¶ … moral panic, especially with regard to those who are transgender in the society.
The Moral Panic of Transgender
The Grassroots Model describes moral panic as that which arises from a society's spontaneous reaction to what the society perceived to be morally deviant behavior. The deviance is perceived to be a danger to the society's moral fiber and this creates a lot of stress, which can lead to anger. This stress may not have an avenue to be expressed directly (Social Context Moral Entrepreneurs, n.d.). When the displacement of these anxieties happens, there may be direction of the same to the social deviants as they are regarded as the cause of all this. Kai Erickson, in her book 'the Wayward Puritans', demonstrates this when she relates how the people of Massachusetts Bay Colony went back to witch-hunting as a way to direct the anxiety that arose from social deviance.
The transgender issue is one that has been responsible for raising moral panic. It has raised panic over a wide portion of the population. The fear of it has also been responsible for creating anxieties and some of these have been directed towards those who assign themselves the title.
Moral entrepreneurs are those people...
They are considered to force their morals on the rest of the society. For them, moral deviance is often considered evil and something that must be done away with. Some view them as being self-righteous, even though they themselves consider their stand to be one of zeal and righteousness (Social Context Moral Entrepreneurs, n. d.)
The moral crusades that the moral entrepreneurs are focused on changing how society feels about certain things and these crusades are sometimes geared towards changing the existing legislation, policies and creating awareness of the threat they believe the 'deviants' pose to society. Moral entrepreneurs are thus perceived as those who create their own rules and morals, which they try to get others to adhere to, either by persuasion or force.
In the issue of transgender individuals, moral entrepreneurs can be found on both sides of the divide. Some of them campaign for the recognition of this group of people and the upholding of their rights. These groups not only aim to gain acceptance for the community, but an understanding that they, too, are 'normal.' On the other side of these are the moral entrepreneurs…
