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Policing Trans Women’s Bodies is Bad for All of Us, in Prison or Not

Arbitrary standards of femininity and pseudoscience are being used to degrade trans women in Florida prisons; taking away bodily autonomy for all women is the endgame

Sarah TC
Prism & Pen
5 min readDec 15, 2024

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Black and white photograph of women protesting and holding up pro-choice placards.
Photo by Lauren Mitchell on Unsplash

A friend recently re-posted a social media message claiming that transgender women prisoners in Florida were forced to have breast examinations. If their breasts were not deemed large enough, they would not be allowed to keep their bras. I felt like I’d woken up to some imagined dystopia, but they say truth is stranger than fiction.

According to Marshall Project, a non-profit journalism project focusing on criminal justice, Florida’s Institute of Corrections (IOC) ordered breast examinations for trans women inmates. Then, trans women with smaller breasts were ordered to hand over their bras, and there were also reports of their hair cut short without their consent. (Under UK law, that would be assault.) Also, “female” toiletries and other items were reported confiscated from trans women with smaller breasts.

Excuse my ignorance; the last time I checked the contents of my bathroom, my shampoo, shower gel, and moisturiser didn’t have a gender assigned. Am I missing something here?

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Prism & Pen
Prism & Pen

Published in Prism & Pen

Amplifying LGBTQ voices through the art of storytelling

Sarah TC
Sarah TC

Written by Sarah TC

I am a queer, neurodivergent mental health nurse, academic and PhD student. I write about the things that matter to me and my community.

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