Ask Chicagoist: Trans Translation?
By Thales Exoo in Miscellaneous on Oct 19, 2006 1:30PM
What's the difference between a transsexual and a trangendered person? Do they mean the same thing?
Interesting question! Chicagoist thinks as we slowly trudge our way in this country towards more tolerance for all (two steps forward, one step back, it often seems, with some Oscar winners and nominees thrown in every couple of years for good measure), it's a good idea to educate ourselves to different notions and ways of life -- as cliché as it may be, understanding leads to acceptance.
Like any self-defining sort of terminology, it's important to note before we get into specifics that every person who labels themselves as "transgender" or "transsexual" or any other similar term probably has their own personal take on what it means in terms of his or her (or hir) life. We can only speak in generalizations here, and would certainly welcome any further education any of our readers can bring to the topic.
Transsexual specifically refers to people who identify as the opposite biological sex rather than the one they were born with. So it's the female who feels absolutely 100% male, or the male who is completely sure that female would have been more appropriate.
Transsexuals are the group most apt to want to undergo sex reassignment surgery and take hormones in order to correct their problems, and have been diagnosed with gender identity disorder as the first step to that end. You'll hear people refer to themselves as being "pre-op" or "post-op" transsexuals. Transsexuals wish to be perceived as the opposite sex to which they were born, and to absolutely feel like the opposite sex. The binary male-female biological sex is of the utmost importance here.
Transgender is a much broader term, and can refer to all sorts of people with all sorts of different takes on gender and biological sex -- including transsexuals. Although, many transsexuals don't like to be called transgender because they specifically still believe they have one distinct gender, and transgender tends to be a more politically-oriented sort of term.
Transgendered people have often shunned the notion of gender altogether -- note the use of the more abstract term "gender" versus the biologically-motivated term "sex." A transgendered person might identify as male, female, some of both, or neither, and most people who describe themselves as transgender don't really seek out complete gender reassignment surgery (although they might still choose to have some parts worked on, or take hormones). Female-to-male transgendered people are often refered to as FTM, and male-to-female as MTF.
The main notion here is that gender is what you want it to be, and there is something inherently wrong with the limiting roles created by pigeonholing us all into being male or female. They believe gender is fluid, but even more specifically, they feel like their own gender is fluid. And while many may live as "male" although they are "female" (and vice versa, of course), they are not quite so binary in their concepts.
Just to confuse things more, there are other groups that fall under the term transgender. Transvestites (a man dressing in women's clothing) tend to identify completely as their biological sex but put on the role of the opposite sex while dressing that way. Genderqueer is used very specifically by people who identify as either both genders or a Third Gender, and is definitely a very politically-motivated description. Going back to biological meanings of sex, intersexed people are those with secondary sex characteristics or genitalia of both sexes.
We're sure we're overlooking many groups here, but the point is that there are a variety of people out there with diverse and interesting views about sex, sexuality, and gender.
And then there's the problem of pronouns. After reading all of this, "he" and "she" suddently seem so limiting. If you ask, people should tell you what their preferred pronoun is, and will likely be thrilled you were courteous enough to care. A rule of thumb is that if the person is actively trying to live as what our society perceives to be a particular gender -- use those pronouns. Or, of course, there's an extravaganza of new gender-neutral pronouns to choose from -- "ze," "pir," "zir," "hir," "zhe," "zes." And, much to the chagrin of grammarians everywhere, some people also are fighting for a singular version of "they." Unfortunately we can't help how our language is, and pronouns are one of those things that are really hard to casually introduce new ones of into our linguistical bag of tricks.
Transgender symbol image via ParaDox
Transitioning? Need some advice? Email ask(at)chicagoist(dot)com.