tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6712640935255311366.post3588971918976778681..comments2024-03-13T00:23:23.730-04:00Comments on A Gender Variance Who's Who: Some observations on the tranny wordZagriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15124379637664963835noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6712640935255311366.post-6370894498268283142014-06-24T07:25:22.869-04:002014-06-24T07:25:22.869-04:00"Those who demand that a word be no longer us..."Those who demand that a word be no longer used do not understand how language works." - Zagria<br /><br />Amen to that!<br /><br />And if I may vent my opinion… I think they are quite mad; the revolution they espouse is already clearly the kind that "eats its own."<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />- bonzie anne<br /><br />PS: I'm as close to being a free-speech absolutist as a reasonable person can be; those, like me, who share this sentiment in response to the insistence that language be strictly policed - in the hackneyed, trite, and altogether realistic phrase beloved by Libertarians, "at the point of a gun" - are condemned as fools or traitors, no matter how committed we are to the liberation of trans folk from oppression, no matter how severely affected by trans* conditions we might be, and no matter what our individual political orientation might be?<br /><br />This is insanity, "a madness of crowds," not a rational policy initiative…<br /><br />I'm a poet: you lecture me on the use of language at your own risk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6712640935255311366.post-18958980177797025812014-05-03T10:08:15.546-04:002014-05-03T10:08:15.546-04:00So to ask group B not to be hard on group C is to ...So to ask group B not to be hard on group C is to be "too hard" on group B. Surely that is a demand for special privilege, and thus a restriction on everyone else.Zagriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15124379637664963835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6712640935255311366.post-19629223776553444172014-05-03T06:37:59.813-04:002014-05-03T06:37:59.813-04:00I'd like to confirm what Kate Bornstein said. ...I'd like to confirm what Kate Bornstein said. I met a number of the Sydney women in 1979 when they were touring in London with the Playgirl revue. Subsequently a couple of friends went out to Sydney and lived in that sub-culture. The use of 'tranny' - which I'd come across in queer and trans culture in the UK occasionally - had a very specific use in Sydney in that period - the point was that it was a levelling word which enabled people to just get along without arguing over who was transexual, who a transvestite and who 'just' a drag queen' without anyone feeling better than anyone else. By the same reasoning, everyone went on the stroll and turned tricks and everyone shared drugs - or so I was told, Alas, that community was hit hard by the epidemic in the early to mid-80s.<br /><br />I think you're too hard on the people who want to suppress it - it did slide into common parlance and become something that got associated wtih transphobic violence. For a lot of younger people, it's become a word they think offensive and sure it's possible to regret that but sometimes that is what happens to language. I have no great attachment to the word, but I will insist on honouring the memory of those Sydney women I only met a few times.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6712640935255311366.post-83778610281856526962014-05-02T07:59:33.725-04:002014-05-02T07:59:33.725-04:00The word Tranny does not offend me in the least. ...The word Tranny does not offend me in the least. When I am out and about in a dress and people use that word I run to it rather than away from it. We still live in a time when a male presenting as a woman is not something that everyone encounters every day. I think it is important as we go forward and acceptance continues to evolve that we face the world with strength and humor. Creating a sense of outrage would seem to run contrary to creating a sense of acceptance.<br />PatPat Scaleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00148601231866277374noreply@blogger.com