The Guardian of Who, Exactly?

When I was 16, I decided that I was going to be the sort of person who reads the newspaper. I wanted to be informed, and even more importantly I wanted to look sophisticated on the bus. 

But I was aware that the sort of paper you read says a lot about who you are as an individual. I wasn’t going to read The Sun, because I’d seen too many articles over the years mocking the person I knew I was going to be in the next few short years - an out and struggling young trans woman. Not to mention all the racism, that’s bad too. 

It had to be a ‘smart person’s paper’, and it had to have a liberal, progressive point of view. Back then, The Guardian was the go-to visual signifier for that. The ‘Guardianista Liberal Elite’ was a trope lightly parodied by comedians I liked, like Stewart Lee and others, probably. And yes, it was a bit more expensive than a tabloid - but I had a student loan and low financial maturity. Also, everything was split up into handy supplements - which made throwing away the sport section much easier. 

After a while though, I got bored of its emphasis on ‘Opinion Pieces’ by blowhard academics and twats. I stopped buying it, and instead got most of my news from the growing bastions of ‘alternative media’ - the internet, and sometimes the back of public toilet doors. It’s how I first learned that Darrel Robins has a tiny cock. 

But despite not buying it since then, I have kept an eye on it. I’ve watched over the years as their agenda has clearly turned against trans people. I’ve seen how they distort information and fearmonger. I’ve seen how they purposely reinforce the idiotic idea that trans women and cis women are in some sort of opposition. I’ve come to absolutely despise the paper, and now view it in much the same way I viewed The Sun. Except, in all honesty - I’ve come to hate it more. Because for as terrible as The Sun is, one thing I can say for it is that at least it tends to show its true colours. It’s a rag which wears its prejudices on its sleeve, instead of hiding behind a veil of ‘liberal’ posturing. 

For every seemingly positive puff piece on an uplifting trans story that somehow manages to slip through the net by a well meaning independent journalist, there are always about 5 more to follow which invalidate it with grotesque misrepresentation. 

I do not know a trans person who respects or trusts The Guardian. They are an institution that has, and continues to fail us. 

I have been interviewed for The Guardian myself, as part of my comedy career, hoping foolishly that it might in some way slightly rebalance things. In hindsight, it was absolutely pointless. It’s a paper with an almost deranged dislike for the trans community, and anything positive it puts out our way is overshadowed by the overwhelming negative. Also, their comedy reviews suck. 

And because it still somehow maintains its reputation as a modern thought-shaper for the supposed ‘liberal elite’, many self righteous readers of its pages can now rest easy in their own, Guardian endorsed prejudices and transphobia. The deviously clever, and machiavellian positioning of trans women supposedly in opposition with cis women’s rights has helped to normalise so much hatred against people like me. 

The Guardian is now a terrible paper, and I really have to wonder who they are a ‘Guardian’ of, exactly. Because it’s not trans people, that much I know.