Transphobia in the media - 1
I have almost no idea who Ronaldo is - sources(the half-drunk idiots who litter the dorm hallways and yell about this kind of stuff) tell me that he's a football player, and a pretty important one. I don't really care what he gets up to.
I do, however, subscribe via RSS to the BBC News feed, and I very much care what the BBC has to say about things, because a lot of other people read BBC news too, and base their opinions on the information that BBC presents.
The BBC RSS feed was kind enough to tell me earlier that, apparently, Ronaldo bought some hookers in his native Brazil, found out they were transvestites once he got home, and claims to have subsequently been extorted by the aforementioned prostitutes.
Apparently, prostitution is not illegal in Brazil. It is, however, considered both illegal and immoral over here in England, where a lot of people apparently care about Ronaldo's private life(enough for there to be an article on a major news site about this whole shebang, anyway). Being a transvestite is neither illegal or immoral in the UK. Bearing that in mind, what do you think the headline for the article about Ronaldo's dealings with prostitutes be?
Well, apparently the BBC thinks the article should be titled "Ronaldo in transvestite scandal".
I'm aware that the BBC, like all news outlets, needs to deal in sensationalism to get by. They need to shock readers and grab attention. But you know what? "Ronaldo in prostitute scandal" would have been just as shocking - perhaps moreso considering that, in theory, being involved with prostitutes should be considered worse than being involved with transvestites.
By using the word 'transvestites' instead of 'prostitutes', the BBC is making a tacit supposition that trans people are 'worse' than sex workers. Which really isn't on - I don't want to beat this into the ground, but I think it bears re-itterating: being a transvestite is not illegal in the UK, being a prostitute is - being involved with one of these types of people should be considered a scandal, but the other should be considered not that big a deal.
Of course the majority of people still are afraid and confused by transvestites, and the majority of football fans will probably come to the conclusion that "Ronaldo accidentally paying men in drag for sex == Ronaldo almost catching 'gay'", but the BBC has a responsibility to not pander to those people, and to instead re-educate them by not pretending that the fact that transvestites were involved in this shambles is the most disgusting part of this story.
EDIT - Apparently I care so little about Ronaldo that I spelt his name wrong seven times. Now fixed, thanks to Leo for the tip-off.