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This article describes a song with a narrator who expresses murderous intent against a transgender woman.<\/em><\/p>\n Rapper YG dropped his new album The Gentleman\u2019s Club<\/em> on June 19, which includes a controversial track called \u201cTiffany\u201d that tells the story of a man who brings a fictitious woman home only for her to disclose she\u2019s transgender right as they\u2019re about to hook up. In a narrative that mirrors the popular \u201ctrans panic\u201d defense \u2014 now illegal in 20 states and the District of Columbia \u2014 the narrator flies into a murderous rage after the revelation. That sound you just heard was multiple trans listeners sighing in unison over the subject matter.<\/p>\n Already drawing unsurprising criticism from queer and trans people, as well as some allies<\/a>, the first half of \u201cTiffany\u201d focuses on Chris, a man lusting after the eponymous woman in the club and plotting to get her to come back to his house to have sex. The two proceed to get very drunk in the club \u2014 with YG emphasizing that Chris is so drunk \u201chis vision can barely see,\u201d after which Chris drunk-drives them both back to his house. It\u2019s concerning enough that Chris has to wake Tiffany up from a drunken sleep to get her to go into the house, but then, just as the two are about to have sex, Tiffany says, \u201cI\u2019m a trans woman.\u201d<\/p>\n The second half of the song is deeply disturbing, and includes Tiffany begging for her life, saying, \u201cI should\u2019ve told you, please don\u2019t hurt me\u201d as Chris contemplates murdering her for being a \u201cmaster manipulator.\u201d Chris proceeds to describe thinking about shooting her and burying her to cover up the murder: But the demon in me is sayin\u2019 take your soul \/ Tonight, I think the Jesus in me is gone\/ So the demon in me is finna take control<\/em><\/p>\n After brutally physically assaulting her, Chris decides against killing her, after which YG switches narrators so we can hear from Tiffany herself: I struggle with identity and fear bein\u2019 judged \/ The truth never set you free, I knew in the end, it\u2019s some blood \/ My jaw fucked up and you got me layin\u2019 in this mud \/ I\u2019m they, I\u2019m them, not a girl, not a stud \/ I just wanna be loved<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that depiction is not endorsement, and that \u201cTiffany\u201d is a storytelling song rather than an autobiographical account. But that doesn\u2019t place it beyond criticism \u2014 and in fact, the narrative on which it hinges is already itself a harmful, transmisogynistic stereotype, according to multiple trans creators who reviewed the song\u2019s lyrics and themes. They say that aside from failing to generate productive conversations about the potential dangers trans women face while dating straight cisgender men \u2014 which is a generous read of the song\u2019s intent \u2014 the song promotes the myth that trans women are trying to \u201ctrick\u201d people into having sex with them. In other words, the story itself is not something that happens in real life with any regularity, but rather a fantasy often engineered in reverse to justify transphobic violence.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a question \u2014 and I know the answer but I want you to answer this \u2014 if all y\u2019all can clock a trans woman, \u2018clock her,\u2019 why are so many of y\u2019all getting \u2018tricked\u2019 by her?\u201d TikTok creator @theehoodcinderalla asked on TikTok<\/a> in response. \u201cShe waited until the clothes was off? That don\u2019t make no sense. I don\u2019t know a trans girl who would do shit like this. It\u2019s the fact that y\u2019all came out with that lie and the lie stuck to the point y\u2019all say that all trans girls be tricking and lying. How they lying if y\u2019all can clock them?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n