Is the Word "Tranny" Offensive?

[foxgrrl]

See also:

Tranny and Subversivism: Re-reclaiming Tranny (or not) part 1

Is Tranny Offensive?

(No one can see who voted on this, except for me. So you won't out yourself to everyone.)
(UPDATE: This poll is in no way scientific, and I had to write it before my laptop battery died, so I may have spent, at most, five minutes thinking about it. And 1:=not offensive, 10:=very offensive.)

[Poll #1381790]

Comments

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

How I feel about it coming from someone else really depends on the context. If they're a cis friend it's okay for them to refer to me as a tranny, if they're a stranger it's often not.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I look at it the same way as I do slurs for other marginalized and oppressed groups: if a member of the group in question uses it, fine, if a nonmember uses it, that's offensive.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

"Racemicgender"?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah. "Racemicgender"? Google gives this post and nothing else.

[pouchedfox.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming your 1-10 scale meant 10 being the most, and 1 being the least.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Seconded, to a degree, in that the term for me is strictly automotive in nature. Mapping terms of stick-shift, triptronic, and continuously variable to this non-automotive context is left as an exercise for the reader.

[nodesignation.livejournal.com]

As far as being offended when trans people use it, I'm virtually never offended when a trans woman uses it, but if a trans man uses it, it depends on context. I agree with Pope_guilty that a member of the group a derogatory term is used against has the right to use the term, and I've pretty much only seen tranny used derogatively against trans women.

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

I'm a transguy and I've heard "tranny" applied equally to transgender people across the spectrum, both in its derogative form and in its reclaimed form.

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

Much like many other people, I feel that it's certainly okay for members of the group themselves to use it. Outsiders? Hmmmm...

To be honest, I haven't seen "tranny" used as an insult all that often. (Not by any means saying I don't think it happens, just that I haven't been a witness to much of it.) To me, the word "tranny" just feels like a shortening of "transsexual" or "transgender(ed)"; if some bigot were going to try to insult a transperson, I suspect they'd use a term like "shemale" or "freak" or some such instead, and so I'd see the emotional loading as attaching to terms like that instead.

For the record, I don't think it would ever occur to me to refer to a transperson as "shemale".

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Except there are some transpeople who are deliberately neither conventional sex, and none of the terminology for such people is entirely satisfactory or descriptive. At least in my opinion.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I find it more grating than offensive. It's a word without style that seems low and common. It hits me the same way as "tweening" or "irregardlessly".

So... I guess it IS offensive to me, but it's aurally offensive, not socially offensive.

just my thoughts..

[gaelfling.livejournal.com]

while my physicality is in face male (XY), and I do enjoy women, this doesn't mean I am 'cisgendered', as I find that I do not wholly apply myself to the expectant gender role as applied by current social expectations- I don't think female or male, I could in fact be thinking and feeling in both ways, do not feel that I am, or apply myself in a 'typically' male or female role- I simply am, and find it hard to rap my mind around a single genre entity anyway, at least in a mental processing state
as for terms- I'm not offended by the term 'transgendered', though I tend to think of persons who do not apply themselves to their phycisality as being fluidly gendered
*shrugs* it's how I'm wired- eventually humanity may get to a point where gender is moot, because no longer will [biological]females be the only ones to carry a child to term inside them, anyone who wants to experience that will be able to, but it will also come to a point where an (XY/XX) won't be a dictate to 'gender' assignment because that might also be a thing which can be adjusted, reassigned or even removed entirely in favor of a dual gendered species which is still fertile
Gods know I'd enjoy that day- the concept of a 'defined role' for a 'gender' has always been counter to my sense of what should be- what and who we are should not be defined by some outdated and outmoded sense of 'roles'-- we each are what and who we are, and we each should be allowed the chance to pursue what makes us happy
what brings us peace, and the outside physicality should not be a barrier to that

at least for me, but like I said- I don't think with the 'typical' mindstate as dictated by society

Re: just my thoughts..

[centauress.livejournal.com]

How far off topic to you intend to range?

