O G TRAN E [controversial]
Jun. 16th, 2009 10:36 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
iphisol.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
transGod, I know that this is throwing a rock at a hornet's nest, but I'm feeling so exhausted by seeing it over and over in the last week or two, in places where I thought people knew better or cared more, that I want to post something.
Can we talk about FtM-spectrum1 trans folks2 appropriating the word "tranny?"
I. It is inappropriate. When someone assigned female at birth self-identifies as a "tranny," I read it in pretty much the same way I read an HRC equals sign bumper sticker on a car: "Oh, you don't even bother to think about the fact that I exist."
It's a word that's used in popular vernacular to disparage, undermine, or hypersexualize (and therefore dehumanize) trans women. That's still how it's almost universally used, outside of a specific segment of the queer community. If I see the word in a magazine, or in a not-queer blog, it's fair for me to assume that the person is talking about a trans woman, not a trans man.
If you google it, or look it up on urban dictionary, or take a poll of people's moms, let's compare how often you come up with trans women vs. trans men. Then, take out all the instances of "tranny = trans men" that aren't put up there by trans men themselves (or a women's community fetishizing them), and the results will be ... lopsided, at best.
I don't know why it seems okay to so many ftm spectrum folks. I mean, my feeling is, sometimes somebody realizes that they're trans, and sees that there's an edgy term for that- "tranny"- and it feels like a nice way to make a newfound trans identity feel less... intimidating? Less sterile, or clinical, or like a diagnosis or something? I don't know.
Here is the thing: as Cedar does a great job of pointing out in hir absolutely crucial essays- Part One, Part Two, please PLEASE read- ftm spectrum folks have very different things at stake when it comes to this word. The way "tranny" gets used in heteronormative discourse3, it means: "failing at femininity." Or, "not really female." So, duh! It makes sense for "failing at femininity" or "not really female" to be less hurtful- even potentially a point of pride- to someone on the ftm spectrum.
But that's irresponsible. As long as that's a word that's used to dehumanize trans women, or ungender us, or undermine our genders, it is going to feel edgy. And trans guys using it to mean exactly what trannychasers use it to mean? I mean, it's going to be edgy in the same way that a lot of language in rap songs can feel edgy to middle class white kids, if you follow my metaphor. The problem is that the REASON the word "tranny" feels edgy (or, more specifically, subversive) is that it's a slur used to keep trans women in their place.
Do you see the problem with trans men feeling empowered by it?
II. Can I give you a specific example? I know that this is getting long, but I'd like to be clear. I'm a performer, I sing and I play guitar and I make up songs. A few months ago, I was invited to play a benefit for a trans woman who had a lot of medical bills. The community that both she and I call home is our local nebulous queer women's/anarchafeminist/punk/zine/whatever community, right? Makes sense: we are queer women who make zines and are punks or whatever. So the event was me, two trans guys, and a non-trans woman performing. There may have been one other trans woman present, but I can't remember who it was, which leads me to think that I was the only trans woman present, but for the benefit of the doubt let's say there were two trans women. There were at least five other FtM-spectrum folks there, besides the performers.
Pretty standard for an event in our community, which is totally cool; a lot of those guys are my friends, and are totally great, and I would never criticize them for being part of this community; the point I'm trying to make is that there were HELL of trans guys compared to trans girls.
But here is this thing. One of those guys was wearing a shirt on which he'd scrawled "O G TRAN E." As in, original gangsta tranny. (I'm not even going to start in on the OG part.) Here is what happened. The show was in an anarchist infoshop, so I was like, hey, anarchism, I'm going to give up my last song to anybody else who wants a turn. I put down my guitar, somebody in the audience came up and sang, and I took a chair in the back, right behind OG TRAN E. And immediately, on reading dude's shirt, I wanted to go home. I'm performing this benefit for another trans woman and here's this person flaunting the fact that he can use that word without consequence, and that he either hasn't thought it through enough to wonder whether ANYONE would be hurt by that, or else he doesn't care. Either way, suddenly I was very tired and I wanted to be in bed with my girlfriend and my dog, sleeping.
And nobody else, obviously, had said anything to him- or else maybe his shirt would have been inside out. Is this, indirectly, the reason I'm the only trans woman here? Because nobody in this community cares enough about trans women to call somebody out for wearing a slur on a shirt? It becomes my job to either go home feeling shitty or else try to talk to this person and maybe be heard but, more likely, for him to go back to his normal life, not hanging out with trans women, where nobody's going to say anything. Either way I'm going to be emotionally exhausted.
Blah blah blah. Even if you disagree with me- and I know, lots of people disagree with me, even though nobody's been able to convince me that there's a good reason (besides apathy) to- can we please acknowledge that lots of trans women legitimately feel shitty about the way that word gets thrown around so carelessly?
1. For lack of a perfect term.
2. I understand that MtF spectrum trans folks do this, too, but I'm not talking about that. I feel like that is a conversation to have, but it's a different conversation, which I don't feel as stressed about.
