Wait
just a minute, you say. There were only meant to be three parts to the queer
dictionary. Well, I lied. Okay, not really. I didn’t lie; I just needed to revisit1
a few terms in Part
2. Oh, also I need to admit and apologize for screwing something up, which
I’ll do in just a second. (My haters are rubbing their hands together in glee,
and my lovers are...well never you mind what my lovers are doing just now).
Okay so
which terms will I be looking at today? Answer: transman, transwoman, transgender,
transsexual, cis-woman, cis-man and cis-gender. (If you’ve picked up on my
mistake already, I award you 10 Internet Points to do with what you will).
Anyway, I won’t be redefining any of these terms, as my definitions were quite
accurate, particularly for an introductory article. However, I will be
discussing the spelling of these terms, namely whether they should be treated
as two word phrases (trans man), single words (trasman) or hyphenated words
(trans-man). In case you were wondering, Microsoft Word 2010 prefers the third
option; just throwing that out there.
So in
my queer dictionary, I spelled transman and transwoman like I just did, as
though it is a single word. There were some comments
pointing out that many people in the trans* community prefer the terms to be
spelled trans man and trans woman, as two separate words. I read those
comments, and of course I debated it in the original article. (I’m an internet
blogger; it’s what I do). And I stand by what I said, which is that there is no
consensus as to how those terms should be spelled.
Then
Jameseq made this comment,
which I was going to reply to with something like this: “I’m still resisting it
because I treated cis-gender the same…” At which point my brain clicked; I had
a “eureka moment,” and
I swear an energy-saving light bulb appeared over my head…Oh, crap. Actually, I
hadn’t treated cis and trans the same, and I hadn’t even realized it until days
after I’d written the article. For what it’s worth, I was using the spelling I’d
seen most often and in my brain they were the same. الشيء نفس (Nafs as-shay; translated: same
thing), I thought to myself. (Yeah, I did use the Arabic phrase in my brain
and I am not apologizing for that too).
I am,
however, apologizing for the inconsistencies in my spelling of cisgender,
transgender, trans-man, cis-man, etc. And here’s where I get serious for a
moment, because I think this is important. Part of the reason I included
cisgender in my dictionary at all was to highlight that cis and trans* are two
sides of the same coin. They are equally rooted in biology and/or culture; they
are equally valid; they are equal and should be treated as such.
Even
something as small as the grammar used when discussing these terms can
challenge or perpetuate the social inequalities between cisgendered and transgendered
individuals. It’s a bit like the problem with separate water fountains.
One is considered normative (cisgendered) and thus any differences between the
use of cisgendered and transgendered results in treating trans* individuals as
somehow less than or other than cis individuals. Heteronormativity strikes
again! (Guess I’m back to making stupid jokes).
If you
couldn’t tell, my spelling of these terms has been all over the place even in
this article. Mostly that’s because I’ve been using my old spelling of the
terms until I pointed out my mistake. So, if you’re curious where I sit on this
issue, I’ll tell you. Personally, I think I’m with Microsoft Word 2010 (because
Bill Gates is better than Steve Jobs, or something): transgender, transsexual,
cisgender, cis-man, cis-woman, trans-man, and trans-woman…though I’m still
using “cis individuals” and “trans* individuals,” without a hyphen. And, of
course, “man” and “woman” are terms which, when not modified, should include
both cis and trans* individuals who identify as men or women. (£10 says that I
use the term men or women in place of cis-men or cis-women at least once in the
next day. Who wants to take that bet?)
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