The Trans community deserves humanity

Ayesha Nisar
By Ayesha Nisar 3 Min Read
Trans Community
Aftab Iqbal's political satire show Khabardar features transgender characters in an unsavory light. (Photo: Screenshot from the show)

“We all require empathy when confronted with a traumatic incident, but we all forget the term empathy when confronted with another traumatic occurrence.”

We all have a lot of expectations of others, yet we want no one to have any expectations of us. It’s a self-centred but unpleasant reality.

Almost everyone understands who the trans community or transgender people are, where and when they suffer discrimination, and where they should live. Their dwellings are identical to ours, where they live as a result of societal attitudes, why they are neglected, and what we can do to help them obtain their rights. We almost all know everything, but regrettably, or should I say, since we wish to change other people and fail or avoid altering ourselves, we have all closed our eyes.

As a result of our inability to modify our thinking generation after generation, the same mentality towards transgenders gets passed down. Only a few parents teach their children to avoid making fun of transgender people as human beings, and if they do, their teaching method is based solely on verbal learning. If their child understands and begins implementing their parents’ teachings, that they talk to or have friendship with transgender people, only a few of them appreciate it, while others believe it degrades their status in society.

Our mainstream media particularly satirical shows and comic dramas portray transgender people in an extremely degrading and disgraceful manner.

I feel that one of the primary causes of this behaviour is our media’s treatment of transgender people. While media owners and experts state that the media is a source of knowledge, I believe that the media has a more detrimental effect on kids’ development than a beneficial effect.

If we look at our mainstream media, we can see that they offer a lot of unhealthy stuff for the sake of their businesses. Consider some informational and satirical television shows such as Hasb-e-Haal, Khabarnaak, and Khabardar/Khabarhar as well as comic dramas like Bulbalay. They portray transgender people in an extremely degrading and disgraceful manner. This is not a new thing; for years, transgender people have been considered and presented as a source of amusement, entertainment, and silly jokes. This insensitive portrayal influences our children to behave similarly in real life toward transgender persons.

I believe that now that media platform owners should open their minds and begin to think broadly, they would see that showing something beneficial to our children is no longer beneficial to their channel’s TRPs. If they do not think, sadly, our future generation’s mentality will never change.

It is indeed past time to show stuff that is valid and suitable rather than content that humiliates or dishonours any human being, whether they are transgender, or people with disabilities. They are all human beings and must be treated as such; we have no right to humiliate or degrade anyone.

Lastly, I conclude that if we treat transgender people as human beings and do not discriminate against them by labelling them as having transgender rights, these laws are insufficient; but if we simply grant them human rights and treat them as human beings, there is no need to offer them transgender rights. Let us use the term Trans in the same way that we use the terms male and female.

“We don’t have to do anything! Simply be human and considerate of others’ humanity.”

Disclaimer: The views expressed in articles and blogs on Aware Pakistan are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official stance of the website. We are not liable for the accuracy of information provided by authors.

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