Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Revisited: Trans Terminology

By JillPage Sat, Dec 11 2010 Patent Pending

http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/patentpending/archive/2010/12/11/revisted-trans-terminology.aspx (http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/patentpending/archive/2010/12/11/revisted-trans-terminology.aspx)

Sigh . . . Maybe I should just give up my (personal) campaign to clean up trans terminology. It's a losing battle. The media in general will continue to refer to transitioned women (and men) as transgender folks, whether we like it or not. And plenty of other people will continue to do so, as well. A transitioning friend told me recently she will always consider herself to be a transgender person, even after she has had GRS and the legal paperwork says she is a female.

I guess it is a personal thing. Some readers recently have mentioned that as transitioned women, they just want to blend in with all the other women and not draw attention to themselves. Believe it or not, outside of this blog (and a trans group I host), that's the way I feel, too. In my daily life, I don't broadcast my medical history. There are new people in my life who have not been told that I transitioned. And I only do this blog because it is an opportunity to raise some awareness for people who need to be better understood -- and accepted -- by society.

I decided not too long ago that I want to shake off the label as soon as I can simply because portions of the world view it in a way that is incorrect. To tell some people that I have that past it to say that I am really my birth gender in their eyes. It's not worth the trouble or judgement.

QuoteThe media in general will continue to refer to transitioned women (and men) as transgender folks, whether we like it or not

Perhaps the problem is no-one has sat down and decided just which terminologies we will choose to find offensive.

We live in a world of compartmentalising. A world where the luvvies who use dettol, drive the right car and seek to portray an image of intelegent normality, need labels to distinguish themselves from the masses. More especially those sections which they might, at a given time, decide are possibly fashionable to be associated with. Rather like the latest breed of dog.

QuoteWhen it comes to trans terminology, each to their own

And that just about sums it all up really.

QuoteThe media in general will continue to refer to transitioned women (and men) as transgender folks, whether we like it or not

If the new DSM-V passes as proposed, at least we won't be mentally disordered anymore!  Just think, once adopted, the prejudice and discrimination will come to an abrupt halt. 

No more job discrimination!

No more family walking out of your life! 

No more friends abandoning you! 

And no more funny looks! 

Time to open the champagne!   :icon_drunk:

Anyone who refers to a post transitioned, post corrected binary confirmed woman as a "transgender" is a neo-gynophobic, mysogynistic sexist pig, period.  That would include GLAAD and the media.  And the DSM V revision will consider such a woman as cured of her condition and thus medically a woman as well.

Of course the transgenders who scream bloody blue murder about the "->-bleeped-<-" word will still also claim they have the divine right of non-cis privilege to define women of history as something other than woman but what else is new?

Quote from: spacial on December 12, 2010, 09:58:30 AM
Perhaps the problem is no-one has sat down and decided just which terminologies we will choose to find offensive.

We live in a world of compartmentalising. A world where the luvvies who use dettol, drive the right car and seek to portray an image of intelegent normality, need labels to distinguish themselves from the masses. More especially those sections which they might, at a given time, decide are possibly fashionable to be associated with. Rather like the latest breed of dog.

And that just about sums it all up really.

I see no reason that trans anything should be included in a newspaper article or any other form of media. No ones business is right. No one else is labeled by a medical problem. How many articles go 'that diabetic person did whatever'? None, cause it just don't matter and neither does a person's state of transitioning or orientation.

Quote from: spacial on December 12, 2010, 09:58:30 AM
Perhaps the problem is no-one has sat down and decided just which terminologies we will choose to find offensive.

We can't even agree on a common terminology, worse yet, once we accept a label, someone else come along and changes it and now we've got to learn all new terms.

Divide and conquer...

They can only divide us of we let them.

Personally, I'm ready to stand up for and beside, anyone who seeks to express their gender in whichever way is suitable and acceptable to them

No distinction between those that have completed every op to those that want to cross dress once a week.

Divide that biggots. (Directed at those that seek to divide us).

Quote from: spacial on December 13, 2010, 01:57:00 PM
They can only divide us of we let them.

Personally, I'm ready to stand up for and beside, anyone who seeks to express their gender in whichever way is suitable and acceptable to them

No distinction between those that have completed every op to those that want to cross dress once a week.

Divide that biggots. (Directed at those that seek to divide us).

But that's my point, they don't have to we do that all by ourselves.  Within our own community we distinguish ourselves by what we're pre and post at or even not at all.  We seperate ourselves by "passing" vs "not passing" and by who's more dysphoric (more real) then who.  And we (non-crossdressers) distance ourselves from them (crossdressers) and they (crossdressers) want nothing to do with the fettishistic ->-bleeped-<-s (TG's little freakshow).

The non-GLBT community doesn't have to do anything at all, they just have to stir the pot just enough to keep us segregating ourselves from, well, ourselves.  And we wonder why the GLB community left us sitting at the kids table?

Quote from: Muffin on December 12, 2010, 08:57:33 AM
I decided not too long ago that I want to shake off the label as soon as I can simply because portions of the world view it in a way that is incorrect. To tell some people that I have that past it to say that I am really my birth gender in their eyes. It's not worth the trouble or judgement.

I feel the same way. There's not a box in people's heads for us. It's not even being a different kind of man to them, it's being a woman posing as a man.