Existential Fear & The Rise of Transphobia

2 min read

The problems that Trans and Non Binary people face right now, are nothing new. What I think we have though is a very quick, very serious, very dangerous escalation.

I think that escalation is partly due to party and parliamentary politics, with politicians and political parties, cynically using issues to gain electoral leverage.

I say partly, because I think where we are now, is also largely that age old thing, where the oppressed group struggles but has key breakthroughs, and is simply being heard more.

We are in effect, ‘radical’, in this society, not necessarily through our choice to be radical, but because we simply question the ‘norms’ by questioning who we really are, by questioning ourselves. We may look at our (non consensual) cage built for everyone, and then try the door, and find it’s been unlocked all this time. Thus perhaps merely questioning, can be viewed as a radical act.

We don’t even have to do anything, the realisation of our very existence, the change in how we use language for ourselves, and importantly the spread of that language (mechanism for real connection), is a threat to Reactionaries.

Questioning the use of language for ourselves, doesn’t necessarily only change us. The more we do it, the more others may also do so. Many Reactionaries may well simply be people who are afraid to question themselves, because they have been conditioned to fear doing so.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence, or that it’s easier for those who are critical (and hostile) to us trans people, that arguments have a habit of revolving around specific words and a perceived threat as a result of the use of those words evolving.

At the heart of this, may be the fear of existential crisis.

It’s possible that our society is built largely as a means to contain existential crisis. It’s possible that every human has this fear, and so we form (and fight over) nations, states, organised religions, culture and so forth, in a way that attempts to hold everyone together, with a collective reason to be, and thus avoid the void.

Conservatism, and religion are not strictly the same thing but traditionally they go hand-in-hand in many ways. I think this is particularly true in relation to families and having children. Bringing a new life into this world, and nurturing our children, may well be one of the most basic ways of dealing with existential crisis (and I see nothing inherently wrong in this either). Cisnormativity, heteronormativity, mononormativity, and Patriarchal systems, are probably all ways in which those with the most power and privilege, contain existential crisis.

So anything, or anyone that challenges, or simply questions any of those things, is likely to stand out. I don’t think it’s a case of the state vs people either, I think ‘ordinary’ people sense this, sense their own existential fear, and act subconsciously to ‘police’ the system. Some, though, take a particular cruel delight in doing so.