#trans terminology

[genderqueerdykes]

to whoever needs to hear this: transvestite and transsexual are not slurs. "outdated" queer terms are not inherently slurs. these are literally historically the first 2 terms created and used to talk about the trans community, both coined the first doctor to perform successful trans sex reassignment surgeries, who spent the rest of his career pioneering and paving the way for the modern surgeries we perform today. his name was Magnus Hirschfeld, he was a jewish doctor who began a lifetime of fighting for queer rights due to being moved by the struggles his queer patients went through in terms of not being allowed to accept themselves during the Nazi regime at the time. these are perfectly fine terms that have grown to develop their own distinct meanings and communities over time. this man spent his life fighting for trans and jewish rights during Nazi occupation. any queer term can be used as a slur in the wrong hands. thank you

[genderglass]

@sklarissa

There are generally two ways that Serrano’s definition of transmisogyny are interpreted. Either it is the intersection of transphobia and misogyny or it is the transphobia experience by trans feminine people. In the first case, AFAB transmasculine people would experience transmisogyny because the systems of oppression don’t view them as men, they view them as either confused or failed women. People get really fucking upset when you point out that with that definition of transmisogyny transmasc people experience it, and most people only ever use to refer specifically to transphobia experienced by trans women, so that’s the definition that a lot of us use.

If you don’t want us to use “transphobia experienced by transfemmes” and you don’t want us to use “the intersection of transphobia and misogyny”, then what definition do you want us to use?

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[thenatureofbutch]

And THIS is why it is so special to be in a time where we can listen to our elders speak openly. So we better take advantage and LISTEN.

Sometimes I get comments or asks or whatever from the identity police about who can be called butch.

Well, dear sweets, firstly get to know your history, watch this video to the end, respect your elders and then digest the fact that nature is as it does. So, you staring at a natural truth, and telling it, that it's wrong, only shows something unnatural of you- work on it my babycakes.

You can also read more of what I personally (so not those featured in the above video) have to rant say if you feel so inclined...

I myself remember how butchness was well known as a spectrum of how masculinity looked on those who were not cis men. I remember how that spectrum included butches who would further their masculinity/Adorn their masculinity with hormones/surger(ies), I remember how butcheness extended to those who were queer but not lesbian, and their role within the butch world was never questioned or even pondered at. Because to be seen in the world as butch, is a very specific thing, with specific ostrasisations, and specific ways to understand what gender is and specific ways of being made to feel ugly for not adhering to the way the west pictures women. To be butch is a very specific feeling starting in our earliest memories for most of us we have that feeling before we even develop sexual desire, because its entirely its own thing, and it creates a very specific bond. A bond of butchhood.

I was very young when witnessing just a little of this time period, the solidarity within it still was strong enough to hit me and captivate me. It's been sad to see just how much of that has changed into a relentless need for over specification, dissecting the community left right and centre, policing eachother. Do we not remember the enchanted connection of anti police anti state moral with queerness? Please let us do better, please let us help one another do better.

[sandybuny]

hard to feel proud of much this pride

[vampire-nyx]

Honestly really disappointing and upsetting that just after I found the pills that make you green comics the creator turned out to very much extremely hate people like me

[derseprinceoftbd]

This is my take as a perpetually online, yet closeted, trans woman, on transandrophobia discourse:

I think the most compelling argument *against* the term is that classes[1] that traditionally hold power in their relevant hierarchies don't get specialized terminology. It only really goes downward. There is no specific term for the oppression of Black men that is equivalent to misogynoir; this seems to just be "racism". As such, keeping "men" as such a class, we can see that *trans* men do not, under this established linguistic system here[2], have entitlement to a specialized term.

The strongest argument *for* the term transandrophobia I've seen is that while you can argue all instances labeled as such into forms of transmisogyny if you want, you can also argue *transmisogyny* into just different expressions of *sexism*. Think of the idea of the "third gender", *faggot*. The man who does not fit into the dominant gender binary is feminized as he is ridiculed; you can see this combine with sexism, the consequences for failure to be masculine, as the primitive form of transmisogyny, and transphobia in general.

I think you can tell I find the second argument to hold more weight; as such, I do think there is a stronger case for the usage of the term transandrophobia[3] than there is against it, though I do try and do my best not to really *judge* anyone's opinions on this discourse[4], because I can tell that a lot of it comes from a place of pain, of identity, of fear, of the complexity of these issues-I can't begrudge anyone here anything, and that included a term or an argument against it.

1: ...whether or not, say, misandry is a real and significant enough thing to qualify that in any way, like let's leave that aside.

