Why Does “Transvestigation” Happen?
On Gendering, Ungendering, and (Mis)Perceiving Trans People
Transvestigation has been in the news a lot lately. For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the practice of scrutinizing people’s appearances for supposed tell-tale signs that they are transgender. There are hardcore “transvestigators” who spend much of their time poring over pictures of celebrities, with some believing that large swaths of Hollywood are secretly trans — several articles and YouTube videos have chronicled online communities that are dedicated to this endeavor.
Then there’s the recent “gender critical” and conservative meltdown over Olympic boxer Imane Khelif who, despite being born and raised female, and verified by the International Olympic Committee, was mercilessly attacked online by JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and the entire Fox News Cinematic Universe for supposedly being a “man.” That is to say, these people presumed that Khelif was a trans woman. The Boston Globe even ran a headline to this effect, despite the fact that there weren’t any trans women competing at this year’s Olympics.
Most accounts of “transvestigation” that I’ve come across either portray the phenomenon as a “bizarre” conspiracy theory, or the inevitable byproduct of “transphobic brain rot” (i.e., individuals who’ve become so consumed with…
