Parker Marie Molloy would like to remind the guys that throwing around the word “tranny” is right up there with throwing around the word _____.
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Dear gay dudes:
James Nichols at Huffington Post has been posting a series on drag culture/Brooklyn nightlife to the “Gay Voices” page over there. As someone who frequently writes for HP GV, I tend to read what else is going on over there. In his latest installment, Nichols interviewed a drag queen by the name of — *sigh* — “Amber Alert“. As certain as the sun will rise, an interview with a drag queen will invoke one of the more hateful trans-specific slurs: “tranny.” This interview proved to be no exception.
“I felt immediately at home there among the irreverent trannies,” the drag queen told Nichols. *sigh*
I’ve found that one of the more common misperceptions people have about transgender people is that we’re the same thing as drag queens. Friends of mine have had people ask what their “stage name” is, and people have been surprised at my somewhat mainstream and conservative appearance.
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As I’ve written about in the past, a quick way to see why “tranny” is a slur is to perform a few quick Google Image searches. First, search “transgender woman.” Next, search “tranny.” Notice the difference? Yeah, that’s why I’m not thrilled when someone calls a trans woman, a “tranny.” Nor am I thrilled that this term, which has been thrown at me on several occasions, is legitimized in the public eye through use by drag queens and gay cisgender men (which most drag queens are).
Gay dude/Project Runway Winner/designer of shoes for Payless (when I think “super fashionable,” I think “Payless”) Cristian Siriano even decided to fold this hateful term into his catchphrase: “hot tranny mess.” Now, there are certainly a few questions that arise out of this, one being, “why does a fashion designer need a catchphrase?” and the other, “what gives him the right to appropriate that term?”
A common argument in favor of using “tranny” is to say, “but that word is just part of drag culture!” Here’s my rebuttal: I don’t care. It’s a hateful slur that is often the last thing trans women hear before being beaten or murdered.
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Oh, it’s just a joke! But, wait, why is it a joke? What makes it funny? Are “trannies” just inherently hilarious as a concept? Here’s a fun fact that might take some air out of the sails of the “pro-saying-tranny” crowd: during the airing of 4th season of Project Runway (the season Siriano appeared on), 3 trans women were brutally murdered in the United States! Haha! Siriano is just so sassy and hilarious!
Neil Patrick Harris got himself in a little hot water a while back for saying “tranny” on TV (and this isn’t even counting the dozen or so times him and his How I Met Your Mother co-stars have said it on their show). Same goes for Lance Bass. At least these two apologized after they realized that saying this in public wasn’t exactly in their best interests (they can go back to saying it in private, I suppose). RuPaul, king of the transphobes, throws that word around like it’s going out of style (which is something I wish would actually happen).
But it’s okay, folks, because they’re gay dudes, and therefore, they’re untouchable by the LGB-centric media.
A common argument in favor of using “tranny” is to say, “but that word is just part of drag culture!” Here’s my rebuttal: I don’t care. “Drag culture” or not, that’s not a word that’s appropriate to throw around. It’s a hateful slur that is often the last thing trans women hear before being beaten or murdered. Just as it wouldn’t be acceptable for me to go around using the word “f*ggot,” as I’m not a gay man, it’s inappropriate for gay men and male-identified drag queens to use “tranny.”
Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee, is seen as someone who can do no wrong. You may ask what problem I could possibly have with him, right? Take, for example, this scene in another one of his shows (Nip/Tuck) where a character violently beats a trans woman without any real repercussions (TW: transmisogynistic violence).
Even on Glee, when he supposedly made an effort to be less awful to trans folks, then had characters throwing around “tranny” at random. Unlike the times where someone used a homophobic slur on the show and were immediately called out by another character, the insults against the trans character were often left without resolution. On top of all that, a cisgender boy was hired to play the role of a transgender girl. Really, Murphy? Finally, the various plot lines that made my skin crawl: the trans character takes birth control pills as hormone replacement therapy (this is SUPER DANGEROUS, do not do this), and recently, one of the plot lines had the trans character fighting for the right to use the bathroom only to eventually be given the “separate, but equal” treatment and given access to a private bathroom that was neither the boys or the girls’ rooms (this was treated as a victory, which, just, it shouldn’t).
Also on Huffington Post, Joe Hutcheson wrote about his “evolution” to accept the calling of male-identified people “she,” “her” and “girl.” That’s cute and all, but some folks actually care about pronouns. If someone is going to call me “she,” “her,” or “girl,” I want it to be because someone, you know, sees me as a woman, not because they’re just so super sassy that they say, “pronouns and identification be damned, I’m calling you girl because, um, something about being ‘fierce.’”
