Media-constructed narratives and violence inflicted upon people who are transgender

[ShootsFruitAndLeaves]

I've been following covid-19 and noticing that the media constructs whatever narrative it likes and then finds the data to support it. For example, there are 20,000+ dead people from care homes. The majority white women. But that's not the narrative you'll find in the media, which prefers to write about obesity, BAME, etc., because it creates a narrative about blaming people for their own deaths, or about injustice, a story that can be SOLD.

Of course EVERY story has multiple aspects to consider, not just one. But the media will try to construct a simplified narrative that reduces things to one cause.

To wit I offer you this story from Rolling Stone magazine

www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/iyanna-dior-minneapolis-beating-1009736/

"A Black Trans Woman Named Iyanna Dior Was Beaten by a Mob In Minneapolis"

"Viral footage of the brutal beating of a black transgender woman named Iyanna Dior on Monday has enraged activists, prompting nationwide calls for justice and awareness of the high rates of violence against black transgender women."

"In a post on her Facebook, Dior said she needed time “to process everything that’s going on.” “Thanks to everyone reaching out making sure I’m OK, Imma talk real soon,” she wrote. She also posted her CashApp handle #NajaBabiie for those interested in supporting her."

The entire article reinforces this narrative

"The beating of Dior comes on the tail end of the fatal police shooting of Tony McDade, a 38-year-old black trans man in Tallahassee, Florida, which has sparked protests among the LGBTQ community. "

What happened with McDade is not yet clear , but McDade had a troubled past

www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2020/06/02/natosha-tony-mcdade-tallahasssee-protests-protest-mental-illness-fatal-stabbing-police-shooting/5300384002/

and seems to be the sole suspect in the deadly stabbing of a next door neighbour.

It appears that McDade was shot by a white cop, though that cop's name has been suppressed by the Tallahassee police.

There doesn't seem to be any way to logically connect the killing of a black biological female by a white police man, with Dior, who Rolling Stone repeatedly cites as a 'black transwoman', who was attacked by an exclusively black mob.

However, more interesting to me is the extent to which this narrative has been constructed regarding Dior.

By all accounts Iyanna Dior drove into one or possibly more vehicles.

It has also been reported that Dior was intoxicated, and that after exiting the vehicle, which it has been reported was taken without consent, Dior attacked a 14 year old girl, and was consequently attacked by the girl's mother, which finally resulted in a large mob of black men piling on Dior.

In addition, there are screenshots showing that Dior initially asked for money on Snapchat to pay for damage to the vehicles, and a FB live shows Dior with just a forehead scratch, not even a black eye or busted lip, however the narrative has now become 'send Iyanna Dior money to pay for medical bills'.

This is a comment on FB

"SHE WAS NOT BEAT UP FOR BEING TRANS , SHE WAS DRUNK AND CRASHED INTO FIVE CARS AND GOT OUT OF THE CAR TALKING CRAZY ABOUT IT AND THEN WENT INTO THE CONVENIENCE STORE AND CONTINUED TO TALK CRAZYAND BEFORE ANYONE BUT THEIR HANDS ON HER THE WOMEN WERE IN THERE SPEAKING TO HER AND SHE HIT A CHILD THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE . This is the real story if you want I can send you the link to the full Facebook like video where all of this goes down and you can see it with your own eyes. This was not a hate crime , this was reaction to a situation. The people who were fighting her jumped into the fight for no reason , she was in the wrong but they could have handled The situation differently"

It's clear that there are multiple aspects to the story. However the media has reduced this to 'black transwoman attacked by mob'.

There are sites such as 'world star hiphop' FILLED with similar situations. 'Black man causes car accident while drunk, attacks 14 year old girl, gets set upon by mob' would get shared on these sites, but no-one would construct a narrative of oppression from it.

It seems that homophobic slurs were used against Dior. However, it is not hard to imagine a white man or a black man, in the same situation having the same outcome. And you would not write 'drunken man attacks 14 year old girl after crashing into parked cars, gets set upon by mob, please send him money', because you'd look stupid.

What say you?

I've been following covid-19

Me too. Nearly finished season one.

I think you're conflating two different issues there. More white women will die in care homes because white women make up the majority of the residents in care homes. Proportionately I imagine a higher precentage of white men in care homes have died.
But that's separate from saying the ratio for BME people dying from Covid in the wider population is disproportionate with their representation in society. It's not a narrative and it's not blaming people for stating facts if BME people and obese people are affected more.
As to the example you state in the US I don't know enough about it, however I do think reporting can be less than robust and will favour the views of the reader. I imagine most Rolling Stone readers are pretty woke.
But I think increasingly stories on websites (as opposed to in print) are not being properly investigated, they're just picked up on social media and repeated.
If there is clear evidence to counter the story being shared by Dior it would be worth pointing this out to the magazine so they can correct their website.

