D. Nicole Farris - Gender, Sexuality and Race in the Digital Age

In late October 2011, local and then national press picked up the story of Colorado seven-year-old Bobby Montoyas unsuccessful attempt to join a local Girl Scout troop. Bobby, who is referred to by her mother as a boy but who news reports say self-identifies as a girl, was turned away by the troop leader (Goodin ). As soon as the local news reported on this event, Girl Scouts of Colorado and Girl Scouts of the United States of America quickly pointed out that the troop leader did not, in fact, act in accordance with Girl Scout policy on this issue, which is that any child who identifies as and presents as a girl is welcome to join a troop. Even as this happened, media outlets throughout the country and even abroad continued to report on the story, and as they did, people took to the comment threads of various news websites to express their thoughts about the story.

Though the piece started out as a local interest story in Colorado news and was picked up by parenting blogs and websites, it also received much attention from mainstream network and cable news. Interestingly, this story was framed as being one of national importance. A report on the Fox News website ().

Why would such a story a local report of a transgender or gender non-conforming child wishing to be a Girl Scout be of national interest? And furthermore, why would it elicit such strong, critical reactions from those who interacted with this story by commenting on online reports? I argue that, though certainly not representative of the reactions of all news viewers, the comments responding to this story can help us understand some of the reactions people have to the actual or imagined presence of a transgender or gender non-conforming child in public and private spaces.

It is important to note that, in nearly all of these pieces, what is emphasized is Montoyas status as male-bodied., and many also place some focus on the troop leaders reported comment about Montoya having boy parts. In most cases, the stories are accompanied by pictures or videos that show Montoya, with shoulder-length brown hair, bangs, and a little braid on one side, wearing a very stylish girls outfit, posed with or playing with various dolls: in other words, they show her presenting as female. In short, these articles frame the child as a boy dressed up as a girl. The juxtaposition of the visual of a little girl with words describing a boy seems intent on producing a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in the reader. It is sensational.

These articles are examples of a particular style of news reporting, which seeks to involve the audience through crafting specific emotional responses. Referring to the tone of more belief-driven cable news that has become the norm in the United States, Chris Peters writes that such tones are not accidental they are crafted with a certain experience in mind that is designed for a specific audience (:307). In the case of these news stories, then, it would not be a stretch to argue that the cognitive dissonance felt by the reader at seeing a girl but reading about a boy is precisely the emotional reaction intended by the news outlets reporting these stories.

Beyond inviting audience interaction through emotional involvement, however, many news outlets now also invite audience interaction through online participation in the news. Television newscasts regularly invite viewers to go to their website for more information about a story and to express their own opinions about the stories in the news. Though they are certainly not representative of the reactions of all viewers, the comments on news websites can nonetheless help us to understand some of the range of emotional reactions experienced by news viewers.

In order to understand the emotional response that a boy in Girl Scouts triggered, I examine the online comments responding to one article about this story: Bobby Montoya, 7-Year-Old Transgender Child, Turned Away From Girl Scouts, Later Accepted,). I focus on this particular event for several reasons. First, the Huffington Post has a reputation for being a more liberal news source, so its comments represent a wider range of viewpoints than those on other, more mainstream or conservative news sources. Second, at the time of the articles publication, the Huffington Post placed great emphasis on interaction with news stories; readers were encouraged to respond to pieces, and many articles on its front page at any given time had their number of comments highlighted as an important piece of information about the story. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the Huffington Posts commenting policy, which, unlike many other news websites, does not allow for anonymous posting. At the time the article was published, in order to comment on a story, a reader had to create an account with the website, and comments showed the commenters username, a link to their user profile, and various statistics about the quality of their commenting, as judged by other site users. Because of this policy, it is easy to determine whether a comment comes from an account that was created specifically to comment on that particular article evidence, it could be argued, of trolling by individuals or groups intent on creating inflammatory conversation on web forums or by someone who regularly interacts with the news on this site.