Media agenda setting of human trafficking

I really wanted to do something more with this week’s prompt, but I am not sure what more I can say that I did not already talk about last week.

So I opted to look over at the HumanTrafficking.org’s media page.  And what I found was a little disappointed, but not at all unexpected.

Now to be clear, this is not a negative reflection on HumanTrafficking.org.  They are simply reporting on what the media has been reporting.  It is a far greater refection on what sort of conversations the media has been willing to set.

And what is that conversation?

That almost all human trafficking occurs outside the borders of the United States.

Why should this limited dialog be such a concern?  Very simply because if people do not think or aware of the fact trafficking occurs within our borders, they are going to be less likely want to address the issue.  If people in the United States only see human trafficking as something which only happens to children or women in places such as Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines or Eastern Europe, for instance, then that is likely to create a feeling of distance and a sense that little can be done about it on the local, small scale.

This is not to say they we should not be discussing those situations.  But instead media must be made aware of the ongoing issue here in the United States.

The How the media reports human trafficking page at UN.Gift.HUB seems to one place for media to start, at least in terms of framing discussion.  We still need a lot more resources on things occurring in the United States.

The media also needs to be made aware that it is a discussion worth having.  This, of course, leads into the development of a solid media strategy.  A basic media strategy framework is something I think I would like to help LCHT as part of my deliverable for them.

Media Portrayal of Human Trafficking

This week’s reading was about Gendered Media.  That is, how (cis, straight) men and (cis, straight) women* are portrayed in media.  Okay, yes.  In a way no real highlights for me.  I’ve been doing this sort of analysis personally and academically for over a decade now.

I will say that it did bring up a reminder of why I avoid mainstream media consumption.  That is, I acutely recognize how media impacts my mental states and view of self.  The sort of body image and consumerism hits me particularly hard since I am both trans and poor.  I will never have a “normal” woman’s body, let alone one of the bodies the media inundates us with as the picture of ideal.  And cannot even entertain the idea thinking I could buy my way into that ideal.

So yeah.

So reading the chapter I did find some ways to link it with my service organization.  Many of the analysis of the media dialogs by Wood reflected in what we see in the media coverage of human trafficking.  Some of the elements that came to mind are:

Women as Victims: This is sort of the first part.  Most of our media coverage focuses almost exclusively on women.  And women are seen almost exclusively as victims of human trafficking.  This is not to say that the women how are trafficked are to be blamed for their experiences, but to recognize that there are some women who are involved in the perpetration of trafficking.  Additionally, painting women as simply victims does take away some of their agency and ability to empower themselves.

Women as Sex Objects: In addition to media coverage focusing almost exclusively on women, it also focuses almost exclusively on those women who are being or have been prostituted by others.  Rarely do we hear about the women who are being used for other forms of labor.  And when we do hear about topics such as exploited domestic, field or industry labor, it is often intermixed with (or even more focused on) the topic of immigration.

Women of Color as Exotic: Similar to how media discussions of human trafficking are almost exclusively focused on women, our media coverage almost exclusively talks about women of color being trafficked.  To look at the reports in our news, it would appear trafficking does not happen to white women.  And what little is reported on is portrayed as stories of kidnapping and sexual enslavement – as if it were simply fetish gone wrong**

Men as Aggressors: Rarely do our media discussions of human trafficking talk about the experiences of the men who are trafficked.  And when men are talked about, most often it is in the role of perpetrators – the pimp, the trafficker, the person benefiting from labor.

So with this in mind, is it so much an issue that the media does not have the language to appropriately discuss human trafficking?  Or is it instead an issue that those elements the media covers play into how the media continues to portray men and women in general?  A little of both, but more the latter I suspect.

* While did have references to people of color this time, it still lacked any sort of analysis of the portrayal of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender and/or transsexual people.

** This also serves to feed into negative portrayals of the BDSM, Fetish and Leather communities and undermine the sexual liberation and sexual freedom movements – but that is a topic for another time.

