Printer-friendly version
Author:
Obit of the LA Times editor who helped to encourage this in the mainstream press.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-14/henry-fu...
Also worth a read for the “best typo ever.”
BigCloset TopShelf
TopShelf TG Fiction in the BigCloset!
The Hatbox
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
If you prefer, you can donate through Patreon:
Become a Patron!
Thank you!
Comments
Paywall
The L.A. Times story is behind a paywall.
Thanks
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll quote briefly from the article:
And here’s the typo: https://www.laweekly.com/best-typo-ever-runs-a-1-in-the-los-...
Depends on One's Personal View
Why split hairs when they are only words and at one time have the same meaning? Is it really important if someone out of the loop thinks or calls me transgender instead of transsexual? Yes I have heard the arguments why one and not the other. Did I change gender? Not hardly. Okay, did I change sex? No, I'm still the same person I was born as. Dr. Shadid informed my parents it was a boy. BOY was he wrong. But as humans naturally do they go by first observation. Despite the facade on the outside I was a girl and I'll die a woman.
Do I care if it's transgender or transsexual? Not in the least as I think both are wrong but until medical science and the way the public perceives those like me who don't fit into their nicely defined order of only male or female and nothing can blur the boundaries between, either will work.
"
"While at The Times, Fuhrmann initiated a change in usage from the outdated word “transvestite” to “transgender,” Not even close as transvestite only wishes to dress in the opposite gender's attire and would shun getting close to hormones or surgery. This doesn't apply to all as there is no black and white boundaries in the world despite humans trying to make some. I've read where transvestite has breast implants and or hormones but as far as cutting off the water weasel? Not in their lifetime.
Such a fun subject and so many who don't fit into anyone's idea of what a person should be or shouldn't be. I vote for calling everyone "Hey You" instead of having individual names. Couldn't go wrong then.
Hugs People
Barb
Life is a gift. Cherish it until it's time to return it to the one who gave it to you.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Transgender, Transexual, Transgenderism
Actually is a total mess. If one is interested in digging further I suggest a little research with multiple articles so one doesn't get the opinion of another person. Kinda fascinating if one is bent in that direction.From The Guardian to a hundred publications and Wikipedia it's truly a smorgasbord of how these people came about to what was the timeline leading up to the first surgery.
Don't freak out when you click on the link. It has been shrunk but is an extremely long URL from Google.
tinyurl.com/3rre5acf
Hugs People
Barb
When life drives you bananas it's time to make banana pudding.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Some usages that I'm familiar with
As has been pointed out, word usage changes, and different communities or subcommunities and even different individuals will have different meanings and implications for different terms at different times. Also, there's a lot of trans politics around word usages as well. Anyway, what I've been using:
"transvestite" was the old word that more or less corresponds with modern "cross-dresser" -- a person who likes to dress up as the opposite sex, but has no intention of living as that sex and no interest in medical transition. I'm told "transvestite" is now considered derogatory, perhaps because it was used by the many "expert" analyses of transgender behavior that treated it as a perversion or a defect. (Cf.: autogynophelia)
"drag" is AFAIK used to refer to dressing as the opposite sex as a performance, in which the audience is expected to be aware of the sex of the performer and that of the character. In any other context, I see it as a put-down.
I at least still use "transsexual" to refer to someone who is undergoing medical treatment to better fit in with their gender identity, and I believe a number of well-known (trans) writers do as well.
And "transgender" is the umbrella term, which includes anyone who does not feel that their assigned sex/gender describes who they really are.
However, I'm told that a lot of non-binary people, esp. younger people, reject the label "transgender" because of their experiences of being invalidated by more traditional transgender/transsexual people. (The "more trans than thou" folks.)
Transsexual - crossing from one sex to the other
When I first discovered that there was a name for what I was, I was transsexual. I always liked the word. Gender dysphoria is a condition of the mind - I think that I am something that I am not. Transsexual means crossing from one sex to the other, and that is what I wanted to do. It is a word with positive connotations as far as I am concerned.
Then along came transgender. It means crossing genders ... does it. My internal gender was always always clear - it was feminine. I needed to adopt a masculine gender to conform. I am not crossing - I am pretending. Even the word "gender reassignment" had to be removed from our nomenclature and replaced with "gender confirmation".
But sex as a binary description is the state of physical being. A transsexual, whatever the stage of transition might be, is crossing from one physical form to another, to conform with their innate gender.
The word transvestite has been in use the longest, and refers to clothing. We use is less than crossdresser or drag queen (and "female mimic" was another term) because there is a huge spectrum of transvestic (or should it be transvestitic) behaviors. But then again "trans" is used to group the whole lot together, in our bigger spectrum.
But I for one, prefer the term transsexual.
Maryanne
cis/trans vs. sex/gender
The words denote different aspects.
cis/trans specifies whether the object is the similar or different to a reference (e.g. cisapline vs. transalpine).
The sex (sexus) describes the physical aspect, so "transsexual" means changing the physical presentation (through SRS etc.) from the natal (egentic) sex, whereas gender describes the mental (psychological) aspect, so "transgender" means the state of having a different gender from that implied by genetics (natal sexus).
AFAICS "transgender" describes the state of a person (who might be pefectly happy with living as the right gender without any drastic physical changes) while "transsexual" implies physical changes (usually of a drastic and irreversible nature).