2: ...leaving aside also whether this is good, whether specific terminology is in fact needed for the oppression of Black men and male ethnic minorities in general, because honestly that is just completely unfamiliar territory to me; I do not get that discourse or even an equivalent in the circles I cultivate to see the discussion of my ethnic identity, Jewish. I really don't know here, I'm just using an example.

3: ...though *transmisandry* is a whole other thing, and, frankly, I think just gets bogged down in too many weeds through what should be some pretty evident associations.

4: ...I wonder if this will be my most condemned stance of all, the fact that I'm generally trying to become this sort of zen person who, even as she takes sides and stances, continually recognizes and empathizes with the circumstances which lead people to oppose her views.

[milkshakeworm]

TRNS MAN JAYCE TRANSFEM NB VIKTOR

[spitblaze]

Gendertash From Hell Issue 02 (1993)

Transcription under cut

GENDER MYTH #1

Although male-to-female transsexuals have surgery to change their anatomy and take female hormones, they still act like men.

FACT: Some male-to-female transsexuals act in ways many consider to be masculine; some don’t. The same can be said of nontranssexual women. In fact, some types of “masculine” behavior in nontranssexual women are applauded in the lesbian and women’s communities, while the same behavior in a transsexual woman is taken as proof that she is “really” a man. Labeling behaviors as masculine and feminine is of little practical value and only reinforces gender stereotypes.

GENDER MYTH #2

Male -to-female transsexuals are not womenborn women (or womyn-born womyn).

FACT: No one is born a woman. Most of us who ended up as women started out as girls. The paths we took to womanhood are many and varied. Most male-to-female transsexuals felt like girls from as early as they can remember, just like most nontransexual women. Although many nontranssexual women struggle with the changes associated with becoming women, most become women without consciously attempting to. This fact doesn’t make our paths any better, more natural, or more valid than transsexual women's paths.

GENDER MYTH #3

Male -to-female transsexuals have been socialized as men, and this socialization cannot be changed.

FACT: The messages given to each person about the roles of males and females in society are a little different, and these messages may be experienced in very different ways. Many transsexual women felt that the male messages they were given were inappropriate. Many felt inadequate to meet the demands placed on them to “act like a man.” Nontranssexual women feel they have a choice to become aware of and reject parts of their sex-role conditioning— so do transsexual women.

GENDER MYTH #4

Male-to-female transsexuals are trying to “pass” as women. They try to make themselves as much like nontranssexual women as possible.

FACT: Male-to-female transsexuals are women; they don’t need to pass. They don't necessarily want to hide or eliminate their differences from nontranssexual women, although the threat of ostracism leads many to do so. Some transsexuals are proud of their particular route to womanhood, feel that they have learned a lot from the joumey they have taken, and value the unique qualities they bring to the women’s community.

GENDER MYTH #5

Transsexuals take jobs away from other women because they had access to better training when they were men.

FACT: By making the transition from male to female and staying at the same job, some transsexuals have forced employers to change rules restricting women’s positions and salaries, thus opening doors for other women. Many transsexual women seek out qualified women to hire. Furthermore, by holding jobs not traditionally thought of as appropriate for women, these transsexual women bring the message to the general public that women are capable of performing “men’s” jobs.

GENDER MYTH #6

To lessen the power of patriarchy in our lives, we must purge our community of everything male, including women who once had male anatomy.

FACT: By emphasizing the distinction between male and female, we reinforce the idea that there are exactly two distinct sexes. This is the very concept that permits sexism to exist, because discrimination wouldbe impossible if women were not readily distinguishable from men. If we wish to deflate the power of the patriarchy, the most effective thing we can do is encourage the blurring of gender lines and expand our thinking beyond the male-female dualism.

GENDER MYTH #7

Most women can easily prove they are not male-to-female transsexuals, if they are challenged to do so.

FACT: There is no simple way to prove you are not a transsexual. There are no apparent physical characteristics nontranssexual 7 women have or lack that distinguish them absolutely from transsexual women. Birth certificates and other documents show an “F” for both. Chromosome tests may reveal | an XY pattern for a nontranssexual woman. | Hormone levels do not distinguish transsexuals from nontranssexuals. Even inspection of the genitals may not provide definitive proof of your gender history.

GENDER MYTH #8

Male-to-female transsexuals have been raised as boys, have never been oppressed as women, and cannot understand women’s oppression.

FACT: Some male-to-female transsexuals were raised as girls for portions of their lives, appeared to the world as girls, and were treated like girls. Some were beaten and raped both by outsiders and by their own family members because of their belief that they were girls or their desire to become girls. For most, the difference in the way they were treated when they appeared as men and after they began appearing as women brought sexism into sharp focus.