LCHT Messaging

What is the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT)?

Community based efforts to combat human trafficking through research, education and leadership development.  LCHT is focused on solid, well founded research, both nationally and locally, on the dynamics of human trafficking.  The organization engages in training to help educate service organizations on the complex issue of human trafficking.  It works to help develop leaders within the community who will go on to help spread awareness.  And it works with international organization to help combat the issues of human trafficking.

So we are to look at their messaging this week.  How are they doing, what is done well, and how can they can improve?

The LCHT is so deep.

Deep and very text heavy.

This is understandable, considering the very complex and sensitive nature of human trafficking.

You can really tell going through the site that it was set up by a group of academics, and for an organization which is primarily research focused.  And they are seeking to be as comprehensive as possible.

And that raises an issue about trying to “gender” the messaging in their material.  The goal of academic writing is, ideally, to be seen as genderless in a way.  Of course, when one realizes that this “genderless” writing goal was likely developed by men – who tend to both make up the leadership of academia and not see themselves as having a “gender” – than I feel it would be fair to say that the messaging is very covertly masculine, with a clandestine attempt to incorporate some feminist ideals.  Pretty much like a woman’s studies department.  This makes sense, considering the personnel resources LCHT has drawn from.

Additionally, the site is very information focused, rather than relational focused – another masculine communication trait.

I do like the amount of information in the site.  However, I do feel the site could benefit with some more concise summaries of their information.  I think it would also be good to have a clearer definition and examples of what human trafficking is.

Challenging a Wood statement

Although women’s colleges produce only about 5% of all female graduates, a disproportionate number of women in U.S. Congress and running top businesses graduated from women’s colleges.

Great job Wood, but what are you missing here?

How about an analysis of race and class?  Or at least some sort of reference that it was done?

Considering that most women’s colleges are out of economic reach of most women (particularly if they are facing out of state tuition costs) it stands to reason that women who come from families which can afford such colleges are more likely to be economically successful in life.  Despite the socially reassuring myth of success in the United States being based on merit, we are far more likely to stay in the same economic bracket we were born into.

This is yet another example of where I am finding the Wood text so disappointing.  The repeated lack of intersectional analysis on so many of the topics presented.  It is like Wood’s world is soley populated by people who are white, middle to upper class, able-bodied, straight, monogamous, singlet*, cis, vanilla, Christian…

And the infrequency of race even being mentioned in the text is even more tokenizing than if Wood has included a special boldly titled race section in each and every chapter.

* another set of non-pathologizing resources on multiplicity

Service Organization Expectations

So we are to talk about our expectations when we came to work with our service organization and if our experience matches it.  It is a little difficult for me to get a full handle on the atmosphere with the Lab since we are still waiting for our organization to coordinate an orientation meeting.  However, I guess I can talk about that part.

It is interesting really, because I have worked with a range of non-profit, community involvement and social justice organizations, I really don’t have specific single expectations of how they will be.  I will sort of say I’ve noticed they come in two sort of styles.

One of style is that of the heavy committee lead style.  With that style, the organization revolves around meetings and maximizing attendance.  And so there is a lot of time spent trying to coordinate who can attend which meetings and all that.  I often feel that it has roots in that while conscious raising dynamic from second wave feminism.  Since every voice is to be valued and cherished for it input, we need to maximize the participation of as many voices as possible.

The other style is not so much committee free – I mean you have non-profits and you have committees – but it a bit more assertive.  Like a plan is developed, schedules made, people invited and if they can attend, they attend.  There is still some recognition of the need for multiple voices, but it is not as critical part of the process.

I cannot really say which the Lab is for certain. On the surface it would seem to fall into that first type, and I had sort of hoped that it would lean more to the second.  In large part because I need solid expectations, time schedules and deadlines.  However, I do know that the process of coordinating has also been about trying to minimize the number of orientations being done.

So I am not sure if this post actually addresses the questions posed in class.  I guess it is fair to say that it has sort of lived up to one of my expectations thus far?

