At her first show, Rocero met a young woman named Tigerlily who became her trans mother and gave her the moniker Horse Barbie, a reclamation of the insults hurled by teasing onlookers who called her appearance horsey. Rocero was 15 years old when she started modeling in trans pageants, “a national sport” of the Philippines tied to religious celebrations, she writes, and an “amalgamation built through centuries of war and conquest”: pre-colonial heritage, which honored gender-fluid identities the Spanish institution of Catholic festivals and American pageant culture. “I am a child, I am Catholic, and I am femme.” Raised on Hollywood exports and the Catholic Church, Rocero traces major moments of self-discovery to these two juggernauts: as a hand interpreter in the church choir at age 10-a child chosen to stand before the congregation and perform graceful hand movements in sync with the music-Rocero writes of having felt a sudden bolt of understanding. Horse Barbie details Rocero’s childhood and teen years spent with her family in Makati, a city in the Philippines, her subsequent move to San Francisco, and eventually a life modeling in New York. But in Florida, in 2023, “Can I get off this ship and scream, I’m a proud trans woman speaking at a convention here?” says Rocero. When Vanity Fair reaches her by phone, the filmmaker, model, and activist is perched in a guest room on a Virgin Voyages cruise ship idling in the port of Miami, preparing to set sail for the Bahamas she’s there for the Summit at Sea conference, at which she’ll give a talk about her debut memoir, Horse Barbie, out next week from The Dial Press. (And they’ll usually change their tune when it comes to themselves, because they believe they’re the exceptions who can be trusted to only use it as needed.The mordant irony of her location is not lost on Geena Rocero. Many white conservative Americans are staunchly against government financial assistance, usually citing beliefs that it encourages laziness or gives people too much dependency on the government. Bigots self-owning is nothing newīigots self-owning is nothing new, as we’ve seen it expand past things like Target swimsuits and airplane comfort into areas like financial assistance, housing, and public transportation. They just don’t want to, and no one should be defending that. A common argument is that more space would mean more expensive tickets, but with airlines continuing to rake in profits, it’s hard to argue that they can’t afford to give passengers more space. Fatphobic people would rather continue to pay unreasonable prices to sit in tiny, uncomfortable chairs, shoulder-to-shoulder with other passengers for hours-long flights, than risk allowing plus-sized passengers to experience any level of comfort. Yet, whenever these influencers speak on the issue, the response is usually horrific, and comments fill up rapidly with body-shaming, mockery, and hatred. Hence, men who are criticizing these swimsuits for being “for penises” are just showing that they don’t know anything about female anatomy or clothing needs. Cisgender women use similar swimsuit styles for many reasons. However, as Twitter user pointed out, tuck-friendly swimsuits aren’t a new thing and they aren’t solely for transgender individuals. Even when acknowledging it was made for adults, they continued calling for boycotts of Target, and some extremists even made threats against the company, prompting the store to remove and review some of its Pride items. Of course, this has enraged conservatives and led them to falsely claim that the swimwear was made specifically for children, even though it was available solely in adult sizes. As the tag explains, it simply provides “extra crotch coverage” and concealment to individuals in varying stages of transition. Target recently introduced a new Pride collection ahead of Pride month that included tuck-friendly swimwear for adults.
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