#I've had a bee in my bonnet on this topic ever since the ~~~progressive~~~ radio talk show i listened to once upon a time

[ineffablefool]

Hey, if you're having a good lol at Trump's ridiculously tiny hands on that New Yorker cover, then I hope you know that I -- a transmasc AFAB person with small hands and gotdamn do I wish I could change that -- am taking notes on Who Thinks Laughing At Transphobic Humor Is Fine, Actually, As Long As I Personally Think The Target Deserves It.

I am not telling anyone what to do, or not do; and here on our beloved hellsite, I am a total unknown to about 99.999944% of you, meaning you have essentially no reason to care what I think.

Maybe you've got a friend who's got Small Hands, though. Maybe he's dysphoric about it, or they get clocked a lot because of it, or xe is just tired of people pointing it out. Maybe at some point you told them, her, whatever, that no, there is nothing wrong with nir hands. They aren't laughable. Those are good hands, dammit, and you don't see a single funny thing about them, and anyone who does is just an asshole.

Oh, your friend might think, looking from your reaction to that image, and then down at their own little hands. So that was a lie, then.

Intellectual honesty would seem to lead to the conclusion that these cheap physical-appearance-based digs are either always appropriate regardless of your opinion of the target, or that they are never appropriate regardless of your opinion of the target. If you are scrambling to justify why it's totally cool, actually, to use transphobic humor if only you can find a target who's bad enough to "deserve" it -- that means you think transness can be worth mockery. You're just saving the transphobia for when you think nobody in the room will call you out for it.

I'm not the boss of you, though, so. If you really insist on your sacred right to being able to make fun of a dude's girly hands -- some dude, somewhere, there has to be a situation where you can finally make these jokes that you've been sitting on all this time -- then I guess that is your decision.

(same with any other kind of humor that trades on bigoted stereotypes. believe me, I'm not looking forward to all the upcoming political cartoons that will Very Creatively exaggerate Trump's weight, either.)

(inb4 "I'm trans and I will still laugh at Trump's small hands from now until doomsday": I guess that is your decision. It's probably good for your current followers and friends to know that about you, because that may give them info they need to make some decisions of their own.)