LGBT History Month, Post 9
I'm going to start my posts about transpeople with a long list of transgender-related terms, and post about genderqueers later today.
If you have questions, please, please ask them! :3
- gender dichotomy: This is kind of hard to define. Basically, it's the perceived existence of only two genders (male and female), and it's also the system that tries to keep them separate and establish gender roles and traditions. You know, "girls act like this, boys act like that", based solely on their gender.
- gender: Gender is a mental identity. While most people's gender matches their sex, the two are NOT interchangeable words, even though they've been used as such. Your gender is how you present yourself in relation to the gender dichotomy, whether that be female, male, in between, neither or a combination of both.
- sex: Determined by your reproductive organs, basically.
- transgender: This is an umbrella term used to refer anyone with what is deemed by society as an "unconventional" gender identity. "Transgender" can apply to genderqueers, transmen, transwomen, transvestites, cross-dressers...the list goes on.
- transsexual: Someone who seeks to change their sex. Despite having "sexual" in the name, transsexuality is not a sexual orientation. I say this because CNN only figured this out this past August.
- transvestite: A cross-dresser. A drag king or queen. So no, transvestite isn't synonymous with transsexual.
- "she-male": Very offensive term used against transgendered people.
- tranny: Another hate word. Please don't use it unless you're reclaiming it, or have some odd desire to seen as an anti-trans bigot.
- hermaphrodite: Hermaphrodite is generally a word you don't use for humans. A hermaphrodite is something born with both male and female sex organs. However, when used to refer to someone is transgendered, it's very offensive.
- FTM/F2M: Short for female-to-male transsexual. A.K.A., a man born in a woman's body.
- MTF/M2F: Short for male-to-female transsexual. A.K.A., a woman born in a man's body.
- androgyne/genderqueer: Someone who identifies as in between, neither, or a combination of, the two genders in the gender dichotomy.
- Transphobia: Prejudice or discrimination against transgendered people.
- Cisgender: Someone whose gender "matches" his or her sex. A non-transgendered person.
- Passing: The stage in a transperson's transition in which they start to "pass" for their real gender; in other words, they are recognized as the gender they present themselves as by other people.
- transwoman/transman/transperson: A shortened way of saying "transgendered woman/man/person". A transman is FTM, a transwoman is MTF.
If you have questions, please, please ask them! :3