"Batgirl" Creative Team Apologizes for Handling of Transgender Storyline in "Batgirl" #37

[CBR News]

An apology was issued by "Batgirl" creative team after the negative portrayal of a transgendered character in the most recent issue, "Batgirl" #37.


Full article here.

[The World]

So exactly what is a trans character?

[resipsaloquitur]

Somebody at a different forum said that Dagger Type was supposed to be a David Bowie type. Suddenly, it made sense.

[Stazz]

I seriously did not consider Dagger Type to be a transgender character. He was a performance artist using identity theft as art and who reacted badly upon people not liking it. He even admits that he's just following the instructions of a patron to kill and replace the real Batgirl. Nowhere does he express any belief that he's really a woman, just that he's a genius for adopting this persona.

[Sirzechs]

I seriously did not consider Dagger Type to be a transgender character. He was a performance artist using identity theft as art and who reacted badly upon people not liking it. He even admits that he's just following the instructions of a patron to kill and replace the real Batgirl. Nowhere does he express any belief that he's really a woman, just that he's a genius for adopting this persona.

Exactly, now I'm pretty pissed since I enjoy the story and the creators are getting a hard time for not doing anything wrong.

[sicsexsix]

I just posted this in the comments section of the article that started this entire stink:

"That’s utterly ridiculous. Babs’ reaction at the revelation was one of shock, NOT revulsion as you are so desperately trying to imply. But I know, in this day & age, there will always be people who will go out of their way to be offended by something so they can make a huge stink about it on the ‘net and get some attention. If you had ANY familiarity with the creative team, you would KNOW they’ve always championed equality for all, and this issue was no different, so stop trying to twist a fact to suit your agenda, they’re only responsible for what they say, not for what you comprehend, and the fact that you choose to project an incorrect meaning on the page in question just speaks volumes of your character."

Acting severely offended in public sadly seems to be the quickest way to score your 15 minutes these days. Tools like that offend me, now where's MY 15 minutes?

[blaster86]

Aaah does this mean we won't see dagger type again shame I like him

[QNetter]

I just posted this in the comments section of the article that started this entire stink:

"That’s utterly ridiculous. Babs’ reaction at the revelation was one of shock, NOT revulsion as you are so desperately trying to imply. But I know, in this day & age, there will always be people who will go out of their way to be offended by something so they can make a huge stink about it on the ‘net and get some attention. If you had ANY familiarity with the creative team, you would KNOW they’ve always championed equality for all, and this issue was no different, so stop trying to twist a fact to suit your agenda, they’re only responsible for what they say, not for what you comprehend, and the fact that you choose to project an incorrect meaning on the page in question just speaks volumes of your character."

As for the shocked reaction: as i've pointed out elsewhere, someone whose best friend is trans might be surprised to find she's been impersonated by a male, but would not have that jaw-dropping, frozen moment.

The whole "offense troll" argument is being used as a "get out of thinking" hall pass. Yes, I've known a handful of people who looked for things to offend them. But the significance of that is about as real, and the potential to use it to destroy something important, is about as large as that of the limousine-riding welfare queen of the Reagan era, a super-rare occurrence that was used to legitimize the destruction of the social welfare safety net and throw millions into the streets. The fact that there are a handful of people who go offense-hunting does not let you off the hook from considering the effect of your statements and actions.

[The World]

As for the shocked reaction: as i've pointed out elsewhere, someone whose best friend is trans might be surprised to find she's been impersonated by a male, but would not have that jaw-dropping, frozen moment.

Of all the things I've read in this thread this may be the strangest. She found out she was being impersonated by a famous artist who had just done a big exhibit on her, why wouldn't it be a jaw dropping moment. Leading up to the big reveal she's clearly quite afraid that he knew who she was. You're telling me if you were in her position you would have been stone faced?

