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"?

[pouchedfox.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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".

[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

[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.

[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.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure exactly what part(s) of my comment you're responding to, but if it's in reference to the "shemale" and so on: True, but I have trouble imagining that the average (or even exceptional) hurtful bigot really cares about such fine distinctions. Or accuracy.

If you were referring to something else, can you please clarify what? Thanks.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm responding to that part. I don't know what my particular intended configuration is supposed to be called, but people know what 'shemale' means. I'm not particularly fond of the term myself, although I'm more affectionate of it than I used to be.

[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.

[parmonster.livejournal.com]

Racemic; Evenly mixed/comprised equally of two parts.

I'd presume this to then mean bigendered at the least, and given a lack of other choices, inclusive of androgyne, genderqueer, and similar non binary-conformant genders.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

As is your heart.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Huh, learn something new everyday. So Racemicgender is identifying only with your own race? Makes no sense, since we're all, more or less, human.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Uh, no, I believe it means that one identifies as... well, I hate to say "half of each", because that's not it at all, but it's close enough.

Re: just my thoughts..

[centauress.livejournal.com]

How far off topic to you intend to range?

This is something I find offensive.

[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?

Re: just my thoughts..

[gaelfling.livejournal.com]

was I directing this at you in particular?

didn't think so- should Foxgrrl find offense with my thoughts on this topic then will I honestly worry, and will I honestly offer some sort of appology, and only to Foxgrrl

and I don't think it is all that off topic- this poll is about gender and perception

[adularia.livejournal.com]

It's another of those words whose meaning is deeply stratified by class and location. 'Tranny' calls to mind violence and fear and middle America, for me. You don't hear it as an insult in [educated, urban, cosmopolitan] space that is remotely conscious/tolerant of queerness... elsewhere, "tranny" and "freak" and "shemale" and even "queer" are not compliments. (There was a guy protesting the gay marriage legislation in Iowa last week with signs about "queers." Oy.)

I'm a cis woman in NYC, and a couple weeks ago I heard a pair of frat boy types going on about "shemales" on the 6 train. I did the New Yorker thing and pretended they weren't there rather than call them on it.

[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?