Liberal news site The Huffington
Post is being criticized for asking whether Sofia Vergara or
Blake Lively have “the tranny look.”
The site's Ellie Krupnick paired up
quotes from Vergara, the 39-year-old co-star of ABC's gay-inclusive
Wednesday night comedy Modern Family, and Lively, the
24-year-old co-star of the CW's nighttime teenage drama Gossip
Girl, and then asked readers to vote on which star has “got the
more tranny look.”
During an appearance on Good Morning
America, Vergara was asked to expand on what she meant when she
said that when dressed as her Modern Family character, Gloria,
she looks “like a tranny.”
“I always felt like I look … with
the extra boobs than a normal woman, extra butt, I always have makeup
and the hair and I love big jewelry. So I feel like that!” Vergara
answered.
And Lively told fashion glossy Allure:
“I feel like a tranny a lot of the time … I don't know, I'm …
large? They put me in six-inch heels, and I tower over every man.
I've got this long hair and lots of clothes and makeup on. I just
feel really big a lot of the time, and I'm surrounded by a lot of
tiny people. I feel like a man sometimes.”
“Needless to say, Krupnick's article
is premised on the idea that it's somehow an insult or embarrassing
to be compared to a transgender person,” Equality
Matters' Carlos Maza wrote. “Throughout the piece, she uses
the terms 'tranny' and 'transvestite' – both derogatory ways to
describe transgender people. In a twisted attempt to appear civil,
Krupnick even assures both actresses that, unlike 'transvestites,'
they are 'gorgeous' and shouldn't take the poll personally.”
Maza noted that The Huffington Post
is attempting to position itself as a gay-inclusive site.