Riki Anne Wilchins 'What Does It Cost To Tell The Truth'

1130 Words5 Pages

With this specific thought in mind, I delved into the writing of Riki Anne Wilchins in an attempt to rummage through her words to find her values, intentions, and modes of persuasion while also looking to see how she chose to effectively project her writing to potential readers. In Riki Anne Wilchins' writing “What Does It Cost to Tell the Truth” Wilchins addresses a multitude of issues caused not only by transgender stereotypes, but all forms of stereotyping.
Another example of authority is how she relays to the reader her unfortunate personal experiences with preconceptions society holds. Her examples of credibility included a multitude of experiences when she came face-to-face with ‘social inspection’– the act of society placing meaning on trivial aspects of our lives based off culture. These experiences ranged from men catcalling her on the streets while making sexist remarks about her breasts, to those making comparisons of her height and attributing it to certain hobbies such as volleyball. In my mind, these give her quite a …show more content…

The woman had only recently made the decision to stay with that gender completely. As the friend shared pictures of herself with Wilchins, Wilchins noticed how keenly her friend was analyzing her reactions with each different picture. This seemed to shock Wilchins as she herself is quoted saying “Which is to say that I do not, at first blush, inspire confidence as the best possible judge of such matters. I could not care less how either of us is read by nontranssexuals” (Wilchins). I believe this to be a powerful statement as she states although she does not care about how she is read, the effects of social inspection are often great. With the inclusion of a multitude of perspectives, experiences, and emotions outside her own, her expertise heightens allowing her to be more respected as an influential writer on the subject at