WTF Files: Wendy’s On The Cover Of ESSENCE … Cue Transphobic Slurs

Thanks for the love Racialicious

I agree with this. She once made a reference to all of that on her show, she said: “I’m not a man….but I have been accused…”

Thanks for defending transgendered people of color and Wendy Williams. It is plain disrespectful to diss Wendy like that and diss transgendered people of color.

I agree that misgendering is a serious problem for Black women. But I have a hard time feeling any sort of sympathy for Wendy Williams as she slanders Black women on her show for laughs. She recently started doing this bit where she has a Black doll which she has given a stereotypical African American name and described her as “being from Harlem and as having had a rough life due to being undereducated and oversexed”. She sends this doll on trips and has fans take photos with it.

So as I said, while I understand the history of misgendering Black women Wendy Williams is not someone I feel comfortable defending.

Another example of this is “The Meeting” episode of The Office from season 6. In this episode Darryl is hurt and on crutches but Toby and Dwight suspect that he’s faking the injury. So they, Toby and Dwight, stake out Darryl’s home. Then they supposedly see Darryl walking into the house without crutches and they rush in to confront him. So here comes the ‘punchline’. The person they saw wasn’t Darryl. They saw Darryl’s sister and because she is supposed to be very masculine looking they couldn’t tell them apart.

That plot-line from that episode is really the first time I’ve seen The Office attack the victim rather than the perpetrators of racism.

but did we really expect that much from bossip commenters?? i still can’t forgot the ignorant comments i saw when they post that article about the little boy with liked to wear dresses.

No, to all of this. The people attacking her are hateful toward her because of her gender identity. If they were disagreeing with her views, that would be absolutely fine and understandable. But it’s a very cruel and dangerous path to say that it’s okay to be transphobic if we don’t like somebody’s views. Val, would you say it’s okay for people who disagree with Clarence Thomas’s bullshit to express their disagreement by calling him the “n” word and pulling out all sorts of racist tropes about black people’s intelligence? I hope not. Yet when it’s a trans woman, suddenly it’s okay to attack her for being trans instead of attacking her misguided ideas.

Val,

If you say misgendering is a serious problem for Black women, then we have to be consistent in calling it out when it occurs and it is aimed at ANY Black woman.

You can’t rush to First Lady Michelle Obama’s, Ciara’s or the Williams sisters defense when they are attacked but let it slide because the peeps engaging in the misgendering happen to be attacking someone you don’t like such as Wendy Williams.

I’m not a huge fan of her show either, but I ‘m even less of a fan of Black women being disrespected and denigrated, no matter where it comes from.

I’m not much of a Wendy fan, but I’m more bothered by Bossip’s title than the comments. I know people say stupid ish in the comments section (I NEVER read comments on any Yahoo! article) but it annoys me that Bossip is the one who fuels trans- and homophobia a lot. Or they’re referring to someone like Amber Rose as “a bald-headed broad” or “beast.” They seem to get a kick out of demeaning black women in general on that site.

 Thank you! Wendy Williams has been in the game for a minute.  DOING IT!  Making mistakes and making comebacks.  But she isn’t the size of Natalie Portman and people question her womaness.  PLU EEZE!  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your article and you for calling out this madness!