Roundtable – Researching Trans People’s Marginalisation and Resistance in Social Media

Gina Gwenffrewi and Charlotte Galpin: Researching Trans
People’s Marginalisation and Resistance in Social Media

The public sphere is generally understood to be a space for democratic engagement and collective will-formation. However, the exclusion of traditionally marginalised groups is rarely considered. In the UK, legacy media presents trans people not as targets of harassment but as instigators. This is in spite of warnings by international bodies such as the Council of Europe identifying “vitriolic media campaigns … in which trans women are vilified and misrepresented,” accompanied by “UK hate crime statistics [that] shows a sharp increase in transphobic crimes’ (Chikha, 2021). This exclusion and misrepresentation can be considered a form of ‘participatory inequality’, which is exacerbated online. Social media offers opportunities for resistance through what Nancy Fraser terms subaltern counter-publics, in which people seek support and mobilise. Yet, feminist online spaces pose risks for trans women as they are, in the best case, dominated by cis women, and in the worst case, openly hostile. Studies show an increase in transphobic abuse that leaves trans people unsafe in online spaces. Despite this, there has been very little research to date about the extent, nature and implications of transphobia in the public sphere.
This roundtable introduces a new interdisciplinary research network planned by FGEN’s Media and Cultural Representation Stream. The objective is to discuss research gaps and emerging scholarship on media transphobia and to build a capacity that bridges the gap between academic and public debates. Panellists will make short contributions, highlighting the state of the art, key issues and research gaps, before a discussion between panellists and the audience. Speakers will include Gina Gwenffrewi, Charlotte Galpin, a representative of Trans Media Watch and others TBC.