Still, I am not a real woman. At least Facebook thinks like this. I woke up early, and I made a decision that changed my day. What was the decision? Checking up on social media! Right before doing any other routine! Too many "feminine" advertisements bombarded me. Shoes, bags, clothes, waxing centers, laser centers, and some inclusion and diversity programs. I thought I was being judged on how womanly I was. Why did all of these happen? Flashback two days ago:
"Men Consistently Overestimate Their Own Intelligence, Scientists Find". At first sight, as a woman, it seemed true to me. I thought of sharing it with my friends! Then I realized, as a scholar, I have to fact-check it first. I opened the link and read it carefully. This study was done on all the assigned male people at birth. Again, as a trans scholar, I commented on how it can be trans exclusionary. It had the wrong assumption that trans people have the same experience as cisgender people. I slept. Flashforward: one day before realizing I am not a real woman, I woke up and guess what my routine was? How did you guess it? You are so clever! I opened up Facebook, and I saw a comment from a person who disagreed with me. Long story short, it was a back and force mentioning and commenting on why trans people do not have the privileges that a cisgender person has. Again, I slept. It seems like I only check social media and sleep all day. Well, isn't it all we do most of the time? How bad social media is affecting us can be the topic of another article. For example, Twitter is affecting us…. Sorry, I mentioned Twitter, and I had to check that app for some reason. It's all good. Let's get back to the topic. Oh yes, social media is getting most of our attention. There is an excellent book on attention economy written by James Williams; it's called " Stand Out of Our Light". I mentioned all of these personal experiences to give you my analysis of this cistemic bias that exists on most of the social media algorithms, to my experience, Facebook. If you did not watch John Oliver show about data brokers, I recommend you to watch that and come back to this article with more fear! Facebook uses different ways to find your interests to target advertisements that have a higher chance for you to click on them. Still not afraid of it? It gets worst when it targets marginalized groups such as trans people. What I did on Facebook was only addressing some issues about trans people, and maybe on another app, just checking for the prices of different things near my area like waxing centers. Why is it wrong to target trans people based on their identity? When I opened Facebook, it just reminded me of how society pushes me to act like the most feminine woman that they want me to be. I always have to be a good trans woman in order not to get judged. It just elevated my dysphoria. I had a chance to make a good supportive community, so I did not get suicidal. However, this is not the case for a trans teenager. This cistemic bias put into the algorithm would make her dysphoric and suicidal, and if it intersects with other marginalized identities, it gets even worst! For example, I am a trans person in the early stages of transitioning and do not have enough money to get all the gender-affirming care that I want. I cannot afford to go to a laser salon, and Facebook is not helping with that. I already knew I could not afford it when I checked the app that showed prices in my area! I mentioned all of this by using my own experience to show you how damaging Facebook algorithms are and how dehumanizing it is. One day you are just commenting about your identity and defending yourself, and the other day you end up being harassed by Facebook algorithms because it thinks you need to get waxed and buy feminine products.
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AuthorI mostly write about my experience as a trans woman of color in academia and technology ArchivesCategories |