Comments on: “Tranny” & Cis Women: Re-Reclaiming Tranny (or not) part 2

By: Ask a Tranny Podcast

Ask a Tranny Podcast — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:31:57 +0000

What’s In a Name?…

My friend Trannysaurus originally turned me on to this issue in his post about it a few months ago, in which he responded to a post by Cedar questioning the “tranny” reclamation project….

By: Things to think about « Foot in the Door

Things to think about « Foot in the Door — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:33:34 +0000

[...] reclaiming “tranny” (which I have now found some incredibly insightful and well defined rants on) and more against NYT’s lacking debate skills. I would have sat and talked about it with [...]

By: Link roundup

Link roundup — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:30:23 +0000

[...] Reading the comments thread there, was pointed towards a fascinating essay about gender-linked factors in reclaiming the word “Tranny”. Part one. Part two. [...]

By: The Thang Blog » Blog Archive » Using “Tranny”

The Thang Blog » Blog Archive » Using “Tranny” — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:42:15 +0000

[...] in the “reclamation” argument in favor of using “tranny” in parts one and two of her essays on the subject, so rather than try to restate them and fail I will simply quote [...]

By: Small Steps « Little Lambs Eat Ivy

Small Steps « Little Lambs Eat Ivy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:24:24 +0000

[...] From Cedar (part 1, and part 2) [...]

By: Ann Somerville’s Journal » Blog Archive » I name thee….

Ann Somerville’s Journal » Blog Archive » I name thee…. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:44:49 +0000

[...] all transgender people, particularly transwomen, are happy about reclaiming, are discussed here, here and here. The wider issues raised by those responses are valid for all kinds of offensive labels [...]

By: Next of Kynn » Blog Archive » Alliance: You’re Doing It Wrong

Next of Kynn » Blog Archive » Alliance: You’re Doing It Wrong — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:24:07 +0000

[...] “Tranny” & Cis Women: Re-Reclaiming Tranny (or not) part 2 [...]

By: Cedar

Cedar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:13:34 +0000

Mira,

Cool. I said I wasn’t really sure; that’s the way text works. Anyways, let me get back to you.

By: Mira

Mira — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:02:49 +0000

I don’t feel like I’m saddling you with anything, Cedar. I’m directing your attention to some trans misogyny issues that I know you’re very familiar with and some linguistic structures that you might not be as familiar with. My basic argument is actually a linguistic one. But on the distinction between “I’m proud of looking like a tranny” and “it makes me happy that people sometimes mistake me for a trans woman,” I’d be curious to know which of those sounds harsher to your ear. For myself, I’d need to know who was saying either and in what context.

By: Cedar

Cedar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:32:29 +0000

Mira,

Thanks for the response. I’ll need to read it a couple times before I can respond to it all, but I will say that I hear “I’m proud of looking like a tranny” and “It makes me happy that people sometimes mistake me for a trans woman” very differently. Part of it is the word and part of it is the intent behind it, and how the two are most frequently correlated…

I’m not sure to what extent you’re saddling me with the “you’re not embracing being trans/you’re a gender binarist who’s internalized the idea that transsexual = less valid and that’s why you don’t want to be identified as trans and thus why you don’t want to be called tranny” trope–where little could be further from the truth. On the contrary, I’m pretty strongly invested both in my transsexuality and in my own non-binary-gendered-ness, and I do a lot of work toward undermining definitions of ‘man’ & ‘woman’ that center cissexual/non-intersex experience–an enterprise that does have potential to undo the correlation between cis and real, trans and fake… etc.

I’m not sure what you mean by the phrase “resist the idea that, as a tranny, I’m especially accountable for the impact of my trans vocabulary.”