I think both narratives about care homes and BAME people have been covered in the media but what makes it complicated is that they are about two largely different populations. Women make up 66% of care home residents so it is not surprising that more women in care homes have died with Covid-19. If we are thinking about the population under 65 living in the community, there clearly are complex reasons why more BAME people have been affected. Ironically, where they intersect is the high proportion of care workers affected by COVID-19. Care homes rarely make it into the news - except for coverage of scandals and/or paying for care.

I hadn't heard about Lyanna Dior until your post but I agree with Z0rr0 that we have less original journalism and news reporting and more reports lifted wholesale from social media. This makes it easier for media savvy people to control the narrative about them. In the same way, legitimate concerns are often dismissed by saying those making them are scroungers, criminals etc.

BTW ShootsFruitsAndLeaves, I've enjoyed reading your posts on Covid-19. I don't really comment on many of the threads but your posts have stood out for me.

I wasn't really trying to talk about covid-19, just giving an example of how the narrative can be steered in a particular direction.

For example, men are inherently it seems at greater risk, but the greatest risk is from age, and the very oldest are overwhelmingly female.

Equally BAME people are more likely to have been infected than white people across the country, and for that reason alone (there may be others) are more likely to have died than white people of the same age.

So we could sell whatever story we wanted to - focus on the old white ladies dying, or the slightly younger old white men, or obese people, or the disproportionate number of people of ethnic minorities of working age.

None of these narratives are wrong per se. But the media has a choice on which to focus on.

As far as the story here goes, the need is to phrase this in sort of evil Vs good or oppressed Vs oppressor fairy story terms.

So you construct the story as

'black' (oppressed)
'transwoman' (oppressed)
Attacked by
'mob' (oppressor)

And omit the 'black' adjective from 'mob'

Rather than
'drunken man' bad/evil/oppressor
'commits drunk driving accident' evil
then attacks
'14 year old' oppressed
'girl' oppressor

It seems to me that fundamentally there is 'no story' here. The inputs and outcomes seem predictable and not too horrifying. But it's seized upon by the media from Rolling Stone to Russia Today because it fits a trope that has been constructed and reinforced by transactivists.

Some sources are even suggesting Dior as a transwoman is smaller and weaker than biological women. This is almost certainly not true - most males are stronger than most females, and as a young person in good health, there's basically no chance of this.

In terms of power structures

• Men are significantly taller and stronger on average
• Transwomen are biologically male and by default will be exactly as strong as men. Any hormone treatment may make them less strong, but cannot reverse permanent size advantages due to male puberty.
• Nearly all women are smaller and weaker than nearly all men. Hormone treatment cannot change this.

However by referring to them as transwomen, it tends to imply a balance of power that simply doesn't exist.

Other languages don't follow this.

For example, in India where the official language is English, the noun form is simply 'transgenders' and not 'transwomen'

In Indonesia it's 'waria' (a portmanteau of wanita or woman and pria or man)

In Thailand it's kathoey (which may have referred to homosexual men originally)

The policing of language has effects on the narrative. 60 years ago, Dior would have been described as a 'crossdresser', then 'transvestite'. Later came 'transsexual'.

These terms are more accurate. A transvestite is a biological male who wears clothes typical of biological females. A transsexual is a biological male who has had surgery or other medical treatment to change appearance.

But 'transwoman' or 'transgender woman' is a mere colonisation of a term and one calculated to have no meaning, since no standard of dress, surgery or appearance is proscribed.

Clearly 'transvestites' can suffer discrimination. But a hypothetical transwoman who looks exactly like a man, will suffer none....

Sorry 'girl' should say 'oppressed'.

It's about very simple weak Vs strong, good vs bad, fairy storiea.

I agree that people were reacting to the trans womans violent behaviour, not to the fact they were trans.

That is a very good and interesting point @ShootsFruitAndLeaves

Yes, I think what you are seeing is true. I've been finding it very interesting to compare the UK, US, and Canadian press on Covid, and our local press on care homes has been interesting in what they are saying and not saying. Care homes seem to be the focus of the media here now, but there is very little context given - for example most people are completely unaware how many residents normally die or what, say, normal flu deaths might be in that group.

What this means is that while the facts are correct, the meaning is distorted. It seems to me in order to make it all seem more scary.

That's also what is going on in these other instances you describe. Social media repetition I think is part of that, people just repeat stuff they see. But the stories I am talking about are from our national broadcaster, really the standard for news. And yet again and again on many topics, they don't ask the questions that would provide necessary context.

I think there is some larger change in journalism practice - maybe it is even just less money to work with?

For example, there are 20,000+ dead people from care homes. The majority white women. But that's not the narrative you'll find in the media, which prefers to write about obesity, BAME, etc., because it creates a narrative about blaming people for their own deaths, or about injustice, a story that can be SOLD

I think you are massively conflating 2 entirely separate issues.

