Its a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world

[raybear]

I need to come out about something. I really, really dislike the use of the word "tranny/trannie". I'm not even talking about that Project Runway dude. I'm talking about my friends and neighbors.

I'm more okay if its used to describe some sort of event/space/concept that is about being intentionally provocative, like "Trannyshack" in SF. I'm not okay with it being used a general noun or descriptor of a category of people, e.g. "you could come, its full of trannies!!" or even things like "tranny yoga class" or "tranny dance night." Even if this is supposedly being used as a positive selling point. If a trans person uses it self-referentially, I don't notice as much, since I respect any homos right to call themselves a fag, a dyke, a lesbian, a queer, etc. But non-trans people saying it really gives me the willies the most. Its like all the gross fetish buttons get lit up on my emotional switchboard.

So, I'm curious to know what others think.

[Poll #1226144]

Please don't be shy about checking any box, as all of them are things I've thought myself while pondering this question.

Comments

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

1, I don't think there is a trans community effort to reclaim the word...so it isn't the same as fag/dyke/queer.

But for me there is something even bigger going on (I checked other).

Tranny is still an active and socially acceptable slur, even in the queer (but not trans) community....which makes the reclaiming of it not exactly possible.

Let me be more specific--I have never seen a Jerry Springer show entitled queer/fag/dyke anything. He often has shows titled: When Tranny's Attack. "Tranny Porn" is not produced by or for transpeople...it is pure fetish, and fetish in a creepy way...and it is used all the time, it is in wide circulation. Christian Siriano was quite telling with his "Hot Tranny Mess" -- which was clearly a negative thing in his lingo, as opposed to fierce hotness. Because Trannys are hot messes...tying into the image of the tall, manly, non-passing, ugly transwoman...who is probably also a prostitute.

The ubiquity of the use of tranny...makes it unable to be reclaimed at the moment. You need to have some room of usage to reclaim something...and we don't. Our big radical group is called Transgender Menace, not Tranny Menace. At Michigan it is called Camp Trans, not Tranny Camp. We aren't trying to reclaim that word. Rather we've created new words (transgender, genderqueer, intersex) that we are trying to get into wider circulation, and we are trying to reclaim different old words (transexual without the two s's).

Tranny, diminutive, dissmissive, fetishized tranny is not being reclaimed. And the fact that unlike queer/dyke/fag...tranny is used to describe a particularly potent fetish commodity system (porn/prostitution) that is hurled upon transwomen cannot be underestimated. That is a powerful reason why that word will not be reclaimed anytime soon. No one loved fag before it was reclaimed. There are entire industries of transphobic/transfetishist that love the term...that embrace the term...and wield it as a term of sexualized power over. Embracing the term will not do anything to change how they use that term or change its meaning for them.

this resonates with me

[gender-euphoric.livejournal.com]

yeah, and what you are saying about what "tranny"-as-a-slur means, that is who in particular is being marked with that word, well that all makes the genderqueer/ftm "reclamation" of that word especially absurd.

I mean, I don't even particularly like calling myself a fag, even though I generally am gay. I've never had the word flung as a slur towards me.

Re: this resonates with me

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

Indeed. FtM's really don't have much room to reclaim the word "Tranny" since that word doesn't tend to be used against FtMs. Can't reclaim a word that isn't really being used against you in the first place.