Universities are meant to be places of higher learning that pride themselves on inclusivity, but the sociology professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo gave his students a quiz that used a derogatory term for transgender women. On the quiz that the professor, David Sorbello, gave, the students had to distinguish whether the women they were looking at headshots of were cisgender of transgender. The title of the quiz was "Female or Shemale. Can you tell?"
The students already felt uncomfortable while taking the quiz because of the use of the derogatory term, but then Sorbello made everyone feel even worse when he "joked that if one has one too many drinks, one may not be able to tell the difference and take the wrong woman home by mistake." Two students confronted Sorbello after class about the offensive quiz, but the tried to justify his actions by claiming that he was teaching the class about sexual dimorphism, which is the differences in the physical appearances of males and females that are of the same species.
Jillian Sternberg, a student that took a photo of the quiz, decided to share it on Twitter because Sorbello's choice of words was "negating the existence of transgender people," but he chose to not listen to his students' criticisms of the quiz and instead sent out an email to the class saying that they were not allowed to take any more pictures of his slides during class and that he wanted his class to have a respectful environment no matter what topic was being discussed. The irony of his statement must have been lost on him, because if he wanted to actually initiate a productive conversation about sexual dimorphism, he would not have used a derogatory term for transgender women in his quiz title. He instead should have gone into a discussion about the various kinds of gender identities and how there is no set physical appearance for men and women, nor is there a gender binary.
The only thing that the quiz accomplished was making a fool out of transgender women and encouraging his students to be transphobic. Sorbello's quiz sent the message that people should avoid being with transgender women because they are the "wrong" women and that he was helping his students find the warning signs that show that a person is transgender. Once again, you cannot tell what a person's gender identity is based on their appearance.
Sorbello's "joke" about how if you get drunk you might take home a transgender woman and not a cisgender woman was also transphobic because it makes it seem like if someone is with a transgender woman it had to be a mistake that resulted from them being intoxicated.
A transgender woman is no less of a woman than a cisgendered one. College professors should be pointing out these transphobic ideologies that are prevalent in society and then teaching their students why they should not be believed. It is up to all of us to be more inclusive and open-minded, and then pass down the knowledge that we gain to others.