This is something I find offensive.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I don't know what any of those terms mean? I'd decline to answer because I have no idea what any of those are.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

"Cisgender" means that you identify as the gender you are biologically a member of. Cis is the "white" of gender- falsely normatized, where the power sits, and so forth.

I believe "Racemicgender" is derived from "Racemic", which is a mixture which is of equal amounts of two substances, with the implication being obvious.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't use the word, statistically speaking. But if I do, I pretty much only use it in the presence of trans* or trans-friendly people, where there's an understanding that it's not meant to be offensive. I'm not sure how a word can be offensive when it's divorced from the context of its use; the context is what defines the word. Even when someone just sees the word on a page by itself, they are applying their own context to it in order to give it meaning.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

PS. Just want to say that I am enjoying hearing so much about you and from you. I'm glad to hear you found yourself again. I've wanted to participate in the discussion on not discussing your genitalia, but I am up to my own tits in hell right now. My job is not paying me and hasn't for weeks & I have maybe 100ish bucks staring down 1,000ish in bills never mind food and gas. Annnnnnd.... that dumb ass male I've been seeing is breaking my heart. I only just now got water back at my house after 2 weeks of foraging at the horse park for water to flush my toilets...

In all of this really super hard, hurty stuff I found solace in thinking back to one of my favorite moments with you... when we curled up to go to sleep in the bean bag in your living room after decompression. I was wrapped in your long, warm caring arms, my head against your shoulder. It felt really serene and sweet. A soft nest of gentle. I think as far as your parts go.... your arms are pretty cool.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

As is your heart.

[spider88.livejournal.com]

I honestly had no clue that "tranny" was considered a slur, or offensive, or any such thing. I thought it was just a cute abbreviation. I don't think most straight people have any clue what the word means, so how could they use it pejoratively?

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

if a white person didn't know that the n-word was pejorative towards black people, do you think it would make it hurt any less if they used it?

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Racemicgender probably should have come with a definition attached, because it doesn't seem to have ever been used anywhere else in all of internet.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Isn't that Italian salad dressing? Olive oil and racemic vinegar?

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

Racemicgender? Sounds like a Happy Meal!

I'm not a fan of "tranny", not so much because of its historical use as an oppressive word, but for the same reason I'm sick of "trans" instead of "transgender"; it sounds to me like we're trying to hide the fact that we're talking about gender, like it's a euphemism because we're afraid to say the word "gender" or something. So I twitch a little when I hear it, because it just sounds like an ignorant word to use, but I'll also use it in kind of a joking tongue-in-cheek sorta way, or when talking to people who also use it comfortably, because I try not to do too much language-policing (I used to be a huge pain in the ass about that, and I've chilled way out about it).

I honestly dislike "cisgender" much more than I dislike "tranny", though, because I don't believe in labeling anybody with a label they don't identify with, and I don't know anybody who would fall under the definition of "cisgender" who would comfortably choose that term for themself. It also makes it sounds like "cisgender" is the "opposite" of "transgender", and I definitely don't have the experience that people who aren't transgender are the "opposite" of people who are.

[girlvinyl.livejournal.com]

I don;t feel smart enough to take this poll.

[mooflyfoof.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, before I knew anyone that was trans and trans people weren't "real" to me (if that makes sense), I'd use the term "tranny" fairly off the cuff. Not as an insult but just... I dunno, as a casual term for trans people? I didn't really think about it. Then once I started having friends who were trans and gained a deeper understanding of what that means and the kind of experiences trans people go through, I stopped using the term entirely. It just seemed really flippant and possibly insulting-- a term used to describe a transgender person by someone who doesn't actually have any understanding of it and is possibly/probably prejudiced against them. I think of it as a term used to diminish transgender people's existence, to try to put it into a neat little box -- those "other" people, those "trannies". I use the term "trans" now.

It doesn't bother me at all when trans people use the term -- it's sort of like when gay guys call each other faggot, or when black people call each other n****. It did startle me a bit when you used it though because it's not something I hear all that often.

