Snakes for Trans Rights: Shedding, Surviving and the Year of the Snake
Snakes have been the villain for so long that being cast as one starts to feel familiar. If you've read anything written about trans people in the last five years you'll recognise the vocabulary. Deceptive. Unnatural. A danger to children.
So I created snakes on a bandana and had them say Transssss Rightsssss.
Reclaiming the monster
Every group that gets called a menace eventually finds power in that word, and reclaims it. Lesbians did it with lavender menace in 1970, walking into a conference in T-shirts printed with the perceived insult. There's a long history of queer people of taking the thing that was meant to shame you and putting it on clothing and banners.
Snakes are an easy target for that treatment because the case against them is so obviously nonsense. Like trans people, there is a lot of fear around snakes. Snakes aren't evil. They're just framed in a way that makes people uncomfortable.
A snake that sheds is still the same snake
Shedding gets used as a transition metaphor constantly, and usually badly, as though transition means becoming a different person. It doesn't. The snake underneath is the snake that was always there. What comes off is the layer that stopped fitting.
That's the version I wanted on the fabric. Transformation is a renewal, a survival as yourself.
The Year of the Snake
I made this during the Year of the Snake, a year when trans rights were being rolled back in public, on purpose. Trans lives have continued to be a hot topic, always debated by people who aren't trans themselves. It's incredibly frustrating, seeing safety nets disappear for an already vulnerable group.
Transssss Rightsssss and defend trans lives
The lettering is worked into the snakes themselves rather than laid on top, so you take in the design before you read the demand. The extra letters on Transssss Rightsssss gets the thing said out loud in places where a bare slogan would get you a look.
Defend trans lives is the other part of it, which is a direct message of support.
Where it (also) lives
This one is proudly stocked at Queer Britain, the UK's first LGBTQ+ museum. A grey bandana featuring snakes, in a museum honouring people like me, who lived their lives proudly and fiercely.
How to wear it
100% cotton, 56cm x 56cm, limited edition. Around your neck, on a bag, in your hair, or folded in a pocket for when you need it.
Written by Fox Fisher
