodies in mind and uplifts white women as the ultimate templates for femininity while negatively impacting women of color.

Because of that beauty standard, far too often black women get ‘that’s a man’ or ‘ugly’ shade hurled at them. You only need look at Satoshi’s Kanazawa’s May 2011 Psychology Today ‘Why Are Black Women Ugly’ article as an in-your-face example of the ‘unwoman’ meme gone pseudo-scientific. One of Kanazawa’s assertions in the article was black women were ‘more manly’ due to extra testosterone in their systems.  Thankfully, the article was taken down after it generated a worldwide firestorm of criticism and outrage.  

As the Williams sisters, Fantasia, Ciara, Wendy Williams, Grace Jones, Brittney Griner and Caster Semenya can tell you, women who are deemed to have a non-standard feminine presentation, larger-than-life personality, a thin, athletic frame, are 5’7” or taller, wear a double digit shoe size or have a combination of physical traits that are deemed to be more apropos to the masculine gender have ‘that’s a man’ derision hurled at them. Even the late Donna Summer battled rumors in 1978 that she was a transsexual despite being the mother of two children.

Flinging the 'you're a transwoman' accusation at a transwoman has sadly become the weaponized insult of choice by men and women when they wish to disparage any woman they don’t like.  

[ALSO READ: A Transgendered Woman On Love And Hip-Hop]

We’ve had an off the charts epidemic of transphobia breaking out in the black gossip blogosphere for several years. While much of it has been aimed at Ciara and Wendy Williams, the latest target in the transphobes sights is Joseline Hernandez of the VH1 reality television show "Love And Hip-Hop Atlanta."

Because Joseline has some traits that are deemed by the Black Blogosphere Femininity Police as belonging to the opposite gender, she has been savaged by rumors that she is a transwoman. She overreacted to those rumors by tweeting a frontal nude photo of herself that showed her female genitalia backed up by a tweet proclaiming she was ‘100% female.’

Transmisogny is gleefully trafficked by the editors of the blogs and runs amok in their comment threads. In one post by Bossip, they used the derogatory anti-trans slur word ‘shim’ in a post about Ms. Hernandez before it was changed.