Is "transvestite" offensive?

[Guest Starlight53a]

I'm asking this because I've heard in some places that the word "transvestite" is offensive, but I'm not sure how much so. Is it offensive enough that I should try to stop people from saying it, or would it be a waste of time and effort to try and make people stop saying it?

I'm not a crossdresser myself, I'm transgender, but basically, whenever I hear someone saying trans- anything, it's always "transvestite".

I'm doing a project at school in which I'm trying to raise awareness of LGBT+ people, and when I said to my teacher and she tried to explain it to my class, she basically said that the T was for "transvestite" and "transsexual". I didn't correct her at all.

What I seem to be doing a terrible job of asking is: If/when I tell people what not to say and what the correct words for some of the varying kinds of LGBT+ people are, should I include "wrong word: transvestite, right word: crossdresser", or is it okay for people to say "transvestite", or are only very few people offended by it, such that it would be pointless to make people not-say it because anyone they'd ask would tell them it was not-offensive?

Anyway... Answer please?

[Guest Donna Jean]

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While "Transvestite has been in use since the turn of the century, most nowadays find it offensive and prefer the term "Cross dresser" ....

However, while many of us have used the word "transvestite" to describe someone who dresses as the opposite sex, GLAAD says that "cross dresser" is actually the correct term accepted by the LGBT community.

Huggs

Dee Jay

[Guest Wendae]

I guess some folks do. Me, I really don't care. Use any....and there are a bunch, many of which are derisive. I usually refer to myself as a CD or Transgender. But DJ answered your question for polite company.

[Guest ChloëC]

That's one of the problems with language. Some special interest group hijacks a word or phrase and turns it into something else. And the group is often as much anti the word as it could be pro the word. Take 'gay' for instance. Read any book or see any movie made before 1960 or so and the word means something totally different, yet when people see that word now even in the context of when it was used, what's their first thought? Yep. Same as yours right now. Think of 'Our Hearts were young and gay' or 'The gay nineties'. Makes ya wonder what those people were all about, doesn't it?

Transvestite was an accepted word at one time, but too many people batted it back and forth to include many different lifestyles, while using it somewhat derogatorily, so that it now has the concept of festishism tightly connected to it, along with deviant behavior. Can't have that flitting through people's minds.

And once a word is ruined like that, it can seldom be recovered. So now, we use 'cross-dresser' to describe a certain part of the transgender spectrum because it seems to have a lot less stigma attached to it. Yet, even that , to me, does little justice to who and what we who fall under that are all about.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, that people who identify as cross-dressers (or it's variant names) can run the gamut from a desire to wear maybe just one item of opposite gender clothing to completely dressing as the opposite gender yet maintaining a distinct visibility of one's birth gender to attempting (with varying degrees of success...or failure) to fully appear as the opposite gender.

And this doesn't even include the various choices of how public or private one wants to be.

So cross-dressing encompasses a very wide latitude of choices and actions. Though, I wouldn't be surprised that there are a significant number of people who feel that the word transvestite is quite appropriate for them.

Hugz

Chloë

[Guest]

Oh don't get me started. I can get touchy about this one and I will tell you why. Transvestite is the one word that makes me think of crappy old true detective magazines and visions of Max Klinger on MASH. Yuck! Every creep and pervert that hits on me has all those negative connotations swimming in their head by what comes out of their mouths. Porno-sickness.

I get cross-dresser thrown in my face regularly by an old sicko (that is younger than me by ten years) in my AA home group. I want to take my shirt off at meetings. Because I can legally, but being offensive to all, is not what my program is all about. Everyone including my sponsor tells me to let it go because he is the group butt hole. The thing that hurts the most is that no one will stand up and say the behavior is wrong. They sure would me, if I peeled my shirt! In his over twenty years of spouting program, I'm sure he will never make an amends to me. I usually go out and get a breath of fresh air when it is time for him to speak. I pray for him gritting my teeth. I don't want what he has, some are sicker than others, to parrot the AA phrases.

I was raped as a child and when I tried to tell my friends in hopes that they could help I got branded with the name Queer, I get wizzed at people that call me gender queer and I have called at least one person normal queer. That is just the hot buttons I am working on. I prefer her if the presentation fits or him for my other presentation. Bi-gender is the most true to me but trans gender is perfectly acceptable. We all have our labels we like and those we don't. I appreciate people that ask me. Help a lady down from her soap box please. Jody

[Guest MsGsptlsnz]

I don't care what you call me, as long as you call me when you see a killer sale on shoes!

[JJ]

Words have more power than weapons and with all the negativity and stereotypes attached to this one it needs to die. For now anyway.

I don't fit that label and would be offended if it was used. To me or about me or any other transgender person

Johnny

[Guest Addi]

I find it offensive, very offensive and hurtful.

[Guest Jenny_W]

I agree with others - I find 'transvestite' offensive too. Too many stereotypes and it pidgeon-holes people into a defined area of cross-dressing that most people feel uncomfortable with. Chloe is right when she says that the spectrum of cross dressing is wide and this term is reserved for a very narrow part of that spectrum.

Jenny

[Guest]

Maybe called "Gender Expression Clothing", sounds prettier than cross dressing. That old phase never did fit, unless all genetic women wore pinafores. Or maybe it's just more alphabet soup. Giggle. Unisex Jody *Wink*

[Guest Eve Caillard]

I agree Transvestite is a harsh word. It has been around a long time and it carries with it a cargo of bad connotations fastened to it by those who either are ignorant, or set out to demean cross-dressers.