Firstly, the media has been reporting the deaths in care homes. In Scotland for example Sturgeon messed up big time there and it's widely reported. I haven't seen reports saying the majority of deaths are white women- but it's a non point. The majority of the population is white and there are more elderly women than men.

Secondly I haven't seen reports blaming anyone. The reports about the high incidence in the BAME community is essential information- not blaming. For goodness sake the public should know this and the reasons need to be looked at.

Pointing out that obese people have a higher risk isn't blaming either- it's a fact.

I'm really not sure what point you are trying to make.

Firstly, the media has been reporting the deaths in care homes. In Scotland for example Sturgeon messed up big time there and it's widely reported. I haven't seen reports saying the majority of deaths are white women- but it's a non point. The majority of the population is white and there are more elderly women than men.

What do you mean it's a non-point? People in care homes are disproportionately white, and female.

Equally, taxi drivers are disproportionately Bangladeshi and Pakistani men. Not, say, Chinese men.

Driving people around puts you at risk of infection.

So does being trapped in a care home with asymptomatic young carers and fellow residents often of diminished capacity.

Care home residents are overwhelmingly white.

Both narratives are 'true'. But the media tends to simplify and misunderstand the true, more complex, narrative in favour of a fairy tale.

The BBC misunderstood a report saying that on an age-adjusted basis, people in Newham were more likely to have died than anywhere else,.as meaning that people in Newham were more likely to have died. This was never true. And by the time they published their report it was no longer true even on age-adjusted basis. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52662338

The community where people were most likely to have died was in fact Hertsmere, which contains the largest Jewish community in Britain. In fact it turns out Jews, who are a white ethnic minority, are vastly overwhelmingly more likely to have died than other groups. This is partly because they are older. And if you adjust out their age it might be that the figures don't look so bad. But you do not HAVE to do this.

If the media were controlled by Jews as some claim you'd expect to see more sympathetic coverage focused on the deaths of Jews from covid-19. In fact the Israeli press has covered it more (in Britain) than the BBC.

All these narratives are 'true', that Jews are more likely to have died,that non-white people are more likely to have died than white people of a similar age, and that old white ladies are the largest single demographic of deaths. There are multiple 'truths', but its what you do and don't focus on that is the key to perceived truth.

As far as obesity goes, it's in fact a smaller risk factor than being male, (100% risk increase) just around 25% for simple obesity, compared to thousands of percent for old Vs young. And some of that is likely due to people in lower paid jobs being proven to have higher rates of obesity.

Yes there is some excess risk. But nearly all associated with morbid obesity, where the clue is in the name. And still far less important than age.

The weight of obesity in the death count is a tiny fraction of the total, which is nearly all due to age. But not so the weight in the media.

Yes, true, but not to the extent you'd believe from the reporting.

Yes transpeople face violence and discrimination. This is true. But not nearly as true as you'd believe from the media.

If you take this tweet for example

mobile.twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/126774544885030912
JK Rowling is under the impression that there's something that can be done to save ethnic minorities from covid-19, and that there is some sort of systematic attempt to suppress this.

In fact, structurally most of the deaths will be because most ethnic minorities (excluding Chinese) live in major cities where infection rates were higher, and because they continued to work in their jobs while jobs disproportionately done by white people were sent home.

So in theory if you'd issued everyone in certain jobs with PPE and forced them to wear it you might have been able to save a few hundred BaME lives.

But if you'd enforced testing in care homes, you might have saved 10,000+ lives.

The narrative about BAME people being discriminated against has some truth, but it shouldn't be the dominant narrative to the exclusion of others. The deaths of tens of thousands of elderly was more easily avoidable than safe guarding ALL the key workers, because care homes are identifiable and have rules and structures absent from say minicab driving or working in a factory.

Of course BAME people should be protected. But that doesn't make it the biggest 'truth' about covid-19

I say that I don't care about the narrative. We know what a transwoman is and you can hear people with sense screaming for the beating to stop because only punks jump people.
Where is this full video? I keep seeing people trying to defend these dudes by claiming there is a full video. Please share so we can judge for ourselves.

Hi, welcome to Mumsnet.

I'm not defending the beating, just saying it's a 'dog bites man' story. It's not some shocking injustice, or a global news story.

If the version of events where this person drunk drove into a car and then hit a 14yo girl is true, clearly there is no story at all. By all accounts something happened. But there is no interest in finding out what, just reporting a fairy story about bad people beating up a good person.

Again, mobs shouldn't attack people, but no serious injury occurred and the outcomes is a predictable, not-a-great-injustice response to the inputs to the situation

And it's a reinforcing narrative. A black transwoman was beaten up by black men a few months ago following an accident. If a black man had been beaten up by black men following an accident, nothing would have been reported.

Clearly sometimes people ARE beaten up following car accidents. But two such incidents involving transwomen tells you nothing .