Discourse in the Trans Community

To date, the trans community still struggles to develop a consistent and accessible language. Many websites contain large glossaries of terms currently in use, but there is much debate over how various words should be defined. Adding to the problem, trans people use a variety of different terms to describe themselves, making dialogue with the general public confusing and difficult.

It will take time for our people to develop a clear, simple and consistent language that enables us to impart our shared and individual experiences to the world at large. Here, I'll present some of the strengths and weaknesses of current terminology.

Why nitpick over language intricacies? We define our world and everything in it through language. The words we use greatly impact our perceptions of things, people and experiences. Through language, we gain understanding. But language can also hinder understanding. Witness the confusion among many over the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation. Many outside the GLBT community, and even some gays and lesbians, think that "transgender" is just another form of homosexuality. Much of this confusion is caused by inadequate language.

Transgender: Generally accepted as the "T" in "GLBT," this word has become the standard, all-purpose term for gender nonconformists of every stripe. As of late, it has often been used when referring specifically to “transsexuals,” (another problematic word, but I’ll use it when necessary because it’s what people are used to) wherein it suffers from linguistic inaccuracy.

The prefix "trans" means "to move across." "Gender" applies to one's inner gender identity. But transsexuals don't change their gender. Gender identity is something we're born with, and having a gender that consistently opposes our physical sex is precisely the reason we are transsexuals. To call a transsexual "transgendered" doesn't make much sense, because it assumes a changing or even fluid gender identity. Some people truly are transgendered, but the word is not all-encompassing.

Transsexual: The suffixes "sexual" and "sexuality" imply sexual orientation and behavior, as in homosexual and bisexual. A transsexual, then, would be someone whose sexual orientation changes. But the transsexual condition is only about gender identity being incongruous with one's physical sex. It has nothing to do with sexual behavior or orientation. Most transsexuals are straight (attracted to the sex opposite their gender identity). Some are gay or lesbian and some are bi. One's sexual orientation is an issue independent of his or her gender identity.

"Transsexual" also suffers from an image problem. Until only recently, the mainstream media has depicted exclusively male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals as representative of transsexuality. Worse, it has parodied, paraded and insulted the transfemale image, creating an unhealthy association with “freakishness” in the public mind. Destroying this image could take many generations.

Transsexed: This is one of the most accurate words I’ve yet seen, though its use isn’t widespread. It isn’t perfect either. Technically, it should only apply to someone who is in, or has completed, transition through hormones, surgery or both. The word suggests that one's physical sex is changing or has changed. So what do we call a pre-transition mind-body incongruous individual? At what point does a person become transsexed? It also carries another problem related to that of "transsexual," a problem imbedded in the English language itself: The word sex.

"Sex" has two distinct meanings. It refers to both the characteristic of being male or female and the act of having sexual intercourse. This makes it more difficult for people to intellectually separate gender, sex and sexuality than it might be if we had different words for the two definitions covered by “sex.” When one hears the word sex, it usually brings to mind thoughts of physical attraction and the act of having sex. So to use transsexed as a description of mind-body incongruity is somewhat counterintuitive and creates confusion.

Intersexed: This word could encompass both transgendered people and transsexuals, except that it is already in use specifically for conditions involving chromosomes and/or genitalia, which begs the question, How do we define sex itself? Where exactly is the dividing line between male and female? What body parts are sex dimorphic? If a baby is born with XXXY chromosomes, he is called "Intersexed." Likewise, one with ambiguous genitalia, regardless of his chromosomal makeup. The condition can be caused by hormone imbalances in the womb during key stages of fetal development. Research has demonstrated that transsexuality is also caused by hormone imbalances in the womb, and that at least one area of the brain is affected.

The present definition of intersexed assumes that chromosomes and/or genitals are the exclusive determinants of physical sex. This ignores the fact that the entire body and all its individual parts are sex dimorphic. Various subtle and undiagnosed forms and degrees of intersex probably occur on a massive scale among normally chromosomed individuals, but only when the genitals are affected do we call it intersex.

Therein lies the problem with using this word for trans people. Because our society is accustomed to thinking of sex in terms of genitals, it would foster the incorrect notion that we all have ambiguous genitalia. This might not matter, except that many people are uncomfortable with genital ambiguity. Others are just curious, understandably, when there’s any reason to suspect that a person’s genitals might be different in some way.

Technically we are intersexed through hormonal causes, the brain being the sole area of effect (as well as is known). When we take cross-sex hormones, we become further intersexed.

(Food for thought: If X is the female chromosome and Y is the male, are not all males intersexed?)

Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS): In some states, we aren't allowed to change our birth certificates or driver's licences until we've had "sex reassignment surgery." The mainstream media often touts this surgery as the final stage of transition. The notion of SRS no doubt stems from the widespread image of the MTF, and her four basic stages of transition: Therapy, hormone treatments, the "real life test," and SRS. (As I understand it, most MTFs get SRS.)

SRS is genital surgery. Just as with the word intersex, the concept of sex reassignment again focuses on genitals. The use of this term also implies that anyone who hasn't had SRS has not yet changed his or her physical sex. It negates all the sex reassignment that occurs through hormone treatments, changes, both minor and major, to every organ and system in the body. Those changes are particularly prominent in FTMs.

For a transman, "sex reassignment" is even an inaccurate descriptor of the surgery. An MTF gets a penile inversion to create a vagina, but an FTM already has an undeveloped penis, the clitoris, which hormone treatments enlarge to what is arguably a small penis. Genital surgery is meant to enhance this organ. It is therefore sex enhancement surgery, not reassignment.

Many transmen never have genital surgery. It's expensive, risky and the potential results aren't to everyone's satisfaction. Naming this surgery SRS negates the experience of manhood for countless transmen and places us in a position of legal hardship. Let's call it what it is: Genital surgery.

“Used to be:” “He used to be a woman.” “She used to be a man.” “He used to be a lesbian.” This terminology distorts the truth. The transman was never a woman in the way that women are women. He had a female body, but not a female mind. He has always experienced life differently than the way women do. In short, he was thought to be a woman, but in reality, he was always a transman.

“Living as:” This is related to “used to be.” “Living as a man.” “Living as a woman.” Living as anything is a subjective experience. Even if a transman once wore women’s clothes and held a typically feminine occupation, even if he bore children or was married to a straight man, did he ever truly live “as a woman?” How could he if he never was a woman? Even if he hadn’t yet figured out that he was a transman, which is extremely difficult when one lacks the necessary language to define one’s self, he never lived as woman does. His life experiences were different from those of a woman.

Looking at this from another angle, what does it mean to live as a man or woman? Do all men and woman live in certain rigidly defined ways according to their gender? No.

On the other hand, a transman may have spent most of his life living in a way that society thinks of as stereotypically masculine, but due to the shape of his body, he was never capable of passing as a man in others’ eyes. But the way “living as” is typically used assumes a transperson’s ability to pass as the gender of his or her identity. It is dependent on whether other people read him or her as a man or woman. It places the act of living into an objective frame, and suggests that a person’s way of life has nothing to do with his or her subjective experience. It’s a grammatical absurdity.

“Living as” would be better stated as “passing as” in its current usage.

Wolf