We need storytellers who are not cisgender men: why David Marcus’ views are misguided and misinformed
In his latest piece for TheFederalist, arts writer David Marcus takes on what he believes to be a great injustice: the inclusion of trans people in a list of playwrights developed to demonstrate that perspectives beyond those of men actually do exist and are readily accessible. The list, a public google document titled “We Exist,” was developed in response to a recent comment by a director at a gathering of professional DC theater folks that there are too few female playwrights to facilitate producing a schedule of shows not dominated by male perspectives. Marcus, rightfully, rejects this notion outright, but from there, his analysis goes right off the rails. You see, the “We Exist” list came to be a list of writers who are “female and/or trans*” and David takes extraordinary issue with this and proceeds to spend the next 1500 words lashing out and invalidating trans people’s identities through
The Source Summary reproduces the first 150 words of the source article unless a Collective editor has explicitly locked a replacement.
Why this article may matter
Community significance
“We need storytellers who are not cisgender men: why David Marcus’ views are misguided and misinformed” may matter to community readers because it preserves a first-person or testimonial account connected to transgender identity and history, while also engaging culture, identity, and representation. Such accounts can document how an issue was understood and experienced from within the period or community being discussed.
Historical significance
As a publication record from 2014 at Transadvocate.com, “We need storytellers who are not cisgender men: why David Marcus’ views are misguided and misinformed” provides dated evidence of how transgender identity and history was being argued in relation to culture, identity, and representation. Comparing it with earlier and later records can reveal changes in vocabulary, evidence, and emphasis.
Policy significance
The article’s strongest policy connection is criminal justice and public safety. It links that institutional frame to transgender identity and history and culture, identity, and representation, making it potentially useful for tracing how an argument moves from description or history into law, regulation, administration, or public practice.
Ranked themes and framings
Rank 1 is the dominant inferred theme or framing. Parent labels identify broader theme families; the relationship key beneath the diagram explains the line styles used for hierarchy, same-family relationships, overlap, and separate-but-related themes.
Themes
- 1Transgender identity and historyTheme family: Identity, culture, and community100%
- 2Culture, identity, and representationTheme family: Identity, culture, and community41%
- 3Media, rhetoric, and discourseTheme family: Knowledge, history, and communication18%
- 4Education and youthTheme family: Institutions, law, and public life16%
- 5Community and organizingTheme family: Identity, culture, and community12%
- 6Science, evidence, and expertiseTheme family: Knowledge, history, and communication8%
Academic framing
- 1100%
Policy framing
- 1100%
Editorial function
Source topics
- Related theme in the same family
- Separate but related themes
These classifications are inferred from article text and source metadata and remain directly editable. Relationship labels express corpus-analysis judgments, not immutable facts.
How “Transgender identity and history” appears across the Collective corpus
This article appeared 1 year(s) after the theme’s highest annual presence in the registered corpus in 2013.
Relative presence by year
Peak year indexed to 100Presence by member publication
Frequently co-occurring concepts
- Community and organizing531
- Law and civil rights468
- Culture, identity, and representation320
- Education and youth308
- Media, rhetoric, and discourse260
- Healthcare and medicine248
- Violence, safety, and dehumanization238
- History, archives, and memory216
- Public policy and governance206
- Feminism and gender politics198
Academic framings in this topic
Policy framings in this topic
- Public accommodations and facilities177
- Civil rights and anti-discrimination173
- Criminal justice and public safety131
- Elections and democratic governance100
- Research ethics and data governance78
- Labor and employment policy52
- Administrative classification and identity documents39
- Housing and social services38
Values measure relative presence in the registered Collective corpus, not public search interest or public opinion.
Documented circulation and reception
The documented sources span 1 domain. The dated evidence currently falls in 2014. These observations describe circulation and reuse; they do not assign cultural worth or evaluate the communities, arguments, or people discussed.
Evidence by channel
Independent counts; bars are not additiveCoverage of the evidence search
Shows what has actually been checkedDocumented references over time
Dated source evidence currently stored by the CollectiveMari Brighe
We need storytellers who are not cisgender men: why David Marcus’ views are misguided and misinformed
Counts describe documented circulation and reception in the sources currently available to the Collective. They are not a score of quality, merit, popularity, or social value, and provider totals can overlap.
Author profiles and related researchers
Related authors in the Collective corpus
Cristan Williams
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Admin
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Cristan Williams
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Autumn Sandeen
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Gwen Smith
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Marti Abernathey
Shares registered themes including Transgender identity and history, Science, evidence, and expertise, Community and organizing.
Related authors are calculated from co-authorship, shared themes and framings, and citation relationships in the registered corpus. This does not imply a personal or institutional association.
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