BUT, when I started cross dressing earlier this year (after it sort of burst out of me) I made myself use 'transvestite' to describe to myself what I was doing. I did this deliberately because I know it carries negative emotions. I did it because I knew most people (non cross-dressers) would apply 'Transvestite' to me.

So, why use the word to describe myself? Because for me it holds the deep bare truth that- so far as most other people are concerned - it is what I became. So I felt I had to accept that first, to feel comfortable and OK with myself.

So yes, I use the word 'Transvestite' to describe myself. But I totally prefer cross-dresser as it is an elegant and accurate term that removes many negative connotations. I use the word 'Transvestite' as a challenge to myself to be the best I can personally, and carry more dignity in the face of society that uses Transvestite as a diminishing, almost ridiculing term.

Maybe that's a hard way to do it, but I do feel that I need to clear the air before me so that I can feel comfortable with myself.

Yes, I am a Transvestite. And yes, I dislike (but do not hate) the word. But once I accepted it, then no-one can hurt me with it.

Just my opinion, girls!

XX Eve

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[Guest Karen K]

The term "transvestite", from the studies I have made, is used to describe someone who dons the clothing or apparel of ther opposite gender for the purpose of sexual arousal/enjoyment. Usually limited to lingerie and intimate apparel. This person also has no desire to emulate or express a feminine persona or image. This term is not to be confused with the terms crossdressser, transgender or transsexual.

Laura Jane

[Guest Eve Caillard]

Oh!

Well, Laura, perhaps I'm bashing myself too much!

I know I am a cross-dresser and transgender. Blow the lingerie, I like my blouses, dresses, shoes, boots and I love to be the whole girl. Well, I always thought Transvestite is just an over-used term that carries a load of baggage, I did not realise it had a more rigorous definition. But checking it out now I see what you mean, after Magnus Hirschfeld's research.

Thanks for clearing it up!

Eve

[Guest Karen K]

Eve,

Education among ourselves is as important as education the masses about our predicament.

Glad to help out

Laura Jane

[Guest rita63]

When I was in my teeens and discovering my sexual and gender identities I realized who I was. I was physically capable of enjoying sex with a woman or a man and had a compulsion to dress in womens clothes. This was a damnable ofence against the world. I was a <offensive word for homosexual> queen and had better hide that.

Then Stonwall and the gays came out I was a Transgender and bisexual and still not acceptable. Then I became a cross dresser, most of whom are very straight. Now I am a trans person who cross dressses and is bi sexual but fussy about who I go with.

All of the terms eventually become offenive to the next generation but it never changed who I was or my own ability to accept myself as me.

Don't let people or words define or offend you. Be true to who you are and follow that course it will all work out if you are true to yourself and love others.

hugs rita

Edited October 3, 2012 by rita63
too offensive word for homosexual removed

[Guest carolynn2fem]

so if ya had to explain it to someone or correct someone. the T word is as outdated and offensive as the N word.

[Guest]

so if ya had to explain it to someone or correct someone. the T word is as outdated and offensive as the N word.

That would depend on which generation you were from.

I don't really care what you call me, just don't call me late for dinner.

I would however prefer to be called Transgendered.

Huggs,

Joann

[Guest KatyDesire]

In the USA "transvestite" is most certainly derogatory, and the term "cross dresser" should rather be used. In the rest of the world it is not quite so clear, and "transvestite" does not carry the same degree of approbrium. But, of course, language changes and developes, and I suspect that within a few years "cross dresser" will generally be the preferred term.

Personally, it really doesn't bother me what I am called. A rose by any other name, and all that.

Hugs,

Katy

[Drea]

I always thought of "transvestite" as someone who not simply crossdresses, but would also go out in public crossdressed or even live full time presenting as a woman while not modifying their body to a significant degree.

But I agree other connotations have been applied to it and as crossdresser now is attracting those same connotations, what new term will start to be used as crossdresser falls out of favor for the same reasons?

[Guest Jaded1]

Let me begin my post with saying that when it comes to definitions and labels, we live in an ever evolving world. I still see and hear some people use the term "transgendered" and I find that to be offensive as the term is not a noun or a verb, it is an adjective and as such, should be used appropriately: Transgender person, etc.

But I know there are still those that identify as such, so I always allow room for self identification and as a result, I validate that identity.

WITH THAT SAID,

I also keep getting asked what is the difference between transvestite, or transsexual and transgender and I always smile.

Transgender is the all inclusive umbrella term which includes all identities in which gender identity and birth sex don't match. So Transsexual is one of the subterms if you will.

Transvestite has split into two categories with the original word being relegated to the scrap heap of vocabulary.

- Crossdresser: One who occasionally wears clothing and items of the opposite gender simply because they are clothing and items of the opposite gender.

- Fetishistic Transvestism: A phenomenom in which someone dons apparal of the opposite gender for the purposes of sexual excitement and or gratification.

The two are not the same and do not overlap.

[Guest]

Then if I am to be politically correct? I have to wear woman's shoes for my girl shaped feet, boy's clothes on the bottom to cover those parts with a pantie liner to cover the scar, girls clothes on the top to cover my breasts, male jewelry on my right hand because of the index finger being shorter than my ring finger, female jewelery on my left hand because that index finger is longer than my ring finger, a cameo collar around my neck because I don't have a pronounced larynx. No make-up on my face due to facial hair, nice long ear rings for my pierced ears and a pretty bow in my female hair. All just to be normal?

Gawd it that a style that will be difficult to put together. Then I get the label "Weird" Jody