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Hailey Bieber is the target of a bizarre form of harassment called “transvestigation.”
This week, as we reported on the state of the Bieber marriage, we of course took a look at recent social media posts.
A glaring and alarming detail stuck out: a large number of comments claiming or implying that Hailey is transgender.
This sounds like a bigoted attack against the transgender community and a personal attack against Hailey. What’s going on?
What is ‘transvestigation’ exactly?
Sadly, transvestigator is not a term for a nonbinary noir detective. It really should be.
Rather, there are people who believe that many or even all celebrities and public figures are secretly transgender.
Targets include but are not limited to people saying this about politicians, the British royal family (yes, including Charles and Elizabeth), pop stars, and more.
What does this have to do with Hailey Bieber?
If it sounds QAnon-adjacent, it’s because it is. There’s considerable overlap.
As you can see from the numerous — yet far from exhaustive — list of examples that we have included, there are some people who are transvestigating Hailey Bieber.
To be clear, that does not mean that they are combing over evidence like a person would during an actual investigation.
How do transvestigators operate?
“Transvestigators” use absurd and often manufactured-on-the-spot definitions of sex-related physical features to determine which public figures they believe to be transgender.
Something as simple as long legs or thick eyebrows can be sufficient.
These folks will take family photos of public figures and scribble over them to claim that skull measurements and limb lengths “prove” their point.
It’s all nonsense, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t harmful.
How are they targeting Hailey?
Specifically, Hailey Bieber is getting bombarded with comments under multiple Instagram posts.
THG‘s initial look into these harassing comments finds that they go back weeks. It is likely that this began some time ago.
The harassment takes two principal forms: explicit transphobia and thinly veiled transphobia.
These trolls are not subtle
Some messages couple the “accusation” with explicit transphobia, with claims that Hailey looks like a “man.”
They might name a specific man (like her father, the infamous Stephen Baldwin, or like reviled politician Vladimir Putin).
Others simply write “man.”
Obviously, this would be a bigoted statement when aimed at a trans woman or at a cis woman. Hailey, however, is cis.
Appearing to be supportive is still bigotry if it’s insincere
The second form that this can take is thinly veiled transphobia.
These posters are likely not transvestigators themselves, but simply jumping on the bandwagon in order to personally “attack” Hailey Bieber.
In their comments, we see posts seeming to celebrate the transgender community or highlighting famous trans figures, like Caitlyn Jenner.
But the comments do not celebrate trans people — they insult them and Hailey all at once.
Just for the record, Hailey is cis
It is, of course, not reasonable to believe that Hailey is transgender. And not only because she has been in the public eye since she was a child.
To believe this is to believe that it remained a secret throughout her career and marriage to Justin Bieber.
This would also mean fake maternity photos and a shroud of lies surrounding the birth of Jack Blues one year ago.
As much as we would love to live in a world where someone could be transgender without comment, that is not the reality.
Sadly, trans celebrities simply cannot fly under the radar in our society
In 2023, a violent hate campaign against a beer brand sent shockwaves through society because a trans woman took a sip from a drink on TikTok.
Hailey is cisgender. If she were trans, certain people would be pitching a fit every time that she advertises a product, let alone when she married Justin Bieber.
Most of the people bombarding her with these hateful messages are not true believers who have clearly lost touch with reality, however. So what’s going on.
We may have uncovered the true reason for (most of) the harassment
The truth may be a combination of two things: jealous people who love her husband and genocide enthusiasts who hate any public figure who doesn’t love it when children are massacred.
Another hot topic in Hailey’s comments seems to be her ongoing support for the Palestinian people as the IDF continues to slaughter and starve the population.
Some people are of course there to thank her. Others are not.
One has to wonder if the people hopping onto the harassment bandwagon against Hailey are merely saying cruel and bigoted things because of her humanitarian concerns.
What can Hailey Bieber do?
Sometimes, the smartest thing to do is to get ahead of a story. You take ownership of a conversation and quash a rumor before it spreads.
But nothing — not a birthing video, not “accidentally” full frontal flashing the world — can deter someone who has lost touch with reality.
Because this is not a story, it’s a conspiracy theory and a miniature harassment campaign.
Unfortunately, the best thing for Hailey to do in this moment is probably to publicly ignore the trolls in her comments. Also? We’d recommend that she not look at what haters have to say.
