Batgirl Creative Team Issues Apology For Transphobic Villain
Quite right.
In the abstract, there's nothing wrong with a villain, or any character, that happens to be a crossdresser. But in the specific: the false association of crossdressing with insanity, dishonesty, and violence is an old and ugly stereotype. (See DRESSED TO KILL, and, on a related but not identical note, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.) It has been used to justify prejudice, discrimination, and violence against crossdressers and other trans* individuals. Do you really want to play to active, dangerous stereotypes?
It's like introducing a Jewish villain named Captain Yarmulke whose M.O. is to steal money from church collection boxes and use it to finance his anti-Christian entertainment empire.
Worse yet, it's like introducing that villain when you have no other Jewish characters in your comics. In the real world, there are plenty of crossdressers who are otherwise quite ordinary people - decent, kind, hardworking. But Batman never runs into them in his nightly rounds, and Animal Man doesn't happen to like dressing up like Amy Poelher in his off hours. If the only place for a crossdresser in your comic-book milieu is as a murderous psychopath, that sends a message, whether you intend to or not. And it's a very ugly and damaging message.
I was impressed with the apology. It wasn't defensive. It wasn't "We're sorry if someone was offended." It was: "We didn't mean to hurt anyone, but we did. We're sorry. We see the mistake we made, and we won't do it again." These folks would make lousy politicians.
Actual crossdressing superhero, ca. 1940
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