Comments on: ‘Tranny Fierceness’ and ‘Tranny Messes’: Should I be Offended?

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:23:30 +0000

I’ve gone around with the word tranny since becoming aware of it a couple of years ago. I don’t like how it sounds coming out of peoples mouths or my own, so I don’t say it.

By: Matt Kailey

Matt Kailey — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:36:22 +0000

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.

By: Jill Davidson

Jill Davidson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:34:47 +0000

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.

By: Chloe

Chloe — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:22:28 +0000

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.

By: samwhise

samwhise — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:20:50 +0000

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.

By: Jessica De Leon

Jessica De Leon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:10:07 +0000

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

By: Anderson

Anderson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:04:36 +0000

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.

By: Kristen Kelly

Kristen Kelly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

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.

By: kaizoku

kaizoku — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

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.