for what it’s worth, my son injected himself with the growth hormones, just like i inject myself with estrogen (well, actually, my husband does the actual injection). and like you, both of us do (or in his case, did) the injecting in a well lit room. and while i have no doubt that many trans people receive their injection in less than optimal conditions, i have to imagine that a grad student is going to do it in her well lit dorm room. not at the kitchen table with the lights out. that the photo implies otherwise is deliberate manipulation, in my opinion.

so i guess we still disagree about that example.

And I beg to differ on your example of children using growth hormone. A photo or video for such a story would absolutely show the child getting injections in a doctor’s office. Of course the child would not be injecting himself in a darkened room, because that wouldn’t be the reality. It is reality, however, for trans people to self-administer injections. I generally prefer a well-lit bathroom, but that’s just me.

The media doesn’t need to state the obvious. The fact this woman is a graduate student already implies that she lives a fairly routine life, since most people already know what being a student entails - classes, studying, socializing, etc. The story is about how this student is different from most, extraordinarily brave to some, an abomination to others. Trans people are not “boring” - we cross a deeply held cultural taboo that ruffles people’s feathers. The media is not going to place itself above the whole of society and make a judgment that trans people are “just like everybody else” when we are still the cause of so much public controversy.

As a former journalist myself, and you as a sophisticated consumer of news, we both know that it is not in the nature of news organizations to purposely dull the subject matter of their stories, to make the extraordinary into the mundane, to make interesting topics into boring ones. When trans people because “boring” i.e. no big deal, we’re just like everyone else, the media will simply stop reporting about us and move on to the next sexual minority that hasn’t been reported about as much as trans people. That is the natural progression of “what is news” and no amount of protest will change it.

the media looks for small aspects of her life, and does everything it can to present them in a way that seems abnormal. many people take regular injections - my son, as one example, took growth hormones for several years, and had daily injections. i sincerely doubt that if the media did a piece on growth hormones for children who suffer from a deficiency, would present an image of a child in a darkened room, filling a syringe. unless of course, they wanted to mislead the public.

which is my issue with the above image.

i challenge the media to present trans people in a way that depicts them as “no big deal”. we *are* boring, just like everyone else. compared to the way that the media currently depicts us, *that* is news.

she’s a student - why couldn’t they show a picture of her in a classroom, getting an education? what, is that too normal?!?!?

“Oh, man, Daily shots. And I have to inject myself twice a day, but at least I have the hope that as my health improves I’ll be able to stop taking shots every day. She’s never going to get to stop, though. And her needle is so much bigger than mine…”

So, maybe not everyone looked at it that way.

Actually, that was my SECOND thought. My first thought was, “Is this an article about her refinishing thos cute kitchen chairs?” I think I thought the bottle on the table was paint.