sophiaserpentia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophiaserpentia) wrote2007-01-19 03:54 pm
sophiaserpentia) wrote2007-01-19 03:54 pm
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what constitutes a transphobic slur?
I want to nail this down because most of my friends are not transgendered and do not have a clear idea of what transphobia is. For that matter, i don't have a clear idea of what transphobia is, either, so one of my motivations for writing this is parsing it out so it is clear in my mind.
Frankly, i don't like the word 'transphobia' very much, it's multiply derivative and, at the least, doesn't mean what it says.
I know it is controversial to define sexism and racism as "power plus prejudice," but that is how i define those terms. IMO power imbalance is the most important aspect to consider here. There is an obvious dimension of power imbalance in homophobia (perhaps better called heterosexism). I see transphobia in similar terms: power plus prejudice.
What is the "power imbalance" in question? To put a few things in perspective:
But, really, this only abstractly touches on the actual reason why slurs hurt so much. They don't hurt because of all those statistics, theory, and history. They hurt because these statistics reflect the actual suffering so, so many of us have directly experienced. They bring up the trauma of that suffering, the wounds that have not healed... the moments we've spent curled up the floor unable to forgive ourselves for hurting our loved ones; the moments we've spent arguing with parents; the moments we've spent staring at a handful of pills; the moments we've spent pleasuring an ungrateful jerk; the moments we've spent covering up for abusive partners or healing in the hospital or mourning our murdered friends.
When a man calls a woman a "slut," when a white person calls a black person a "ni**er," they are encapsulating all of that hurt in a single word and throwing it in their face. When you have been slurred there is nothing you can do in response. Want to hurt them back? There is no equivalent. Get angry? Anything you say is 'just as bad' and you are exhorted to take the high road. Take it on the chin and show nothing? It eats at you slowly from in the inside.
Another thing about slurs is that you don't have to be privileged with respect to the other person along every axis of privilege there is. A black person could be college-educated, well-connected, and affluent, and still be slurred by a middle-class white person. A lesbian may not be in many ways (or at all) socially privileged compared to a transperson, but she does not have to be privileged in order to hurtfully invoke the social and personal history of transphobic oppression... any more than a transperson has to be privileged to do the same to a lesbian.
So, what constitute slurs against transpeople?
Some people find "tranny" offensive. I personally don't -- at least, it is no more offensive than the term "transgendered" itself, in my opinion. That term has its limitations (there is no actual word for what we are, just this glommed together one) but it does not, for most of us, seem to bring up the pain. I would say with this one, use it sparingly around transpeople you know, or ask if it's okay, or don't use it at all.
"She-male" (at MTFs) definitely is. It reflects particularly the history of sexual objectification of transwomen, particularly those who have been prostituted. It further implies that transgenderism is a disguise, a garment of sorts one wears to cover up their "real" gender.
"Really a man" (at MTFs) or "really a woman" (at FTMs) -- and variations on this theme -- can also be, depending on intent, a slur. This is where it gets a bit complex, because it is not inherently transphobic to question the underpinning of transgenderism. There is a vast difference between expressing honest doubt or opening philosophical discussion, and deliberate invocation of oppression-trauma with the intent to wound. Still, awareness that this is often is used as a slur against transfolk means that anyone who really cares about open discourse should be sensitive to that when discussing transgenderism philosophically.
ETA: I'm going to add this point, because i need to. The first source above does not break down the figures for discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and violence by race. But from everything i've seen, that pain is felt in OVERWHELMING proportions by transpeople of color. The disparity is notable, and has to be marked.
Frankly, i don't like the word 'transphobia' very much, it's multiply derivative and, at the least, doesn't mean what it says.
I know it is controversial to define sexism and racism as "power plus prejudice," but that is how i define those terms. IMO power imbalance is the most important aspect to consider here. There is an obvious dimension of power imbalance in homophobia (perhaps better called heterosexism). I see transphobia in similar terms: power plus prejudice.
What is the "power imbalance" in question? To put a few things in perspective:
- A 1999 survey found that around 60% of the transgendered population of San Francisco was unemployed. Compare this to a 5-7% unemployment rate for the general public.
- That same study found that 37% of transwomen had been physically abused in the previous 12 months; over 80% had been prostituted or engaged in survival sex at some time in their lives; 59% had been raped. The figures for transmen were similarly far higher than rates seen by non-transgendered people.
- At the time of that study, only 59% of the transpeople surveyed had stable housing.
- The hate-murder rate of transpeople may very well outpace the per-capita rate of all other hate killings, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Slurs, harrasment, and even violence directed at queer youth are so widespread and common that virtually every young queer person experiences it.
- Underscoring this is a long history of ideological, institutional, and economic marginalization of transpeople: religious pronouncements that we are "abominable," shunning, objectification, othering, shaming, ridiculing, treating us as humor, legal non-recognition, medicalization of us as "disordered," you name it.
But, really, this only abstractly touches on the actual reason why slurs hurt so much. They don't hurt because of all those statistics, theory, and history. They hurt because these statistics reflect the actual suffering so, so many of us have directly experienced. They bring up the trauma of that suffering, the wounds that have not healed... the moments we've spent curled up the floor unable to forgive ourselves for hurting our loved ones; the moments we've spent arguing with parents; the moments we've spent staring at a handful of pills; the moments we've spent pleasuring an ungrateful jerk; the moments we've spent covering up for abusive partners or healing in the hospital or mourning our murdered friends.
When a man calls a woman a "slut," when a white person calls a black person a "ni**er," they are encapsulating all of that hurt in a single word and throwing it in their face. When you have been slurred there is nothing you can do in response. Want to hurt them back? There is no equivalent. Get angry? Anything you say is 'just as bad' and you are exhorted to take the high road. Take it on the chin and show nothing? It eats at you slowly from in the inside.
Another thing about slurs is that you don't have to be privileged with respect to the other person along every axis of privilege there is. A black person could be college-educated, well-connected, and affluent, and still be slurred by a middle-class white person. A lesbian may not be in many ways (or at all) socially privileged compared to a transperson, but she does not have to be privileged in order to hurtfully invoke the social and personal history of transphobic oppression... any more than a transperson has to be privileged to do the same to a lesbian.
So, what constitute slurs against transpeople?
Some people find "tranny" offensive. I personally don't -- at least, it is no more offensive than the term "transgendered" itself, in my opinion. That term has its limitations (there is no actual word for what we are, just this glommed together one) but it does not, for most of us, seem to bring up the pain. I would say with this one, use it sparingly around transpeople you know, or ask if it's okay, or don't use it at all.
"She-male" (at MTFs) definitely is. It reflects particularly the history of sexual objectification of transwomen, particularly those who have been prostituted. It further implies that transgenderism is a disguise, a garment of sorts one wears to cover up their "real" gender.
"Really a man" (at MTFs) or "really a woman" (at FTMs) -- and variations on this theme -- can also be, depending on intent, a slur. This is where it gets a bit complex, because it is not inherently transphobic to question the underpinning of transgenderism. There is a vast difference between expressing honest doubt or opening philosophical discussion, and deliberate invocation of oppression-trauma with the intent to wound. Still, awareness that this is often is used as a slur against transfolk means that anyone who really cares about open discourse should be sensitive to that when discussing transgenderism philosophically.
ETA: I'm going to add this point, because i need to. The first source above does not break down the figures for discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and violence by race. But from everything i've seen, that pain is felt in OVERWHELMING proportions by transpeople of color. The disparity is notable, and has to be marked.