Previous: A First Attempt at a Clapback
The specter of the ~traaans villain~ is not *so* diff. than the specter of the otherwise queer villain (SOTOQV) was thru much of the 20th century. Both are portrayed as sinister, mentally-ill menaces to society; but there's a two-part twist to the SOTTV.
First, the SOTTV typically has more teeth. It's typically even nastier than the SOTOQV.
Second, the SOTTV has had greater LONGEVITY. Already by the '80s, movements were underway to disarm the SOTOQV.
Act Up & Queer Nation are just 2 examples of orgs that fought against the media's wholesale embrace of the SOTOQV- this was esp. critical during the AIDS crisis, when "dangerous queer" narratives were aflame across America.
Simultaneously, the queer community began producing alternate media w/ lovable gay, lesbian, & bisexual characters (LGLABC). To be fair, these early LGLABC movies/TV shows are cringe as hell...
…but they were super important! They helped turn the tide of public opinion, & now we cis queers can comfortably forget that, just a few decades ago, WE were the ones who were "sinister" & "sick".
—Sure, the SOTOQV is still running around Evangelical circles; sure, it will, like a hydra, pop up new heads through "groomer"-grumbling politicians; but many cis queer ppl have now grown up around affirming representations & legal protections that defuse the SOTOQV before it takes root in their psyches.
Not so for the SOTTV!
While LGLABC— cringeworthy or no— have been plastered across our screens for a couple of decades now, trans representation has lagged far behind.
Even today, trans characters are largely absent from mainstream media, unless their narratives revolve around suffering, deception, or crime. Further: while attitudes towards sexuality have changed significantly, binary gender norms remain deeply entrenched. The SOTTV plays into this by presenting gender nonconformity as inherently unsettling, predatory, or as a sign of mental instability.
This is, ofc, no small thing. 2025 has so far seen a tizzy of rights-rescindment, always w/ the threat of "worse to come".
The SOTTV appears to be haunting our legislators *almost* as much as it's haunted the hearts of their many trans constituents, who may then spend enormous energy worrying they *are* like the SOTTV, or working to ensure that *others* won't mistake them for the SOTTV.
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There is, in the mind of Gwen, no doubt that Anna is being menaced not by *Ziz*, but by the SOTTV. From Anna's freeze response, Gwen shrewdly extrapolates that the "mental module" (MM) which Anna may be using to perceive Ziz is the MM "generally used as defense against rapists and/or 'creeps'".
Mz. Ziz is many things, but she is neither a rapist nor creep.
If Anna *is* using this MM regardless, it indeed suggests that she may be haunted not by Ziz, but by that fearsome SOTTV— to be specific, by an esp. gnarly subtype of the SOTTV: the specter of the ~traaans woman villain~ (SOTTWV).
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The SOTTWV is, incidentally, not so different from the specter of the lesbian villain (SOTLV), which ran roughshod across America in esp. the 1st half of the 20th c.
—The critical difference: the SOTTWV is CURRENTLY running roughshod across America!
Like the SOTTV, the SOTTWV will have you believe that its targets are deceptive & delulu. The SOTTWV further suggests, baselessly, that trans women are dangerous & threatening menaces.
Indeed, it is the SOTTWV *itself* which is a dangerous & threatening menace. There's no telling how many lives it's claimed, or how many more it's gravely impacted.
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W/ all of that in mind, let us now return to Ziz’s email, & ask ourselves: is it inherently "angry/threatening"? Do we think it would reasonably make Anna fear for her physical safety & go
-Or do we rather suspect that Anna's yeepery shows she is being menaced not by *Ziz*, but by that dastardly SOTTWV?
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