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Princess Jezebel is calling attention to the way language rooted in trans, queer and ballroom culture has been absorbed into mainstream entertainment and online culture, even as trans people continue to be demonised and marginalised.
Terms including “serving”, “it’s giving”, “spill the tea”, “clocking the tea”, “cunty”, “doll” and “diva” now sit comfortably within everyday youth and internet culture. For Jezebel, the contradiction is difficult to ignore: language shaped within Black and Latino queer, drag and ballroom communities, with trans women central to that culture, is now routinely used for cultural capital by a mainstream that has historically portrayed trans people as dangerous, deviant or disposable.
“As a trans child, I remember watching The Silence of the Lambs with my brothers and sisters when I was 12 and seeing Buffalo Bill presented through the imagery of gender transition as a murderous predator,” said Jezebel. “I grew up in a media culture that taught audiences to fear people like me, and now I live in a world where that same culture hijacks our language for cultural capital. There is an extraordinary contradiction in celebrating what trans people create while continuing to demonise trans people themselves.”’
Jezebel sees a clear historical parallel in Madonna’s 1990 single “Vogue,” which brought ballroom culture to a mass audience after it had been developed within predominantly Black and Latino LGBTQ+ communities. She argues that its mainstream success reflected a pattern that continues today: trans and queer culture can be adopted, repackaged and commercialised without adequately centring the creators and originators who developed it, even while those communities remain marginalised.
A London-based professional dominatrix and founder of a community for trans and non-binary BDSM professionals across the UK and Ireland, Jezebel offers first-hand commentary on trans identity, media, culture and life in modern Britain. Find and follow Princess Jezebel at TransPrincessJezebel.com.
Find and follow Princess Jezebel at TransPrincessJezebel.com
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