2. I apologize here because I'm trying to write this accessibly, but I can't think of a better way to put this. Mostly what I mean by "in heteronormative discourse" is "by dudes on TV."
Can we talk about FtM-spectrum1 trans folks2 appropriating the word "tranny?"
I. It is inappropriate. When someone assigned female at birth self-identifies as a "tranny," I read it in pretty much the same way I read an HRC equals sign bumper sticker on a car: "Oh, you don't even bother to think about the fact that I exist."
It's a word that's used in popular vernacular to disparage, undermine, or hypersexualize (and therefore dehumanize) trans women. That's still how it's almost universally used, outside of a specific segment of the queer community. If I see the word in a magazine, or in a not-queer blog, it's fair for me to assume that the person is talking about a trans woman, not a trans man.
If you google it, or look it up on urban dictionary, or take a poll of people's moms, let's compare how often you come up with trans women vs. trans men. Then, take out all the instances of "tranny = trans men" that aren't put up there by trans men themselves (or a women's community fetishizing them), and the results will be ... lopsided, at best.
I don't know why it seems okay to so many ftm spectrum folks. I mean, my feeling is, sometimes somebody realizes that they're trans, and sees that there's an edgy term for that- "tranny"- and it feels like a nice way to make a newfound trans identity feel less... intimidating? Less sterile, or clinical, or like a diagnosis or something? I don't know.
Here is the thing: as Cedar does a great job of pointing out in hir absolutely crucial essays- Part One, Part Two, please PLEASE read- ftm spectrum folks have very different things at stake when it comes to this word. The way "tranny" gets used in heteronormative discourse3, it means: "failing at femininity." Or, "not really female." So, duh! It makes sense for "failing at femininity" or "not really female" to be less hurtful- even potentially a point of pride- to someone on the ftm spectrum.
But that's irresponsible. As long as that's a word that's used to dehumanize trans women, or ungender us, or undermine our genders, it is going to feel edgy. And trans guys using it to mean exactly what trannychasers use it to mean? I mean, it's going to be edgy in the same way that a lot of language in rap songs can feel edgy to middle class white kids, if you follow my metaphor. The problem is that the REASON the word "tranny" feels edgy (or, more specifically, subversive) is that it's a slur used to keep trans women in their place.
Do you see the problem with trans men feeling empowered by it?
II. Can I give you a specific example? I know that this is getting long, but I'd like to be clear. I'm a performer, I sing and I play guitar and I make up songs. A few months ago, I was invited to play a benefit for a trans woman who had a lot of medical bills. The community that both she and I call home is our local nebulous queer women's/anarchafeminist/punk/zine/whatever community, right? Makes sense: we are queer women who make zines and are punks or whatever. So the event was me, two trans guys, and a non-trans woman performing. There may have been one other trans woman present, but I can't remember who it was, which leads me to think that I was the only trans woman present, but for the benefit of the doubt let's say there were two trans women. There were at least five other FtM-spectrum folks there, besides the performers.
Pretty standard for an event in our community, which is totally cool; a lot of those guys are my friends, and are totally great, and I would never criticize them for being part of this community; the point I'm trying to make is that there were HELL of trans guys compared to trans girls.
But here is this thing. One of those guys was wearing a shirt on which he'd scrawled "O G TRAN E." As in, original gangsta tranny. (I'm not even going to start in on the OG part.) Here is what happened. The show was in an anarchist infoshop, so I was like, hey, anarchism, I'm going to give up my last song to anybody else who wants a turn. I put down my guitar, somebody in the audience came up and sang, and I took a chair in the back, right behind OG TRAN E. And immediately, on reading dude's shirt, I wanted to go home. I'm performing this benefit for another trans woman and here's this person flaunting the fact that he can use that word without consequence, and that he either hasn't thought it through enough to wonder whether ANYONE would be hurt by that, or else he doesn't care. Either way, suddenly I was very tired and I wanted to be in bed with my girlfriend and my dog, sleeping.
And nobody else, obviously, had said anything to him- or else maybe his shirt would have been inside out. Is this, indirectly, the reason I'm the only trans woman here? Because nobody in this community cares enough about trans women to call somebody out for wearing a slur on a shirt? It becomes my job to either go home feeling shitty or else try to talk to this person and maybe be heard but, more likely, for him to go back to his normal life, not hanging out with trans women, where nobody's going to say anything. Either way I'm going to be emotionally exhausted.
Blah blah blah. Even if you disagree with me- and I know, lots of people disagree with me, even though nobody's been able to convince me that there's a good reason (besides apathy) to- can we please acknowledge that lots of trans women legitimately feel shitty about the way that word gets thrown around so carelessly?
1. For lack of a perfect term.
2. I understand that MtF spectrum trans folks do this, too, but I'm not talking about that. I feel like that is a conversation to have, but it's a different conversation, which I don't feel as stressed about.
2. I apologize here because I'm trying to write this accessibly, but I can't think of a better way to put this. Mostly what I mean by "in heteronormative discourse" is "by dudes on TV."