Trans Terminology

Transgender is difficult to define since it doesn’t have one settled meaning.  It is often used to refer to people who “do not conform to prevailing expectations about gender” by presenting and living genders that were not assigned to them at birth or by presenting and living genders in ways that may not be readily intelligible in terms of more traditional conceptions of gender. As an umbrella term, it is supposed to group together several different kinds of people such as transsexuals, drag queens and kings, some butch lesbians, (heterosexual) male cross dressers, and other people, too. It is sometimes used to apply to people in non-Western cultures as well as people at earlier periods of history (despite the fact that none of these people ever used the term).

The term transgenderist was originally coined (we think) by Virginia Prince, a pioneer in the cross dresser movement in the US, to stand for a person who lives in the gender “opposite” the one assigned to them at birth but who is not a transsexual. It seems that Leslie Feinberg was one of the first to use this as a political, umbrella term.

Transgender now has a political connotation: it flags a political stance, mainly in the Anglo United States, which generally resists medical pathologization of trans people. This places it in prima facie opposition to the older notion of transsexual (at least in the more traditional sense of that word) which may or may not be included within the umbrella (depending upon the politics of the person using the word). For example, Viviane Namaste refers to both transgender and transsexual people despite the fact that transsexuals are supposed to be subsumed under the umbrella for clearly political reasons (among others).

Ironically, the term is also now also used as an equivalent to transgenderist, to refer to folk who live full-time in the role other than the one assigned to them at birth but who do not seem themselves as transsexual.    

It is likewise difficult to define any of these ‘sub-groups’. In general, all terms appear to be used in many (and frequently contested) ways.

Transsexual may be used to refer to individuals who use hormonal and/or surgical technologies to alter their body in ways that may be construed as at odds with the sex assignment of birth in order to alter their bodies to conform to their gendered sense of self or which may not be readily intelligible in terms of traditional conceptions of sexed bodies. It can be used to indicate people who self-identify and live as the sex “opposite” to the one assigned to them at birth. Traditionally, the term has been connected to psychiatric notions such as gender dysphoria and also associated with the metaphor “trapped in the wrong body.” Yet transsexual has also been redeployed in ways amenable to and possibly subsumable under the more recent term transgender (depending, in part, upon one’s political stance). It may also be used as a political term indicating a break from the term transgender and possibly contesting the underlying political ideology of “the transgender movement.” (There are also issues of generational tension between the terms transgender and transsexual).

FTM/MTF are abbreviations of female-to-male and male-to-female. They were originally connected to transsexual (medical) discourse indicating individuals assigned one sex and birth and transition to the “opposite” sex. They are now used in ways that have broken from this transsexual and medical discourse and may be used more generally to indicate folk who move away from being assigned male (or female) at birth to the “other” direction.  They may also be used as primitive (undefined) terms, given meaning in community contexts.  

Cross Dresser is often used to refer to individuals who self-identify as men but who like to dress as women (and perhaps have a secondary, partial, or additional self-identity as a woman). While cross dresser is often used as a term of self-identification by self-identified heterosexual men, it is also sometimes used as a term by both bisexual and gay men as well. The term is connected to the emergence of the heterosexual cross dresser organizations in the US and in Europe.

Drag Queen: This term is tricky. It is usually defined as “a gay-identified man who dresses as a woman for entertainment or as part of practices within gay male culture.” The difficulty is that this term is also applied to individuals (assigned male at birth) who live most of their lives as women (or like women) in possible connection (and possible lack of connection) with gay male culture. In such cases it would be misleading to define the term queen in this way. For example, it is sometimes said that those at the forefront of the Stonewall riot were drag queens. But, then, this definition scarcely seems accurate or complete.

Queen: This term is used as a term of self-identification among folk who might now be described as (and possibly describe themselves as) trans women. It circulates in specific subcultures.  

Drag King is usually defined as “a lesbian-identified woman who dresses as a man for entertainment or as part of practices within lesbian culture. This definition may have somewhat more stability than drag queen. 

Butch Lesbian: Sometimes used to apply to lesbians who present in ways that are traditionally characterized as masculine. Historically, the term is wedded to the partner term femme (which may refer to lesbians who present in what may seem to be more stereotypically “feminine” ways). In this framework, butches and femmes form a dyad involving complex interplay of expression, eroticism, and intimate relationship. The term is now used in other complex ways (recognizing butch/butch sexuality, for example). Great caution is required in identifying lesbians who may appear masculine under this one category. It has a history and a culture. For example, in black lesbian culture other terms circulate such as stud or aggressive. In cultures not using English, obviously (“obviously” I write with a smile) the term “butch” would not usually be appropriate.   

Gender Queer: Term used to resist categorizations, definitions, and to indicate gender non-normativity. It builds on the word queer, which aside from its negative connotation was reclaimed in the eighties as part of an “in your face” political stance emerging from the horror of the AIDS epidemic and hostility to identity-based Gay and Lesbian politics. Queer also has strong associations with Queer Theory (which is closely connected to post-modernism, and as such has “academic” associations). Overall, the term indicates a hostility to categorization, binaries, dichotomies, and the like.  Gender-Queer takes the flavor and sensibility of queer and applies it to gender.

This is a radically incomplete list.

I leave all the terms above entirely undefined—subject to interpretations and negotiations by specific individuals who self-identify with them. Many people who might be called transgender describe themselves in particular ways that are at odds with how the mainstream world might describe them.

While a transsexual women may see herself as a woman, other people might see her as a man trying to pass himself off as a woman. Very often “transgender people” find that others intentionally disregard their self-identities. So I want to be careful not to impose my categories on “transgender people” as I see this as one of the basic ways to treat such people with disrespect.

Note the depth of this problem. Consider a person who was assigned female at birth now lives and self-identifies as a man. Suppose that he does not self-identify as a transman. Indeed, suppose he does not self-identify as transgender at all. Instead, he sees himself quite simply as a man.  Can we categorize this person as transgender, then? If we do, aren’t we invalidating his identity?

There are other issues. Terms such as transgender and trans are often used within ideological contexts which roughly provide their meaning. For example, the term transgender now usually gets its meaning from a background theory about transgender oppression and resistance which was developed in anglo U.S. When this term is applied to those of different cultures (or subcultures) – even those who may live in different countries and/or at different historical epochs, the lives and subjectivities of these folk may be understood in terms of the background ideology which gives transgender its meaning.  Not only may these people be categorized in ways that go against their own way of self-identifying. It may also involve the imposition of an entire view of the world (ideology) which is hostile or oblivious to their own.  That is: It may be colonizing.

Consequently, I want to be very careful with the term ‘transgender’ since it is a contested term that is hardly used by everyone who might be described by it. The expression arises principally in an anglo-american context and can carry theoretical and political presuppositions that are culturally specific and potentially colonizing.

I will use trans as an umbrella term (often in place of transgender) to allow for possibly productive political tensions discussed above and to distance myself from the term transgender enough to criticize some of the underlying political ideology involved in transgender politics.

There is, however, a problem with my own use of the term. Trans is now a popular term of self-identification. For example, a person assigned female at birth may live as a (trans) man and self-identify as a transman.  Thus, when I use it, it is inevitably a term of self-identification. Yet I may also use it to refer to people who may themselves not use the term. I need to be clear, then, that I do not use trans with the intention of imputing an self-identity to anybody. I sometimes use it as only a functional and descriptive term which is not intended to invoke a shared category among diverse individuals. Nor it is intended to understand all people identified as trans in terms of a share conception or ideology about trans people and “our condition.” Despite this qualification (or rather, in light of it), the use of the term continues to be fraught and must be used with extreme vigilance.