I've been following Pundit Kitchen for a few months now. If you are familiar with I Can Has Cheezburger or FAILBlog, PK follows the same basic format, only the pictures are generally of political figures and pundits. Frequently, the captions have a very strong political slant, and it generally takes a liberal slant to it. But then you get images like this.
Look, I think she says some pretty horrible things, but I'm not going to dump on the transgender community in the process of attacking her.
Of course, the comment section is filled with people dumping on her appearance and her "coldness." Only a few people condemned the image, and they were ignored. It bugs me that a lot of these commentators would react more negatively if the website described something as "gay," yet they can't even consider the connection between homophobia and transphobia. I just wish there was some way I could make them see it.
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I've seen similar comments among those with whom I blog as a kind of snide put-down, and, sad to say, I have laughed at them too. Transphobia is a subject only now coming to the forefront of public consciousness and there is still an unfortunate implication that transgender individuals are little more than circus freaks.
Before I came out as trans, I would talk briefly or call people out on being BOTH homophobic and transphobic. They only defended themselves when I accused them of homophobia. (Not even a, "Huh, whats transphobia?" from them) Forget if I called them out on both, in that case trans issues become invisible. It stinks that this is the typical mindset, but I'm honestly not surprised by the pundit kitchen users.
Not just transphobia, but good old fashioned sexism. A lot of people play the progressive role but when they encounter a woman they don't like, the first thing they attack is her appearance and sexuality. Examples like Ann Coulter are very telling when it comes to so-called progressive people's real view of women. There are endless issues to criticize regarding her ridiculous views but most people go straight to "She looks like a man" or "She's got a horse face" or "She's frigid/a slut". The reason they believe those attacks to hit the hardest are because women are valued for their looks and sexuality over their political views.