The whole "offense troll" argument is being used as a "get out of thinking" hall pass. Yes, I've known a handful of people who looked for things to offend them. But the significance of that is about as real, and the potential to use it to destroy something important, is about as large as that of the limousine-riding welfare queen of the Reagan era, a super-rare occurrence that was used to legitimize the destruction of the social welfare safety net and throw millions into the streets. The fact that there are a handful of people who go offense-hunting does not let you off the hook from considering the effect of your statements and actions.

And this doesn't apply to the people who claim offense at everything. In this thread alone we've seen a number of people make differing claims about this character without apparently knowing what even happened in the issue besides him impersonating Batgirl.

[sicsexsix]

As for the shocked reaction: as i've pointed out elsewhere, someone whose best friend is trans might be surprised to find she's been impersonated by a male, but would not have that jaw-dropping, frozen moment.

The whole "offense troll" argument is being used as a "get out of thinking" hall pass. Yes, I've known a handful of people who looked for things to offend them. But the significance of that is about as real, and the potential to use it to destroy something important, is about as large as that of the limousine-riding welfare queen of the Reagan era, a super-rare occurrence that was used to legitimize the destruction of the social welfare safety net and throw millions into the streets. The fact that there are a handful of people who go offense-hunting does not let you off the hook from considering the effect of your statements and actions.

I stand by my feelings, that the blogger who started this whole thing is just after the attention, because this issue simply is not guilty of what the blogger claims. Just because Babs' best friend is trans, why would she even presume that person impersonating her was really a guy? The look on her face in that panel reads as shock, not disgust, which is what the blogger insists it is. The quoted paragraph from my first post is a comment that I left on the blogger's article, and it's not the only one there saying this person is over reacting. And when someone goes out of their way to be offended by something, projecting something negative where there's nothing, because they want attention, they're doing a disservice to the very cause they claim to be defending. When a particularly loud member of a group has a spotlight shone on their petty nitpicking, that unfortunately has a tendency to shift public perception of the group as a whole. We're all intelligent enough to know that not all trans folk are like that, but there's plenty of ignorant people still out there who, upon seeing something like that, are going to think "wow, trans people sure are a whiny, overly-sensitive lot!" and it's crap like THAT which sets their cause back. Not because Batgirl was surprised to find out she was being impersonated by a guy, who explicitly identifies himself as one.

[Sirzechs]

Wait do they have a problem with Dagger type being the Villain? or Batgirl saying you're a.

[Blacksun]

Wait do they have a problem with Dagger type being the Villain? or Batgirl saying you're a.

No one said that. The problem is the portrayal.

Very cool that the creative team did a true apology, not the "sorry if you felt bad about it" that many do. They saw they comitted a mistake.

I just posted this in the comments section of the article that started this entire stink:

"That’s utterly ridiculous. Babs’ reaction at the revelation was one of shock, NOT revulsion as you are so desperately trying to imply. But I know, in this day & age, there will always be people who will go out of their way to be offended by something so they can make a huge stink about it on the ‘net and get some attention. If you had ANY familiarity with the creative team, you would KNOW they’ve always championed equality for all, and this issue was no different, so stop trying to twist a fact to suit your agenda, they’re only responsible for what they say, not for what you comprehend, and the fact that you choose to project an incorrect meaning on the page in question just speaks volumes of your character."

Acting severely offended in public sadly seems to be the quickest way to score your 15 minutes these days. Tools like that offend me, now where's MY 15 minutes?

people can commit mistakes, even the Batgirl creative team that is very open minded. I don't believe in any moment they had the intention to offend

[Sirzechs]

No one said that. The problem is the portrayal.

Very cool that the creative team did a true apology, not the "sorry if you felt bad about it" that many do. They saw they comitted a mistake.

The portrayal of what? Dagger Type dressed as Batgirl because he was told to do so?

[The World]

No but seriously they guy dressed up so that he could steal her fame not because of any issues with his gender identity and he literally said that out of his own mouth. Either you didn't read it or you didn't understand what you read. If it had been vague I could understand but it was explicit in it's intentions.

[RobinFan4880]

Dagger Type was not a Trans-Woman. He was just a fame seeker who co-opted what was famous/popular and wanted to replace the original.