That Blog About That Queer Kid

Aug. 30, 2010 at 12:28am with 328 notes View comments

beliefs

stfuhomophobes:

stfusexists:

queersecretssucks:

Avoid: transman, transwoman, trans-man, trans-woman, etc.
Instead, use: trans man, trans woman, etc.
Why?: The one-word “transwoman” and hyphenated “trans-woman” imply that trans is a gender different from woman. The space indicates that it’s an adjective describing a woman, such as “Asian man” or “fat woman”.

Avoid: a transsexual, an MtF, an FtM
Instead, use: transsexual person, trans people, trans woman, trans man
Why?: These words (and all their variations) are adjectives, not nouns. Using them as a noun reduces to their identity and only their identity. The initialisms (MTF, FTM) are offensive when used as nouns because they ungender trans men and women by implying that they are a different kind of man or woman (similar to “transman” above). Many trans men and women don’t identify with these acronyms at all (even as adjectives), while others believe that they accurately describe their identities.

Avoid: T-girl, boi, tranny, she-male, he-she, it, trap, dickgirl, cuntboy, best of both worlds
Instead use: dont’. Just, don’t.

But wait! I self-identify with these terms! Many people self-identify with these terms. For example, some trans men and women may choose to identify as a “transwoman” or “an FtM”. Using these terms with these specific people is not offensive, but these terms should not be generalized to all people. Other terms, such as “T-girl”, “boi”, and “tranny” are very common for self-identification, but can be very insulting and triggering to others.
In summary, self identification is wonderful, but generalizing is not.

I have to admit, I was ignorant of the difference between “transwoman” and “trans woman”. This is a really good guide, and I think that a lot of the time when well-meaning cisgendered people say offensive things, it’s simply from ignorance. Posts like this really are helpful.

I have to admit the same… It is good to know now though. I will try to be better about it in the future for sure.

i stopped saying transmen and transwomyn for the aforementioned reasons. however, i feel like using trans-man and trans-womyn is not the same. the reason i say this is for grammar. i use trans-womyn in place of “transgender womyn” as it is an abbreviation. “trans” is not a word on its own. obviously when using the whole word, i’m not going to say transgender-womyn as that is ridiculous and inaccurate. the entire reason for hyphenating the words in the first place is to make the distinction that the trans portion is not necessary, if you will, in the way it’s currently being used. transman gives no opportunity to be detached, whereas, trans-man does, since the hyphen creates a physical and psychological separation. the reality is that whether one uses a hyphen or space the distinction between someone being a person versus a trans-person is still made for the “trans” portion is there regardless. in the same way that a black womyn is not only a womyn, a trans-womyn is still, when this language is being used, trans first and a womyn second. this is not to say that trans-persons are not the same as cis-persons, but when making the point to place a linguistic difference between the two (eg “trans,” “black,” “lesbian,” “disabled,” “fat,” etc etc versus putting nothing there at all and, therefore, implying that persons not requiring modifiers are normal), that difference is still there. there is no problem with being trans, obviously, but there is a problem with pretending that a hyphen separates the trans-community from the cis-community when it the fact that the words cisgender and transgender exist and make that distinction on a psychological level by their existence alone.