We have all seen many powerful images and poignant stories over the past several weeks: Italians out on their balconies, singing folk songs so they can be together while they are alone in quarantine; an elderly Italian priest infected with coronavirus who gave up the ventilator he was on to a younger person and passed away; the photographs of stunned and battle-weary health care workers after long shifts on the front lines. These are pictures and stories from the new world we have entered together, and we do not know how long we must be here or what lies on the other side.
If you read VICE, however, you might discover that “poignant” means something entirely different to a certain type of activist. According to Diana Tourjee: “The lack of options for simple panties are a poignant example of how deeply society actively disinvests in trans women.” I suspect Tourjee doesn’t know what “poignant” means, because if she did she would not be applying it to a situation where males identifying as women are struggling with their choices in underclothing. This sort of thing has always been ridiculous, but in the context of a global pandemic, it is much more obviously so to many more people.
