"Transgender" vs. "Transsexual"

Transgender is an umbrella term than includes transsexuals, crossdressers, genderfluid people, drag kings and queens, etc.

Transsexual is a medical term to describe a person suffering from gender dysphoria.

 

In many contexts, yes. It isn't as widely considered offensive as words like "fag", but it's generally better to avoid using it.

 

Transvestite: A person, typically a man, who derives pleasure from dressing in clothes appropriate to the opposite sex. - Google Definitions

Transsexual people don't gain sexual pleasure from wearing women's clothes and we aren't men in women's clothes because we're women in women's clothes, so we aren't transvestites.

 

No more than cis women do, anyway.

Means literally the same as 'cross-dresser' of course, and some cross-dressers are still happy to be called transvestites, but it's got a sort of 80s/90s feel about it, and it's become associated with pornography.

 

Yeah, but Fugs hit the nail on the head on this one. The main difference between cross-dressers and Transvestites in particular is that transvestites specifically do what they do because they get sexual pleasure from it.

 

If 'transvestite' means nothing more, nothing less the old 'fetishistic transvestite' diagnosis, then maybe yes. But I don't think it does have exactly that specific meaning.

 

Now I could be wrong, but I think that you mean...

Transgender: someone who thinks they are the opposite sex

Transsexual: Someone who has gone through surgery and it now the opposite sex.

 

I do have to wonder still about casting such a wide net with the term "transgender". Is a male who cross-dresses for fun, but otherwise fully identifies as male, really "transgender"? Is it just the action that is transgender, or does a trans identity still apply to such a person?

 

Nope, Dhamma got it right. A transsexual person is transsexual regardless of whether they've gone through gender-confirmation surgery or not. Transgender might not make a whole lot of sense as an umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity and/or presentation doesn't match their assigned gender, but that's how it's used.

 

I would say that if the person "has" crossdressed at some point in their life that doesn't make them transgender. If they identify as "a crossdresser" that in essence should make them transgender, at least according to its definition.


Also, on the topic of the word transvestite being offensive, I would say yes it is to an extent, but its all in the eye of the beholder. Hermaphrodite is considered an offensive term, but I've met someone in my trans group that identifies as it. Queer was considered an offensive term, but now many people (myself included at least for the moment) identify as it. Shemale is typically considered offensive if used to address a person, but often not if you are referring to "shemale pornography."

Semantics is all it comes down to really.

 

I think I'd widen this to say that any time you're dealing with a self-applied label, ultimately it's best to defer to what the person feels comfortable calling themselves (or not, as the case may be). Transgender can be used as an umbrella term for everything DhammaGamer mentioned, but for any number of reasons, someone may choose not to stand under the umbrella.

But yes, when speaking in the abstract, it seems to be the most accurate shorthand for a wide range of identification.

 

are you discussing how we typically use the terms, or how the actual definition of it is?

In the case of typical use, my girl and I dont differentiate between Transgender and Transsexual.
Transsexual just has more of a clinical feel and causes a few raised eyebrows because it has the word sex in it. We have to ususally back that up by saying she is a Transgender, not a transvestite, and not a cross dresser. Also we have run across people who see Drag Queen as an apporpriate term for my wife. We have to gently tell them that it is not appoorpriate and she does not dress as a woman because she preforms as a woman, but rather that she is a woman and does not gain anything (other than supreme height and showing off her incredibly long legs and causing accidents when wearing a skirt) from dressing in women's clothing.

if we are speaking on the actual definition, then it has already been stated and while it does encompass Cross Dressers, I do not feel that it is an umbrella term used to describe anyone who dresses in the oposit genders clothing.

 

Many people who identify solely as 'cross-dressers' don't like 'transgender' to be applied to them, that's true. But it is generally used as an umbrella term to cover all forms of birth gender/behavioural gender mismatch.

 

In my counry:

A transgender person is someone who identifies as something else than their assigned sex.
A transsexual person is someone who identifies as the opposite gender (and the opposite gender only; so no genderfluid people), and they have a desire to actually go through surgery and become the different sex.

That's the correct medical use in my country. It's weird because I think in the US they use these terms slightly differently. They should really find universal meanings, cause I can imagine this is confusing.

 

I guess this is basically getting back to the issue I spoke to you about previously with regard to such a wide interpretation of transgenderism, since it seems to be operating within the framework of our reactionary homophobic/transphobic society when it comes to gender.

Gender is an artificial social construct that could be dismantled with human progress toward equality, but this version of transgenderism appears to reinforce traditional outdated gender norms. It reinforces the idea that there's a "male" way to act and a "female" way to act, a "male" way to dress, and a "female" way to dress.

It's rooted in an old view of gender rather than seeking to establish a new paradigm which would allow all human beings to be free to act and dress and do as they please without feeling boxed in by gender.

The classicist in me feels the need to point out that, unlike say "f****t for gay people, these words seem to have rather benign linguistic origins in Latin and Greek:

Latin:
Transvestite= Trans + Vestite (across + dress)

Greek:
Hermaphrodite= Hermes (Greek god of commerce)+ Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love)

Of course its up to the individuals themselves whether they find these words appropriate to describe them or not considering the added baggage they've acquired over the years.

 

Both of you are correct.

Transsexuality is one of many labels under transgender. They're not interchangeable terms.

Cisgender, which is being the sex you were born as and are completely congruent with, is the very rigid female and male bigender system that's exactly the opposite of transgender.

The usage of transgender and cisgender is dependent on the society it's applied to. It's based on what's typical, and because cultural significance has a pretty big role in the application of the label, it can't be universal.