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Do whatever you want, gay dudes, just stop doing things that harm trans people in the process. Can you manage that? It’s bad enough that while trans people still struggle to use the restroom without legal repercussions, we’re expected to sit quietly as marriage rights take the bulk of money donated to GLb…..(t) organizations. We shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not you’re going to stab us in the back with words, too.
In conclusion, don’t say, “tranny.” Just, don’t. It doesn’t matter if you do drag or if it’s not “meant as a slur,” if you are a cisgender gay man, that is not your word to use.
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Previously published at Parker Marie Molloy’s blog parkthatcar.net and The Huffington Post.
Follow Parker Marie Molloy on Twitter! www.twitter.com/MissParkerMarie @missparkermarie
—Photo Steven A Johnson/Flickr
To the author…you should double check your ‘facts’ and get off your high horse. Last time I checked, “Tranny” is in reference to drag queens and effeminate men…the word you actually take issue with is “Transy” — with an S — which is the shortened version of the words Transgender and Transsexual, and is not used as a slur or as a pejorative term. “Tranny” originated in Drag Culture and it is within the domain of drag queens and their fans and fellow community members to use and is completely unrelated to the term or use of “faggot,” another word… Read more »
Uh-huh, because “the knockout game” (is this even a real thing???–if so, reports are surely sensational ridiculousness) and use of the n-word are totally analogous and share similar historical context. Come on. Mike’s and avern’s responses are not only paranoid and completely off-the-mark–they’re completely antithetical to the mission of this site.
Yes, the “knockout game” is a real thing; GMP had an article about it recently. And yes reports about it have been sensationalistic, just like this article is sensationalistic about gay men throwing around the word “tranny.” That was the point of my comment.
Your attempts to paint other commenters as paranoid and antithetical to this website are laughable and baseless.
Absurd. This article is explicitly directed towards those who *do* use the word “tranny.” If you do not, then it does not apply to you—except, possibly, as a reminder to call out folks who use an offensive slur.
If a person of color wrote an article titled “White People: Just Stop Using the N-Word”, would you take it personally and assume that it was directed towards *all* white people, or would you agree that those who *do* use that word need to stop?
(@john hall)
Oh, please. If someone wrote an article titled “Black People: Stop Punching White People for Fun” in response to the current uptick in what has been dubbed “the knockout game,” people would be outraged and would accuse the author at fomenting anger against black people, and, you know what? They’d probably be right. Titles like these are condescending only serve the purpose of putting whole groups of people “on notice.”
Coming from an automotive-oriented background (a fascination that began when I was about 3 and still intact 52 years later) The term “Tranny” means one thing to me–an automobile transmission. I’m aware of it’s other uses, but say “tranny” to me, my first thought is a large greasy hunk of metal.
This is a ridiculous accusation that all gay men are derogatory language against the transgender community. Many gay men are fighting for their rights as well. I thought this website posted quality material until this article. The writer of the piece is stereotyping the entire community off a few bad apples. Shame on you Parker Marie Molloy and shame on the “Good Men Project” for reposting this piece of awful journalism. In no way shape or form does this article discuss “What it means to be a good man,” it does the exact opposite making broad assumptions about the character… Read more »
If you want to bolster the amount of respect shown to all groups of people, you should, one, not tell all gay men not to do something disrespectful because some gay men have done it, and, two, condescend to them by incessantly referring to them as “dudes.”
I can’t say I was insulted by either of those things, myself. I’ve always seen ‘dudes’ as the equivalent of ‘guys’, for one. I’ve never used ‘t***ny’ and continue not to, and as such don’t feel specifically accused. It struck me as being like if I was at a party and the host took a minute to ask people not to smoke indoors, because some of the other guests had been doing so. I wouldn’t assume I was being lumped in with the people smoking. I’d just continue not smoking.
“T—ny”? Is that like, the god worshipped by transgendered orthodox jewry?
I’m fine with the type of people who would commonly be referred to as “dudes” calling each other “dude” but it use in almost all other writing-especially by feminist authors-is to be condescending and to indicate that the author considers its referents as being ignorant, boorish, and in need of behavioral correction. “Dude” is a term that is now becoming and functioning as a slur. I find it completely offensive and would not take anyone who uses it to refer to entire groups of men as truly valuing mutual respect.
This just isn’t real. Where the hell does “dude” mean anything other than “guy” or “person?” Certainly not here in the Northeast. You are trying really hard to be offended—why don’t you consider putting this energy into actually caring about/helping those who have a legitimate reason to be offended instead of allowing your ago to be bruised by something that was never directed toward you in the first place?
*ego
Are you this obtuse, or have you seriously not observed the way “dude” is used constantly in mainstream, feminist writing?
Why don’t you put energy into something other than telling people what they are justified in being offended by?