The Doc is right – tranny is absolutely a word with a hateful history. I do not think that in comparing it to ‘nigger’ and ‘cunt’, Eve meant to say that its impact is identical, but merely to put it in a category of ‘reclaimed words we nevertheless shouldn’t throw around casually’.
Bingo. And I must stress that I don’t think anyone in this thread was being remotely offensive.
Woah, when did this happen? As I said before, I hang out with a lot of transgendered people (mostly transsexuals) and a lot of them use that term themselves. I asked in two of the transsexual IRC channels I hang in about this and none of them said it was on the same level as nigger. The main objection to it as expressed by many of them is that they don’t want to be associated with transvestites. As you examine websites which use the term tranny, most of them seem to be generic to transgendered issues rather than transsexual issues. I can understand not wanting it to be used because transsexuals don’t want to be associated with crossdressers/transvestites, but I think it is wrong of you to say that it is equivalent to nigger, especially when a lot of the community members don’t think so and use the term themselves. And I don’t mean as a reclaimed word, but in the fact that they don’t see how it could be offensive other than with the transvestite connection.
In the UK, tranny is used to refer to transvestites while transy refers to transsexuals.
“Tranny” doesn’t bother me. Perhaps there is some jocularity to it with the diminutive suffix but nothing as significant as the N-word or any other racial epithet. Maybe it’s like “Queer” or “Dyke” where some people see it as derogatory whereas others use it without a negative meaning (both terms have mostly lost their “edge”). “Faggot” is one that a lot of gay guys throw around but is not as publically acceptable as is the counterpart “Dyke”. "Tranny’ is pretty accepted among trans folk though.
“Shemale” is a bit crass but I like “tgirl” – simple and still provocative.
Heh, I call my boyfriend a faggot sometimes…and this is probably bad but I usually do mean it in a bad way. Like when he’s doing something that is way over the top stereotypical, I’ll tell him to stop being such a faggot. I know, I’m a horrible gay man and should be shunned. (if it redeems me at all, I don’t do it very often)
Chimpy said that he had never heard this and I did a google search and couldn’t find anything either. My UK ts friend must’ve been mistaken, or it’s only used in small circles.
Although I do know some girls who identify or have identified as such, I think overall it is a negative term and I don’t use it except with close friends.
This thread is the first time I’ve heard anybody say otherwise.
All the transsexuals I’ve known said that it was on the same level as nigger.
Just what percentage have to agree that it is offensive before the motion is passed?
I understand your confusion. To me as an American, the word doesn’t even exist. I only heard it every so often over the last couple years, and it’s always been an Australian or UK TV show I heard it on. They seem to use it very casually in a diminutive way. The same way you’d refer to someone named Robert as “Bobby.”
That it is now suddenly considered right up there in the “offensive” category is a surprise to me. I’m still not clear why it’s offensive though. Because they use it on Jerry Springer? I’d be offended if they used my name in any form on Jerry Springer, but so what? I hate Jerry Springer. He certainly doesn’t color my social or cultural mores.
I really don’t understand what your debate is here. When someone asks you not to do something they find offensive, do you usually argue with them and demand they substantiate its offensiveness? We’re not lying to you, you know. The word “tranny” is associated with the fetishization and dehumanization of transpeople whether you’ve ever encountered it or not. Not exclusively, but historically. It offends some people. Why do you need to be convinced that this is true?
I’d like to drag this discussion back to the show for a second. Are we sure Alexis is really going to do this, or is it a stunt? I would’ve thought she would have already started the preliminaries, but from what I could see, she’s not taking any hormones - no softening of the face, visible stubble, no budding breasts, and an apparently fully-functioning penis she seems quite anxious to share with the Playmate. Wouldn’t someone who is serious about becoming transgendered have already begun these treatments and show the beginnings of the resultant traits? I’m not familiar with her history, but it seemed to this admitted uneducated viewer that so far, it’s all talk.
Feel free to prove me completely wrong - I’m really curious about this, not trying to fling accusations at her.
It’s not a stunt, and I completely believe you don’t mean to offend. If you heard her speak about it, however, you would understand it would be offensive to suggest it’s a “stunt”. She states that she is a transwoman. She states that she will have surgery, and I don’t know what you mean about her yet-uncorrected male traits, because I haven’t noticed them, or looked for them. Some trans people choose to transition without hormones or surgery, and they have every right to without being accused of “faking” it. Again, I know you’re not doing this, I’m just giving you the information.
She lives as a woman, identifies as a woman, presents to the best of her ability as a woman, and has every right to be accepted as a woman, though it will be a long time before many people can do so, sadly.
'Cept for when she wants to give the Playboy chick a piece of her meat. Sorry, but it’s really hard to take this person seriously. She’s like a bad Jerry Springer guest.
I don’t care what she does with her body, but I’m not going to tiptoe around and try to be PC when discussing her. Whether she’s a male or female, transexual or transvestite, she’s a tacky attention seeking bitch who has invited speculation as to her sexual status. Don’t be so shocked when the average person has a hard time with the pronouns.
Yeah, in the Gay community he’s been known for awhile as a drag queen. Now she’s “changed her mind” and is a trans-something reality show fame-whore, but we’re supposed to bend over backwards respecting her various “guess what I am today” kaleidoscopic image changes. Or something.
Frankly, this thread has become so hateful, I would like to request it be closed now.
Closed at the request of the OP.