Butch is My Armor

There are days I identify as butch and there are days I identify as femme.  Of late I’ve noticed I prefer leaning more toward the femme side of things.  I’ve been sort of engaging this process of reclaiming my femme.  It is not an easy task.  Being femme requires a bit of extra work.  And there is no way right now I even have the patience to engage in high femme on an everyday basis.

But I notice there are some days I really have a need to done my butch.  While there are times when I like to do it for fun, lately I’ve noticed that is seems to happen most frequently when I have been feeling particularly vulnerable or sensitive.  Butch, it seems, has become a sort of armor or shell I can retreat into for a time while I let myself heal.

When I started path of transition, I was very cautious about appearing too masculine.  Even though the women I looked up to, the women I wanted to be like, were almost universally punk and butch women – women I saw as strong and confident – I did not feel safe going to far in that direction myself.  Oh, I knew that I had a balance of masculinity and femininity in myself, but I felt like I could not dare to go too far to the masculine side.

It is not that I did not think women could do butch or masculine or that I thought it was wrong in some way, it is that I did not feel comfortable giving myself that permission.  In large part this was due to the fact I was already dealing with so many concerns about being accepted as a woman myself.

As my transition progressed, I got a little more comfortable with the idea of adopting a more androgynous presentation from time to time.  I think Tobi Hill-Meyer was the first openly butch trans woman I encountered.  Or if she was not the first, she I learned that it was okay to be butch.

Tobi’s monolog about coming to identify as butch, her relationship with her body, her experiences with doing porn, and some of her experiences with feminist attitudes about sex work.  I figure if it is tame enough for Bilerico, it’s tame enough for here.

It was in 2009 during the Creating Change conference here in Denver got more opportunity to talk with Tobi about what being butch meant to her.  And I got an opportunity to go to a panel on what butch meant to other women as well.  Mind you, all the panelists were Assigned Female At Birth (AFAB) individuals, but it was still nice to hear the amazing diversity of what butch can mean to people.

So now I use it as I need to, donning my butch armor when I need for myself or others or as whim allows.  Femming it up as I want.

Butch/Femme Switch is a term Tobi used to describe herself, and it seems aptly appropriate for me as well.

The Life Unlived

Over The Hillsides. The Real Tuesday Weld at Corsica Studios

Sometimes I wish that I was not.  That I was not trans, that I was not queer, that I was not spiritually alternative, that I was not poly and was not (okay or maybe only a little) kinky*.

There are times when I wish that I had just a simple “normal” life.  That I could have settled into the mainstream ideal of career, partner, house, hobbies, cis identity. And somehow have been moderately happy there.

There was a point in my life where I almost had that… once.  There were a few brief years where I was… content… with something seemingly mainstream.  And I was able to not think about all the pieces that set me apart from the rest of humanity.  I so passed and so closeted I could not even see myself.

And I was content.

“But,” people tell me, “if you did not have all these experiences and go through everything you did – if you had had that simple, uneventful, normal life – you would not be where you are today.  You would not know the people you know or have learned what you have learned.”

Yeah, I know.

But if you have never lived this life you can never understand the emptiness, loneliness and despair that can grip you sometimes.  Even knowing there are so many people who love and care for me – which simple adds to the guilt of these feeling some times.

“But then you would not be able to do what you do.  To educate the way you educate.  To change the world the way you do.  The world would be a little less without you.”

Yeah, you try living as a catalyst some times.  Day in, day out it feels as though some aspect or other of my life is yet another teaching lesson.  Sometimes it is for a single person.  Sometimes it is for a group.  I know where I signed up for that role recently, but I am not sure where I signed up for it initially.

“But it is so interesting”

Yeah.

* I was going to avoid referencing these bits of who I am at all here.  The professional and academic worlds are uncomfortable enough with pieces of sexual orientation, sexual identity and gender identity that don’t fit inside the neat little boxes already.   Talking about deviations from the standard models of relationship and desire are just about daring heads to explode.  But they are such core parts of my identity, and ones I am proud of, that I cannot ignore them every day and in every post I make here. 

