i usually see people define transexual as specifically someone who has gotten bottom surgery (though i do see this definition sometimes as well), but thank you for putting a real actual response in here in case anyone clicks on this hoping to find an answer and just finds a shitpost
12
AcidSmiley [she/her] - 2.6yr
i usually see people define transexual as specifically someone who has gotten bottom surgery
Yeah, that usage comes from a time when transmedicalism was still the norm and you were expected to check all the medical transition boxes to count as valid. ofc this was an extremely shitty thing to do because it invalidates the fairly sizeable number of trans people who do not want to get bottom surgery, or the people who would but cannot access it due to gatekeeping, or to all the baby trans still years away from their surgery who are already going through the roughest part of transition.
When a cis person says "transsexual", i'm assuming even less knowledge about trans issues than normally. If it comes from a trans person and is used unironically, it's an immediate red flag, especially if the person hasn't started transitioning 20 years ago and just grew up with that kind of terminology. It's not a surefire way to detect a fascist asshole like calling transbians "AGP", but it's sus to still use it today.
fwiw, i think the quote above is really fishy as well, it completely papers over how enbiephobic, exclusionary, and full of internalized transphobia, mysogyny and homophobia the community used to be and how the adoption of them term transgender (or rather: the widening of who counted as a valid trans person, and the subsequent dropping of the exclusionary transsexual label) specifically aimed to fix that glaring, massive problem. How the quote stresses "the importance of understanding the prevalence of straight transsexual people" is particularly alarming, as that directly ties into the extreme transhomophobia that dominated medical gatekeeping back in the day - basically, straight trans people where the only ones allowed to medically transition. When you were a trans woman and also a lesbian, you had to lie about that and preferrably give your therapist the usual cliché answer of "i live as a gay man and exclusively have passive anal sex because anything else is too dysphoric for me'" or you lost your chance of getting treatment. You only qualified as a "true transsexual" when you were straight, anybody else was stigmatized as a transvestitic fetishist and that quote stinks of that kind of mindset if you ask me.
13
Cromalin [she/her] - 2.6yr
thank you for the comment! this does align with my understanding of the history, and i knew it was mostly considered an outdated term, but i didn't realize just how much of a red flag it was. i don't really know as much as i'd like about trans history, so i'm really grateful every time you effortpost like this. is this mostly just from personal experience or is there anything you'd recommend reading to get more?
6
AcidSmiley [she/her] - 2.6yr
This is mostly personal experience and bits and pieces about how therapeutic gatekeeping used to function. We're really lacking a comprehensive work on trans history.
4
Gay_Tomato [they/them, it/its] - 2.6yr
i usually see people define transexual as specifically someone who has gotten bottom surgery
The first time I ever heard this word it was misused as a slur, specifically based on that defintion. Im angry and I don't know what to do about it.
12
Łumało [he/him] - 2.6yr
This was me, so thanks for posting this @Aru@lemmygrad.ml. It helps me learn more and understand my trans friend better, and maybe even somewhat myself. But that would require more self analysis.
Cromalin in traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns
the difference between transsexual and transgender
Someone is only transexual if they're from the Transylvania galaxy, anyone else is just sparkling transgender.
I got this respond when I asked someone this question a few months ago
https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/29d796a0-6309-4aae-a19a-07aa30e769a9.png
i usually see people define transexual as specifically someone who has gotten bottom surgery (though i do see this definition sometimes as well), but thank you for putting a real actual response in here in case anyone clicks on this hoping to find an answer and just finds a shitpost
Yeah, that usage comes from a time when transmedicalism was still the norm and you were expected to check all the medical transition boxes to count as valid. ofc this was an extremely shitty thing to do because it invalidates the fairly sizeable number of trans people who do not want to get bottom surgery, or the people who would but cannot access it due to gatekeeping, or to all the baby trans still years away from their surgery who are already going through the roughest part of transition.
When a cis person says "transsexual", i'm assuming even less knowledge about trans issues than normally. If it comes from a trans person and is used unironically, it's an immediate red flag, especially if the person hasn't started transitioning 20 years ago and just grew up with that kind of terminology. It's not a surefire way to detect a fascist asshole like calling transbians "AGP", but it's sus to still use it today.
fwiw, i think the quote above is really fishy as well, it completely papers over how enbiephobic, exclusionary, and full of internalized transphobia, mysogyny and homophobia the community used to be and how the adoption of them term transgender (or rather: the widening of who counted as a valid trans person, and the subsequent dropping of the exclusionary transsexual label) specifically aimed to fix that glaring, massive problem. How the quote stresses "the importance of understanding the prevalence of straight transsexual people" is particularly alarming, as that directly ties into the extreme transhomophobia that dominated medical gatekeeping back in the day - basically, straight trans people where the only ones allowed to medically transition. When you were a trans woman and also a lesbian, you had to lie about that and preferrably give your therapist the usual cliché answer of "i live as a gay man and exclusively have passive anal sex because anything else is too dysphoric for me'" or you lost your chance of getting treatment. You only qualified as a "true transsexual" when you were straight, anybody else was stigmatized as a transvestitic fetishist and that quote stinks of that kind of mindset if you ask me.
thank you for the comment! this does align with my understanding of the history, and i knew it was mostly considered an outdated term, but i didn't realize just how much of a red flag it was. i don't really know as much as i'd like about trans history, so i'm really grateful every time you effortpost like this. is this mostly just from personal experience or is there anything you'd recommend reading to get more?
This is mostly personal experience and bits and pieces about how therapeutic gatekeeping used to function. We're really lacking a comprehensive work on trans history.
The first time I ever heard this word it was misused as a slur, specifically based on that defintion. Im angry and I don't know what to do about it.
This was me, so thanks for posting this @Aru@lemmygrad.ml. It helps me learn more and understand my trans friend better, and maybe even somewhat myself. But that would require more self analysis.
The things you learn on hexbear dot net
I'm feeling pretty viney lately, makes sense.