Cheap tabloids and the politics of civilization

The New York Post is a conservative tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch. It's the oldest daily newspaper in the United States and at various points in it's history has actually been a publication containing serious journalism and advocacy for progressive issues. A little over a week ago it managed to publish an article on international politics titled "AXIS OF SHE-VIL: DEATH TO GAYS BUT FREE OPS FOR IRANI TRANNIES".

1) The title of the piece contains the epithet "tranny" which is neck-in-neck with "shemale" in terms of being an offensive term for referring to male-to-female transsexuals. This is roughly comparable to words like "fag" and "kike". Upon publication of the article there was no storm of outrage denouncing the use of the epithet by the oldest daily newspaper in the United States.

2) The article puts sentence fragments in quotes (in a way that could function as delegitimizing scare quotes) around sympathetic characterizations of transsexuality and government support for what is generally recognized by the medical community as appropriate care. Specifically:

The fanatical religious government authorized the operations in 1984 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree deeming transsexuals to be people who are "trapped" in the wrong body.

Some experts call the approach "enlightened thinking."

3) The article contrasts the support of medical treatment for trans women with Iran's executioner-enforced homophobia and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's September 2007 pronouncement that Iran does not have the phenomenon of a publicly tolerated community of gays and lesbians as in the west. The two policies are implied to be related. A quote from an Iranian trans woman is included to drive home the comparison:

"I prefer going out with the chador [full length robe] in the heat of the summer than being considered a homosexual," she told Bloomberg News.

4) The article has a picture of the President of Iran and if you hit the button for the next picture there is a picture of a Iranian trans woman (who is quoted in the article) putting on lipstick. The lipstick shot is a classic way to use a specific image to highlight the artifice of feminine gender presentation in general and a feminine presentation by trans women in particular - it's so common as to be a cliché worth writing about.

5) The broader political context of the article is a discussion about claims to enlightenment or civilization by various cultures. The treatment of women, gays and lesbians, and trans women serve in this debate as propaganda elements showing which culture is more or less enlightened. The issues are not offered as tragic situations worth addressing on their own terms in order to right injustices and help the troubled. The issue raised is, "Which nation treats it's subjects better?" The issue is not "Who is in trouble and how can we help them?" The chess game is the real topic and the people are offered to the reader as chess pieces.