Night Cramps

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with a bad calf cramp.  The pulsing tightness makes me want to scream every time this happens.  I tried my relaxation techniques, stretching, moving my foot, but those never work.  It’s a nerve misfire, not a mental state.  Sometimes I’ve been known to punch my calf in the vain hope that will somehow make it stop.  It doesn’t.  But the solid thud of fist impacting muscle can sometimes give a different sensation to focus on for the couple of minutes of pain.

No, there is only one thing that fixes this.

Calcium.

Well, okay two things, either remembering, and affording, to take calcium or not taking the only anti-androgen I can afford, spironolactone.

I go on and off spiro.  I know being on it long term like I am – six years now – it taxing to the body.  Spiro causes potassium retention, which is the source of the cramping.  Too much potassium can potentially cause heart issues as well – misfires, stuff like that.  And it is very difficult to avoid potassium in this highly processed world.  Staying on spiro means risking all of this, but it also reduces testosterone levels so I am not progressively getting more and more masculinized.

Going off it means letting my T level creep back up.

Sometimes I will play the little game of going on spiro for a bit, letting my T levels drop, going off and coasting, letting the estrogen pills I take slow the testosterone recovery.  There are parts of my body, my testicles, which change as my testosterone levels change.

No physician has taught me this.  I cannot afford them.  Most physicians require trans people jump through the hoops laid down over three decades ago – three to six months of convincing a therapist that one really is trans.  At about $100 a session.  And simply for the sake of getting a letter which gives the institutional trans stamp of approval to begin the transition process.

Most physicians are not willing to consider adopting the harm reduction model of at least monitoring hormone levels for those trans people who opt to go to out of country sources and self-administer hormone replacement therapy.  And almost universally, every physician requires a visit a specialist in endocrinology to get that first, magical authorized prescription.

No, I’ve had to educate myself on all this.  Where?  From a network of other trans people who share our experiences with and educate one another.  A sort of modern day trans version of JANE.

Calcium supplements I have learned will address the cramping problem.  Normally I have them on hand, but I had run out some time before during my last on cycle.  And I had only just started up spiro yesterday.  I figured I had a few days before the cramps would start up again.

I was not entirely accurate when I said there are only two solutions.  There is a third.  And it is actually the solution I would prefer. 

That is getting a bilateral orchiectomy*.

But between the costs of the therapy to get the magic letters and the surgery itself, we’re talking about something which can cost upwards of two to three thousand dollars**.  And now that Dr. Marci Bowers is no longer in Colorado, travel costs to a surgeon who will perform such an operation on people who are not cancer patients*** also have to be factored in.

It is times like this when I sometimes think to myself that I would have been able to afford all that if I had just stuck with trying to find a new office job when I got laid off.  Instead I opted to attend college, get an education and watch as my income plummeted.  If I were younger, prettier, more fitting with the desired image of the skinny trans girl, sex work would have been a strongly considered option.

Normally I don’t talk about my hormone stuff.  Not in a public forum anyway.  It is a very private and personal thing to me.  But I wanted to here because it illustrates, for me, the concept of intersectionality.

I have three factors coming together to bring these about – I am transsexual, I am specifically woman identified, and I am poor.  Take away any of those factors and my calf cramps would not have happened last night.  Not that people who do not share these factors do not get leg cramps like that.  They can happen to anyone with a sever electrolyte imbalance.  It is just that in my case I can identity a combination of circumstances related to my identities which lead to them.

And I am not even as poor as many trans people living in poverty.  I am fortunate to have a partner with a good job who is able to provide a good home.  She assists where she can.  But it was sort of touch and go there for a few years before she got her position.  And I still do not like asking for assistance unless I absolutely need it.

And I am not even a person of color.  Or disabled.

Is it any wonder then why so many trans people opt for more immediate income options?  Or opt to go into well-paying and somewhat reliable industries, such as the technology industry, where ones trans status is less likely to factor into the ability to support oneself and pursue the steps needed for transition?