GENDER MYTH #9

Women’s space is not “safe” space if male-to-female transsexuals are allowed.

FACT: Women's space is not safe | whenever anyone in it behaves in threatening or disrespectful ways toward another. Transsexuals are no more likely to | behave this way than nontranssexuals. We should exclude individuals who behave badly rather than exclude an entire group 3 because some of its members act in | offensive ways—any group could be | excluded on this basis. Most importantly, )) women must take responsibility for their their own feelings of being unsafe when others are not acting in threatening ways.

GENDER MYTH #10

Transsexuals have surgery so they can have sex the way they want to.

FACT: How or with whom a person wants to have sex is rarely a major factor in the de) sire for sex reassignment. Usually, people undergo reassignment in order to make their bodies conform more closely to the way they feel inside—their gender. Whether a transsexual is attracted to men or to women usually doesn’t change with surgery. » Although no figures are available, probably | a third of transsexual women are straight, one third bisexual, and one third lesbian. Sexual orientation is not related to gender identity.

GENDER MYTH #11

Male-to-female transsexuals are trying to take over the lesbian community.

FACT: Most transsexuals who identify as lesbians are focused on their own personal growth and happiness—just like most nontranssexual lesbians. Those who feel strongly about their night to participate in women-only events may become activists for their cause and hope to influence the lesbian community. On the other hand, being overly sensitive to issues of power and wanting to avoid controversy, many transsexuals repeatedly decline to take leadership positions and abstain from participating in decision-making votes.

GENDER MYTH #12

The sex assigned to a person at birth is that person’s “real” sex.

FACT: Sex is assigned at birth on the basis of a cursory glance at the baby’s genitalia. | In about 5% of births, there is some ambiguity in the sexual organs, and mistakes can be made. In other cases, internal genitalia, chromosome patterns, hormone production, and secondary sex characteristics that develop later may be at variance with the person's external anatomy. Sex is arbitrarily assigned by the patriarchal medical system, and there is no reason to assume that it is any more correct or real than what a person experiences.

GENDER MYTH #13

The lesbian and women’s communities have nothing to gain by including transsexuals.

FACT: Transsexual women bring many valuable qualities to the women’s community. They bring skills usually taught only to men into the women’s community and pass them on to other women. Many are active feminists, increase opportunities for women, and seek to hire and promote women. Those who have made it through transition must have intelligence, persistence, and a sense of humor. Many also bring a spirituality that has been possessed historically by cross-gendered members of various cultures.

GENDER MYTH #14

Nontranssexual women have the right to decide whether transsexuals should be included in the women’s community.

FACT: Each individual has a right to claim her own identity. While being adamant about having this right for themselves, some members of the women’s community would deny it to others. Just as each woman must come to her own conclusion about whether she is a lesbian, each must know her own truth about being a woman. Transsexuals can and do include themselves in the women’s community and the lesbian community without permission from nontranssexuals.

GENDER MYTH #15

Transsexuals are guilty of deception when they don’t reveal right away that they are transsexuals.

FACT: There is no standard of disclosure that requires transsexuals to reveal their medical history, just as lesbians do not need to mention their sexual orientation immediately on meeting someone. The circumstances in which this is considered an important fact to know vary from person to person. The individual meeting a transsexual may collude in the “deception” by assuming she or he is a nontranssexual. If it’s important to you to know, take responsibility for asking.

GENDER MYTH #16

Male-to-female transsexuals are considered men until they have sexchange surgery.

FACT: Although male-to-female transsexuals appear as men during some part of their lives, most never consider themselves men. They have felt like females for their entire lives. The change from male to female is a change in external appearance of sex-related characteristics, not a change in gender (how a person feels inside). This transition takes place over a period of several years, and sex-reassignment surgery is only one part of it, together with living as a woman, taking hormones, and resocialization.

GENDER MYTH #17

People can be categorized as transsexual or nontranssexual—there’s no in-between.

FACT: There are nearly as many categories as there are people. There are transsexuals who have had or plan to have one, two, or many surgeries to make their bodies conform more closely to their gender, and those who will never have surgery. Some people feel comfortable expressing both genders. Some refuse to identify as either gender. Some people (male and female) enjoy cross-dressing, but their gender is congruent with their sex. Some conform to gender norms; some flout them. The possibilities are infinite.

GENDER MYTH #18

Women who want to become men have bought into societal hatred of women or are hoping to take advantage of male privilege.

