Sports Illustrated first transgender swimsuit model

Valentina is very pretty and congratulations to her for doing well in her career. She actually comes from a place where trans women ARE frequent targets of violence (including murder) so it can't have been easy going through transition and I wish her all the best.

I can't bring myself to care about trans women doing well in the modelling industry to be honest. It's not on the same level as insisting teen girls change at the pool with fully intact grown men, or the True Lesbians subreddit being banned (lesbian chat for those exclusively attracted to XX lesbians who like XX lesbians - but no, they must hang out with the XY lesbians), or any violent male rapist getting to choose to go to the woman's prison in Canada, etc. etc. etc.

I do have to laugh at how unhappy the menfolk are about supposedly being forced to wank over a trans model. Also, there are some comments which are actually downright mean, abusive and legitimately transphobic there but of course they won't be threatened with violence, rape or being cancelled, or accused of literally killing trans people, will they?

I find this so interesting and I think it illustrates my feelings about this whole issue.

If Valentina wants to dress and present in a feminine manner then why not, totally their prerogative, good for them. Anyone should be able to dress in any way they feel comfortable as long as it's appropriate to the situation (Pip 😏) And we should accept that. Why is it ok for me to wear jeans and a hoodie, but DH can't wear a dress if he wants?

But, if DH was to wear a dress that would not make him a woman.

In my opinion and experience it is men who are truly transphobic as nicely demonstrated by the reactions to the SI photo. If men were more tolerant of feminine presenting males maybe we wouldn't be in such in insane situation where biology is optional.

Or maybe we would as there are some men who just want to stomp all over woman and our rights no matter what.

I've had a quick scroll on there and so far haven't seen any of the usual screaming, violent sexual threats and name calling levelled at women simply for believing in biology. Isn't that interesting?

yes, that picture is a very fetching example of the feminine ideal in our culture. And it's not a picture of a female. Which only goes to show that with enough cosmetic intervention, a male can look like the feminine ideal - which means the feminine ideal isn't anything to do with innate femaleness.

Ah now you’re using logic, Floral. Not fair. You know how that upsets the boys.

Valentina is indeed a beautiful individual in that androgynous way that seems to be common amongst models. As other people have said, the SI photo perfectly illustrates why standards of femininity have got naff all to do with being female. Good luck in the modelling career Valentina.

However I agree that the response to the ‘that’s a dude’ type comment look very different. There are shouts of transphobia, justifiably, but no announcements ‘suck my lady dick’. Comments. Funny that.

I hope for more of this kind of thing.
The trans movement is dominated by MtF activists who keep on insisting that everyone else’s lived reality is false, that girl dick is a thing and people should accept that or they’re just massive transphobes.
More of this means we can sit back and watch while they butt their heads against the brick wall of male heterosexuality. Grab the popcorn, this is going to be fun.

Or should I say trans sex?

I think if they hadn't mentioned that she's trans gender most people wouldn't be able to tell. I certainly wouldn't!

Mmmm! Even the angle of shot , the carefully hidden hands and feet, the lack of another person for scale can't really hide the maleness of that person. Something just says "No!"

Very feminine facial freatures abound in some of the sexiest men alive. We are used to that, we see it.

We also see the hypocrisy of posters telling women they need to do something about The Mens! Sod off! You can hope what you like, but it isn't for me or any other woman to take on any responsibility for those male posters!

I think male hands are quite hard to pass, not even the best fake nails make much difference as it's usually the size of them. Funnily enough the cover photo of Valentina hides the hands and if you google Valentina, there aren't many photos with hands in or they are from a distance. I don't think Valentina passes quite so well in google photos. Very beautiful of course but many male models are.

Maybe one of you Rad Fems can pop over and tell all those dudes she’s a woman and they’ll change their minds, as its women’s fault that those commenters are being so transphobic. Sort it out in a trice.

Those men are arseholes, some of the comments are disgusting. I don’t think anyone will be trying to shut Twitter down for its appalling transphobia though. And I hope some of the posters who come here wagging fingers are reporting those comments and wagging their fingers at the men.

But I doubt it.

And no one who posts regularly here would ever use the vomit scene from Team America in response to a trans person. Just state that women need single sex places and humans can’t change sex. Hypocrisy much?