I feel like I am taking a huge risk in pursuing the course I am.  There are so few trails blazed for academics who also happen to be trans women.

* I often ask why I do not simply say castration.  That is because castration is an umbrella term for a wide variety of procedures.  Orchiectomy is a very specific one.

** There have been cases of successful home operations done.  It is an easy enough operation.  However that runs the risk of landing the person performing the procedure in prison for practicing medicine without a license.  Something I, and many other trans people, would rather not risk.

*** The other hope is to develop testicular cancer, since then the procedure will be covered under insurance… maybe.  Gods, how sick is that?  Considering cancer as a viable solution?

50% Masculine, 80% Feminine

Note: This is a reproduction of a post I made on another site some months back.  I am posting it here because it helps to articulate some of my views on gender.

So, there are times when I am a bit gender queer/gender fluid. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what mix of gender presentation and identity I am aiming for on any given day, but if I had to try and describe my ideal point I would say I aim for about 40 to 50% masculine and 60 to 80% feminine.

But wait, that’s between 100 to 130%. How is that possible?

And if one is looking at gender identity using a single axis model that would seem absurd.

But I have started thinking of gender in a different manner. For me I see gender as a mix of solutions, like in chemistry. There is a feminine solution – which ranges from having absolutely no feminine traits at 0% all the way to being an ideal of femininity (however that is individually [and culturally] defined) at 100% – and a masculine solution. Together they come together to help define how a person’s gender manifests in the world.

I’ve seen a similar, two axis model, and that is a pretty good comparison. However I like the solution model. My coming together is not simply a point on a grid. My femininity and masculinity come together as a mixture. The combine and swirl in new and interesting ways.

I also say that those points are ideals. Sometimes I have a little too much of one in one of the solutions or too little of another. Those are times when I feel decidedly not my ideal self. It’s like I am just a bit off. But when I am able to balance the solutions, those are the times I think I shine.

I’ve also considered utilizing the solution model for other areas which are commonly seen as [a single] axis.

[remainder removed for TMI reasons]

An excerpt from The “Empire” Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto

On agency and the lack of trans voices in the cultural discourses on transsexuality, taken from The “Empire” Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto by Sandy Stone:

 “Making” history, whether autobiographic, academic, or clinical, is partly a struggle to ground an account in some natural inevitability. Bodies are screens on which we see projected the momentary settlements that emerge from ongoing struggles over beliefs and practices within the academic and medical communities.  These struggles play themselves out in arenas far removed from the body.  Each is an attempt to gain a high ground which is profoundly moral in character, to make an authoritative and final explanation for the way things are and consequently for the way they must continue to be.  In other words, each of these accounts is culture speaking with the voice of an individual.  The people who have no voice in this theorizing are the transsexuals themselves.  As with males theorizing about women from the beginning of time, theorists of gender have seen transsexuals as possessing something less than agency.  As with genetic women, transsexuals are infantilized, considered too illogical or irresponsible to achieve true subjectivity, or clinically erased by diagnostic criteria; or else, as constructed by some radical feminist theorists, as robots of an insidious and menacing patriarchy, an alien army designed and constructed to infiltrate, pervert and destroy “true” women.  In this construction as well, the transsexuals have been resolutely complicit by failing to develop an effective counterdiscourse.

To summarize: one reason our voices are not included in discourses is because we are not considered able to or competent enough to speak for ourselves.  Even though Stone originally wrote this in 1987, it seems that little has changed even today.  In numerous discussion, both on and offline, I see numerous self-proclaimed experts on transsexuality speaking about the motivations and experiences of transsexual people.

An observation of mine is that often these experts have no claim to trans identity.  And in some cased I have seen the self-proclaimed experts have been known to violently and aggressively deny any similarity to trans identities when such labels are intentionally or unintentionally applied to them.  I could provide a link to one such person well known to the trans blog community, but I do not feel like propagating this person’s work (or providing the person with a link back).