FACT: Female-to-male transsexuals don’t want to become men—they are men. The reason they want to change their bodies to become more male appearing is because that’s how they feel inside. If they gain male privilege, it is tenuous; whatever they have gained is lost if they are discovered to be transsexuals. If transsexualism were based on misogyny, there would be far more female-to-male than male-to-female transsexuals. In fact, their numbers are thought to be about equal.

GENDER MYTH #19

A person’s “true” sex can be determined by chromosome testing.

FACT: Although most persons identified as male at birth have XY chromosomes and most of those identified as female have XX, there are many variations that can occur. Some “women-born women” have XY chromosomes, a fact that may be discovered only when they are tested to qualify for athletic competition. Other patterns, such as XXY, XYY, and XXX (no, this does not make you an amazon) can also exist. Some individuals have what is called mosaicism, in which some percentage of cells have an XY pattern and the remainder have XX.

GENDER MYTH #20

Transsexualism is unnatural—it is a new problem brought about by sophisticated technology.

FACT: Throughout recorded history there have been people whose gender identity did not match their anatomic sex, and there is evidence that sex-change surgery was performed thousands of years ago. In some cultures, transgendered individuals were held in high esteem as shamans. Today, surgery—from liposuction to sex reassignment—allows many people to have a physical form that is more congruent with | their inner sense of themselves and the way they want to appear

GENDER MYTH #21

“Real” women, certainly those who belong to the lesbian community, rejoice in their womanhood and have no desire to be men.

FACT: There are people who were assigned as females at birth who identify as men, and many of them become part of the lesbian community. Most would be labeled butch lesbians. Many are afraid to reveal their desire to appear more completely as men, including taking testosterone and undergoing surgery to remove their breasts and construct penises. (Transsexual men are apparently permitted at Michigan because they are “still women” according to the Festival doctrine of immutable sex.)

GENDER MYTH #22

Now that Festival policy has been made clear, there are no transsexuals at Michigan.

FACT: Festival policy is far from clear. The brochure states that the Festival is for “womyn-bom womyn.” Many transsexuals include themselves in that category. While some transsexuals have no desire to participate if they know they are unwelcome, others are here and will continue to come because they have a right to be at any event open to women. No statement has been issued about whether female-to-male transsexuals are welcome at the Festival.

GENDER MYTH #23

Transsexuals have caused trouble at Michigan, resulting in their expulsion.

FACT: According to Festival organizers, transsexuals have been attending MWMF for many years, and 1991 was the first time a transsexual has been expelled. Nancy Burkholder was expelled because she said something that made a woman suspect she was a transsexual, not because her behavior was offensive. In fact, Nancy had participated fully in the 1990 Festival without incident. There is no evidence that transsexuals have ever caused trouble at Michigan. Seeing transsexuals as trouble-makers is once again blaming the victim.

GENDER MYTH #24

Nontranssexual women at Michigan don't want male-to-female transsexuals here.

FACT: Although Festival organizers claim that the policy excluding transsexuals reflects the senument of the community at large, many nontranssexual women support the rights of transsexual women and want them to be included. A survey of over 600 women at the 1992 MWMF showed that 73% of those surveyed thought male-to-female transsexuals should be welcome at the Festival; 23% thought they should not be welcome and 4% were undecided. Only 20% would welcome female-to-male transsexuals, who are apparently permitted.

[tangledinink]

I just saw another ask calling Gemini au Donnie afab, and obviously he does have XX chromosomes in your au (or the turtle/mutant equivalent at least?), but if afab means assigned female at birth and Donnie and Leo were assigned male at birth by Big Mama.... Does that technically make the two of them amab trans men???

Or.... amak? assigned male at kidnapping?

LMAO yeah. I always grapple with the terms because I'm like. WELL... THEY TECHNICALLY... WEREN'T ASSIGNED FEMALE AT BIRTH LMAO,,,, they're both, technically speaking, amab, so yes, they are in fact both amab trans men lmao.

And they weren't TECHNICALLY kidnapped... so... amaa? assigned male at... adoption??? u w u

[wanderingcritter]

maybe there's something im not understanding here, and honestly at the end of the day i don't really care one way or the other this is a pretty exclusively online topic, but the whole "neo/xeno AGAB" thing is like... vaguely transphobic right?

and i am absolutely 100% NOT the person to try to tell others how they should identify or what labels they should be using, im literally a transmasc nonbinary mspec/queer lesbian transspecies werewolf who uses xeno pronouns for fucks sake, it doesn't really get anymore "queer as in wtf is going on" than that.

but from what i've seen and read about it, it kind of seems to be simultaneously reinventing and discrediting the definition of transgender. To directly quote the "AGAB Non-Conformity" infographic made by @/nonconformityhub,