Actually, I guess I do still say "tranny bar" when referring to something like AsiaSF, just because that's what those kind of places are called and I don't know another term for it. Maybe that's part of it. I associate the term with hypersexualized stripper and/or prostitute transgender people, and that's not how I want to describe someone who is transgender but not involved in those activities. It seems demeaning.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

As a member of, oh, basically every traditionally-considered-oppressive group in the world today (straight[ish] white male with a college degree), I have to say, I've never heard "tranny" used as a slur for trans* people.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a contraction, with no more malicious intent behind it than when someone refers to the differential of a car as a "diff".

Before anyone takes the "well, you're not a member of the group, so you've got a blind spot there" line of reasoning, allow me to point out that as a member of the outside group here, if the term was being used as an insult, it would be be very likely I'd have heard it used thus prior to this discussion.

[proudlyfallen.livejournal.com]

OK, I don't have time to read over 70 comments on an issue that doesn't really involve me... But I'll probably skim over them anyways just 'cause I like learning new things and points of view. I just wanted to put in the two cents from the other side first.

I am a woman. I like being a woman. I've been daydreaming about having kids and cleaning house since I was in 5th grade. In high school I lived for the times my mama would go down to see her parents for a week, and I got to run the household. Given a credit card paid for by my parents, I buy groceries and cleaning supplies. I read outdated ettiquete books for fun.

From this point of view... lumping all biologically happily gendered people into "cisgender" is vaguely offensive (now that I know what cisgendered means). Me? I'm cisgendered. A biological female, happy to be a female, who works on cars, likes computers, and never wants to have kids or be bothered with vacuuming? Not cisgendered. It's offensive in the same way feminism offends me. The word simply is not used to mean what it's supposed to mean. Feminism was supposed to empower women... Instead, it gave feminists a self-built moral high ground to despise women like me. Cisgendered is supposed to be a biological and social gender in agreement, but that doesn't neccesarily fit all non-trans people who are happy being non-trans.

I don't mean this to be offensive or anything, and I would certainly not hold using the word against anybody, but I just wanted to voice my opinions. Think about it or dismiss it as you would.

[adularia.livejournal.com]

I, as a feminist, don't have any problem with who you are and how you want to live. I do have a problem with the implication that I'm not actually a woman if I love cars (well, bikes, not cars) and computers and hate housework and don't want kids.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

As a cisgendered person, I would NEVER use that word. I read on the GLAD website that the term is hate speech. I am not offended if a transgendered person uses that word, because it would not be hate speech.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

while i'd probably be labeled cis*, the last time i explained my gender to someone (a coworker, a few weeks ago), i said i am a (my first name, a common female name). which works for me, even though i'm not particularly "feminine".

since the way my gender plays out, i mostly get more privilege than i lose. i feel *i'd* be whining and detracting from others' realities to make an issue out of an unwanted label.

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

I didn't tick the "offended" boxes since I think it's not a question of whether the word hurts any individual's feelings; it's a question of whether it exists in a social context that perpetuates a power disparity through belittling (or worse).

Um.

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

This is a word that I used to use (back when I was more clueless and thought I was straight), I don't any longer as I have no clue whether it is offensive to any of the trans people I know. ANd since it's not an essential descriptor, I don't use it.

[davidsarah.livejournal.com]

I/we was quite surprised by the replies by people that said they had never heard of the word "tranny" being used disparagingly. Only yesterday, two men walked past me in Manchester, looked at me and one muttered "tranny" to the other. Another man shouted at me from a car to "get my tits out". This is in one of the more cosmopolitan cities in the U.K. I wan't so much offended, as disappointed at having to raise my estimate of the frequency of stupid and ignorant people.

So no, I/we don't think that "tranny" is reclaimable any time soon.

OTOH, the term "tranny-chaser" used by transfolk is just as bad. We are attracted to trans people, so does that make us "tranny-chasers"? Or does being bigender ourselves give us a free pass out of that box? Trans-attracted people are individuals, and even if there is some kernel of truth to the negative stereotype of a "tranny-chaser", stereotyping is as unhelpful here as in any other context.