adventures in the convoluted world of transgender sexism

[aopt]

Am examining my transmasculine privilege and trying to figure out if my immediate negative reaction to this post is because I legitimately disagree or because I dislike being told I have privilege

Comments

[reddwarfer]

*hugs* I think as long as you call yourself the term and don't push it on those who don't want to have it assigned to them, it's fine.

There's never going to be a cut and dry answer to these questions and there's always going to be some difficult navigation.

[iesika]

I think a person ought to get to determine what they call themselves. It's one of the most basic rights - the right to identity, and it's the whole basis behind the push for 'political correctness' in naming of groups (a term I hate - I wish people would just recognize it as BEING POLITE).

I refer to myself as queer, most often, and that is the huge collective group in my head that I belong to - people who are not heteronormative. I also sometimes refer to myself as a lesbian, even though I am bisexual, because, while I may be attracted to guys as well as girls, the balance of my identity and orientation seems to be tipped in that direction.

This is getting long and I'm thinking of just ambushing you in chat, but basically, I want to say, you are the master of your own identity and you ought to call yourself whatever you like.

[nebulia]

I think it's one thing to call yourself a tranny, and another thing to call someone else it. Especially since you don't have another word that...well, sounds good and doesn't require much explanation ( I do it (though without the potentially negative implications) and call myself queer most of the time, even though I identify as pansexual. Just because I get tired of explaining pansexuality, and most people don't understand "pan" in context). While I'm not stepping on any toes and you might be, I think it's perfectly reasonable to address yourself as "tranny," if you're okay with that. You have all the right in the world--like everyone else--to call yourself whatever you want to call yourself. I have a gay friend who says he's a fag. Like, I've never heard him, seriously or not, describe himself as "gay." As much as it makes some of the LGBT kids on campus twitch, he's in his rights to do so. And so are you. Does that make sense

[johnnash]

My interpretation has always been that shemale is worse than tranny, and also can't be/isn't used for or by trans men. I've only ever heard shemale used as derogatory against trans women, in the same breath as "chicks with dicks."

As has been said before, there's nothing wrong with using a term for yourself so long as you aren't using it for other people, and you have a right to name your own identity.

What you're describing is by and large one of the greatest complications in the "T" part of identity, since trans women are so often put down, given undue scrutiny, and in turn trans men are often erased/ignored.

[anonymous]

http://www.darcomic.org/2009/06/23/identity/

Not quite the same but, why do you need a word to identify yourself with? Gender is only one part of what a person is. If anything why not identifying yourself with that large array of talents you posses. To me, WHAT a person is never as important as WHO they they are. =)