"A Man with Balls": Possibly the Worst Title of Anything Ever

In February, Rhodes is hosting Kye Allums to speak on campus about being an out transgender athlete. While Rhodes is usually attempting to progress on LG(B?) issues - attempting is the key word - there is absolutely zero effort to be an inclusive campus for transgender or genderqueer students. Housing is gender segregated, there is little infrastructure for changing one's name or gender that is used in documentation, gender neutral bathrooms are not clearly advertised. And don't even mention how deeply rooted the ignorance about trans issues is on this campus, even (maybe even especially) in queer spaces. This talk is a very small step toward awareness on transgender issues, and there will be a concerted effort to continue this work past this one event.

With that out of the way – As a part of the publicity for Kye’s visit, the company which contracted him as a speaker sent a few suggested titles for his talk. One of the suggested titles was “A Man with Balls: Coming Out as a Trans Athlete.” For those of you who know me, this pissed me off beyond belief. The problem with the title simply comes down to misogyny and cissexism.

Equating having balls with being brave is misogynistic, as it assumes that the state of having balls predisposes you to bravery/confidence. It equates bravery with a masculine nature, therefore denying women the ability to be brave. In this situation, women are weak and inferior.

Cissexism is the belief that transgender people are inferior to cisgender people. (Cisgender people are people whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth.) Cissexism is often expressed when one’s genitals are conflated with one’s gender. For instance, the Vagina Monologues’ title assumes that everyone who is a woman has a vagina/everyone who has a vagina is a woman. This is not true. (Eve’s attempts to include the narratives of transgender women are a shitty effort to address this problem. It does not change the fundamental problem with her title/marketing that she is equating vaginas with women.) Cissexism is also expressed through the invasive focus on transgender folks’ genitals. Asking questions such as “Have you had the surgery yet?” is basically asking the state of someone’s genitals. Would you ask this of any cisgender person? “Hey, man. Just wondering how your balls were doing today?” “Hey, I know I just met you, but do you have a vagina or a penis?” Katie Couric made this mistake recently when she had Laverne Cox (star of Orange is the New Black) and Carmen Carrera (of RuPaul’s Drag Race) on her show. Watch Laverne Cox blow her away here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/laverne-cox-carmen-carrera-katie-couric_n_4555080.html The title of Kye’s lecture, although it is meant to be in good fun, reminds us to think about Kye’s genitals in relationship to his trans-ness. He is so much more than this. Needless to say, we will not use that title for his talk.