For the first time, a gay and trans dance group will be featured on Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. Vogue Evolution is a group of five “vogue dancers” who will be competing for the title.
Leiomy Maldonado (far left in photo), who is in the process of transitioning from male to female, is the one we’ll have our eye on when the show kicks off this Sunday, August 9 at 9 p.m. ET.
I do know who Randy Jackson is (I used to watch American Idol before my 30-year-0ld TV broke), and Dance Crew is a very popular show, so I wish this group all the luck and congratulate them on breaking new ground and being very visible in their identities. I also congratulate Randy Jackson and his judges for choosing them to compete.
But here’s the question that I don’t know how to answer: Vogue Evolution’s press release bills them as “Fierce Tranny Voguers” (well, one of them, that we know of, is trans). My boss asked me the other day if that offended me — the “fierce tranny” part. The truth is that I don’t know.
A couple of years ago, the big thing was “hot tranny mess.” It was from a TV show, and for a while, it was the hip phrase of the day (or year). Everybody was saying it at work — “Oh, she’s a hot tranny mess” or “This is just a hot tranny mess.” I had no idea whether I should have been offended or not.
I don’t normally use the word “tranny,” although I do on occasion — mostly with my close friends as a joke when I’m talking about myself or if I’m being sarcastic. I would never use it seriously as a way to describe a trans person.
I’m honestly not sure what it means in the context of a “fierce tranny voguer” or a “hot tranny mess.” (Give me a break — in my day, we said “groovy,” “tuff” and — a word that has survived the ravages of time — “cool.”)
So that’s exactly what I told my boss: “I don’t know if I’m offended or not, because I don’t know, in that context, what it means.” So I guess if I don’t know, then there’s no offense to be had. Why force myself to be offended because it seems like I should be?
So, trans readers, clue me in, please. Are “hot tranny mess” and “fierce tranny voguers” offensive terms to you? Should we be glad that we’re finally hip? Or does this have nothing to do with us? And if it has nothing to do with us, then what’s the “tranny” part all about?
Regardless, check out the show, and if you like Vogue Evolution, vote for them. It would be great to have some “fierce tranny voguers” win the competition.
(Photo: Vogue Evolution, courtesy of MTV)
Being TS and TWICE older than the 20 something group that uses the word Tranny often, I was taken back the first few times I heard how it was being used by the younger girls. I think it also bothered me less because of my confidence and comfort I have about who I am. I have heard it used to describe hierarchy, Dresser = CD, Tranny = Transitioning, All the Way = Post Op
“Tranny mess” is often referred to someone that has tunnel vision in where their transition is going, being out of control, or touch with the real world.
I’m more on the “it’s offensive” side. As a trans guy, I’m not sure it’s a word that I can effectively reclaim, given that it’s mostly been used as slur against trans women. I don’t like the way the media throws it around. Especially in a phrase like “hot tranny mess”… I think it implies that transsexual women are messes, are “fashion disasters”, etc. On the other hand, I think some of the media-people using it may be gay men who think of it as “their” lingo.
There is power in reclamation – the word “queer” certainly doesn’t have the negative connotations that it did when I was a kid. But right now, being not so young (yet not so old), I am not ready yet to accept the word “tranny.” Don’t like it, unless it’s being used to describe the transmission of a car.
I am not offended at all by the word, in fact several of my friends who are also transgendered frequently use it to refer to either themselves or each other.
I’m honestly beginning to think that it is being reclaimed, at least among my generation (those in their 20s and younger), similar to how the “n-word” is used by black youth.
I know that this word will probably cause a lot of debate but I just wanted to state things from my perspective, as a younger trans person. For many of us, “tranny” is not offensive
Thanks for your insightful post
- Jessica
The phrases you’re talking about always struck me as an attempt to be edgy and different. Or, alternatively, an attempt to invoke a cartoonish image of trans people (trans women specifically, I think) and therefore make any phrase they’re thrown into funnier. I don’t think it’s about actual trans people being suddenly ‘hip’ or anything like that.
Some of the people who popularized the phrases probably would say they have no problem with trans people (and might even mean it), but to me it seems like they’re not doing anybody any favors. At the very least, the relative ubiquity of phrases like “tranny mess” gives cis people the incorrect impression that “tranny” is a word it’s okay for them to use…which, as far as I’m concerned, it’s absolutely not. In any context. So in that sense, yes, I find the phrases you mentioned offensive.
I occasionally use the word “tranny” to refer to myself or other, but it is usually self-depreciating or sarcastic. Like highlighting it as a slur against the trans community when referring to discriminatory policies. I like it as an in-community word. As soon as the media or a cis-gendered individual uses it I bristle. There are too many negative connotations and the word is not reclaimed well enough for mass polite use.
To me, the word tranny conjures up those pornographic sites that cater to people with “exotic” tastes. I find it offensive by what I associate it with. I do think it has taken the on the asymmetric words like “bitch”, “girl (spoken to a grown woman), and the N word. That is, it seems acceptable when spoken between TG people, but offensive when used by others. I used it sometimes myself. My partner and I joke about how too often people think of her as “cancer girl” and me, “tranny girl”. But it is such a loaded word, I would be careful even around other TG people – I think I’d have to hear a lot of instances of “tranny” in their talk before I would use the term myself in conversation with them. To me, “tranny” is completely out is I was talking to a large group, even if that large group includes TG people.
I love these comments, and I’m still going back and forth. I read one and think, “Yeah, that’s right,” and then I read another one and think, “Yeah, that’s right.” I hope that, even as this post gets older, people will still leave comments, because this particular topic really interests me and I love to hear what other people think about it. Thank you all for weighing in.