"Those who reject their AGAB, are unassigned, or were forced to fit a binary sex at birth may wish to self-assign a different AGAB. It's based around the idea that we shouldn't be forced to stick with a falsely assigned gender."

like, am i not understanding something or is that literally just the definition of being transgender or gnc?? i think the thing that rubs me the wrong way about it is that it almost kinda implies that as a transgender individual you should or need to disclose the gender you were assigned at birth to others, which (unless it's for legal or health related reasons) you literally just don't. If you are a trans man, congratulations, you are a man. You don't have to be an "AFAB man", you're just a man. As far as anyone else needs to be concerned, you are male and have always been such. The whole point of being trans is to reject the gender you were assigned at birth because it's flat out not what you are.

Idk again I don't really care that much I don't think it's gonna single handedly set back trans liberation or anything of that sort, I just feel like we SHOULD be focusing on dismantling the system of assigning genders at birth to begin with and reasserting that sex ≠ gender, rather than simply modifying the system to appeal to certain individuals and disregarding preexisting communities trying to accomplish that goal, and would maybe just encourage everyone to look at this kind of stuff with some healthy skepticism

[weskie]

hi first glove anon here. i feel like i started something LMAO i’m glad you all share my vision

anyway i have more thoughts. specifically about medfet wesker… wooooo!!

wesker who insists on “examinations” in the medical supply room, dons his blue vinyl gloves and pries your lips apart to look at your teeth and depresses your tongue with his fingers to watch your face take on a subtle expression of confusion. he moves onto your throat and makes palpitations there, across your chest (bonus for lingering touches on an ftm reader with top surgery scars!!) and down to your waist, pressing into your hip dips just a little too hard so that you wince and/or have some bruising later from where he was slightly rough about it.

and, if you’re being pliant enough, he might just have to look in some other areas, hmm? examine your thighs and calves for “injuries,” just taking the time to casually feel you up. never taking it as far as you’d like so that the rest of the team doesn’t get suspicious. URGHHH I COOKED HERE.

anon i can't believe you made me learn this about myself just now lmAOOO (/positive)

ALSO YOU HAD ME AT THE BIT ABOUT CHEST SCARS HALLELUJAH

no but i NEED to see a super detailed close up of his hands in exam gloves in the absolute worst way now. any color, but green in particular i feel would really accentuate the details of his hands very nicely, especially the bumps of his knuckles and maybe even a vein or two

[p2ii]

have you considered that maybe that trans guy isnt a girl actually

(exclutionists/anti 'contradictory' labels/etc dni)

[cellophane-wasp]

Alternatively...

Edit: let's add a few more layers to this

Testosterone often (not always) makes trans men infertile.

Trans women obviously can't be impregnated (apparently scientists are working on that).

Trans men are masc (for the most part).

Trans women are femme (for the most part).

Initially I was mad that everyone was picking boypussy even though it's clearly the right answer. Then I realized it isn't necessarily. Obviously not all trans people are on hrt or even want to be, but I'm not diving into the intricacies of medical transition, gender expression vs gender identity, etc. Now I'm not really sure what Eddie Glusky would prefer.

[gh0stz404]

"our grandpa made a respectful gay joke? i didn't know he knew how to do that!" -me when my grandpa makes a respectful gay joke

and the joke, for those of you who might be curious: "Someone told me my jacket looked gay, and so i told them "it just came out of the closet!""

[red-lights-of-doooooom]

Controversial autism post of the day:

On the term "Aspergers": Yes, we all know Hans Asperger was a Nazi. Yes, we all know that the term "Asperger's Syndrome" is out of date and hasn't been in the DSM for more than a decade. That being said, if there are older autistics who wanna call themselves "aspies" or say that they have "Asperger's", then that's their choice. You shouldn't necessarily call them out or correct them for it. Sometimes that's what they're comfortable with. Maybe it's just more comfortable for them to say that then it is to say "autism" or "ASD" or "level 1 autism" or "high functioning autistic disorder" or any other label.

Source: am autistic. Was lucky enough to be diagnosed at 3, despite being female, back when they called my condition "Asperger's" as it applied to me. I personally use autistic or ASD, but I won't be offended if you call it Asperger's. Sometimes I even say "aspie" to refer to myself, even.

This is kind of similar to the trans debate. One of my older friends is trans (MTF) and has been a woman for a long time now. But she still says (pardon my language) "transsexual" as opposed to the more politically-correct term "transgender", simply because she says that it was the term she was given when she was young and she doesn't feel the need to change it. She usually just says "trans", though. And honestly? More power to her. I'm not going to correct her if that's how she personally identifies. That's her choice, I guess.