On the Terminology of Transsexuality
http://everquestingmind.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/on-the-terminology-of-transsexuality/4/29/11
By Lorelei
While trawling Youtube the other day I happened across a video by a crossdresser about all the different 'labels' we apply to ourselves, and how essentially redundant they all are.
So on thinking further I realise I am slipping away from 'transsexual' as a specific epithet for myself. It is such a loose term. Allow me to explain.
If you break the word down, you have the components 'trans' and 'sexual'. Here we hit our first stumble. 'Sexual', being the word pertaining to 'sex', has two meanings: Genital intercourse, and the word describing the genitals themselves. In the Hollywood and advertising culture we now live, most people automatically think of the former definition, the use of the word 'sex' as a verb.
This creates a problem for the transsexual, because it is then widely assumed that the primary motive is based on intercourse (particularly the notion that a transsexual woman is really a gay predator attempting to deceive men into sleeping with them). That aside, it is the second definition I want to discuss.