@DryHeave- 😂😂😂😂

Coming to Leonardo Di Caprio’s yacht in 3, 2, 1...

Oh, maybe not?

As Floral says. I really could just follow her around FWR writing, “yeah, what Floral said.

which means the feminine ideal isn't anything to do with innate femaleness.

Interesting the comments schooling the blokes on how to be nice are all of the “wrong brain” type. The public haven’t caught up with any of the more recent alphabet of oddity which characterises the current state of play.

I'm glad to see someone enjoying the career of their dreams. Who also seems to have been lovingly accepted by family and friends from the beginning. And the rejection by the clients for general clothing catalogues seems pointlessly cruel - who the heck cares if a pretty young woman or a pretty young man presents ladies fashion in a bog standard home shopping catalogue.

Interestingly, like most of the hyper-feminine males, the photos and posed videos convey a much more convincing image than the live interview with GLAAD for instance. The Adam's apple and voice are not that easy to change just with cosmetics and training and an unposed video lime the GLAAD one, do make both more obvious, so you'd expect that to be the case.

As for the Swimsuit Illustrated, I don't understand where the vitriol is coming from with those men posting nasty comments. Nobody's even tried to trick them - both magazine and model have been refreshingly open about the latter's sex.

And like pp have said, I too would welcome all those shallow mags and such like to be taken over by feminine men. Maybe then these media types will develop an understanding that enjoying traditionally feminine pursuits is not a necessary condition of being female.

When TW stray into women's territory, it's all "yep, come on in and if you disagree - suck my girl dick, die in fire!" Stray into men's territory and it's "nope, that's a dude" aaaand tumbleweed. Why is that?

Nothing we see in magazines is real. Sometimes they make people look worse and other times they give them a waist and remove their boner bulge.
The worst I ever saw was a supposed candid shot of Whitney Houston walking down the street with friends eating an ice cream. The story was about how sloppy and fat she was so they really went to work with the photo shop and ta da! She gained forty pounds and slept in her clothes.
Video of an event later that day showed her looking perfectly normal.

I would have thought female at a first glance but on closer inspection jawline, Adam's Apple and torso shape (almost disguised by high cut swimsuit and angle) give it away. Once you've seen you realise that there is a lot of artistry in the make up, costume, lighting and pose to get that effect.

IRL I firmly believe women can always tell.
My 6 year old niece was able to spot a trans woman at 30 paces in a semi dark roller disco although they were in typically female attire with long hair and I had referred to them as 'that lady' (+ve context of 'is really good at skating'). She instantly corrected me 'but that's a man'

I do not condone the vomiting emojis at all but I think it is really interesting that men are happy to live and let live when it's about letting trans women in women's prisons, hospitals, refuges and sports but not when trans women are in their wank mags. Hypocrisy much?

That male-driven transphobia is what leads to trans women being murdered

Male violence is what leads to men being murdered. There are some activities that put both men and women at greater risk of murder and prostitution is one of them. Being trans greatly reduces the risk of being murdered in every country including Brazil where there were over 41,000 homicides last year - and that was a huge drop from the year from the year before.

I was shocked to see all the transphobic comments.
When men are looking at a swimsuit model, surely they are thinking of the personality, the vibe, the whole person otherwise they are simply genital fetishists.
Someone should tweet this at Comerford, OJ and all the other dedicated trans defenders

She's very beautiful and has clearly fully transitioned (or is extremely skilled at tucking...)

It’s a swimsuit photo shoot. Computer magic.

Good luck to her. She's very beautiful and has clearly fully transitioned (or is extremely skilled at tucking...). The transphobic comments on the thread are an eye-opener though e.g. the projectile vomiting gifs. It scares me to think what these guys commenting would do if they went on a Tinder date and a trans woman showed up. Which is why it's interesting to see how little censure they're getting.

That male-driven transphobia is what leads to trans women being murdered but none of the posts seem to be censored and the comments in response are all remarkably polite compared to what GC feminists deal with. When will TRAs realize that male violence is the root of the problem and focus their efforts there rather than on attacking feminists who aren't falling in line with their demands?

I do like the suggestion that trans women take over all the porn, glamor-modeling work though. Would be very nice of them! We can all live fulfilled feminist lives away from male predation and trans women who are oriented that way can revel in all the male objectification and the validation of their identity that they ever dreamed of.