You're not big, you're not clever
Continuing on from this thread…
Last week, I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, a PG rated show, because hey, I was bored and I enjoy a rubbish sitcom. And then there was a moment of pure, groundbreaking edgy hilarity. Marshall’s car is “part tranny, it goes back and forth.” Hur hur.
And then I watch Ugly Betty, and the hilarity continues. (about the trans character) “Like taking candy from a tranny.” Hur hur.
And then I see an ad for Dirty, Sexy Money and a character snaps something about a “tranny hooker.” Hur hur.
Then, I turn to the newspaper to read a music review. Kitty Empire in the Guardian, reviewing a concert featuring the Cure says “Robert Smith, by contrast, still slaps on the slap like a tranny gone feral.” Cos trans women are so rubbish with make-up. Hur hur.
See, the word “tranny” gets used with alarming regularity in the media, and I’m not sure it actually registers that it is a slur. It’s always so jolly, like it’s a whimsical, fun term that cis people can throw around with abandon. Always with the implication that trans people are laughably pathetic. Because my identity, our history, of itself is a joke.
What is missing is that in my personal experience as a trans woman, “tranny” is a form of hate speech. The last person who called me it literally spat on me. It’s frequently paired with “faggot”–yet no-one sprays that word liberally around the media. When someone spits a word at you, the implication is clear– you’re disgusting, barely even human. And that disgust is worked out violently against the bodies of trans people.
So why is it not that bad, why is this word qualifies as appropriate for use on tv sitcoms and apparently “liberal” newspapers (not that the continued presence of Julie Bindel on that paper helps much)? I mean, is it all this massive power we have in society? The general societal reverence and esteem trans people get? Now there’s a joke. If it’s not appropriate to use other hateful words, why does “tranny” get a pass?
Oh I forgot. I mean, we’re all post PC here, no-one gets really offended just because they’re constantly insulted, having their identity positioned between hilarious and disgusting? Hur hur.
Generally I agree with you with a couple of caveats. The characters in Ugly Betty who use the term about Alexis are generally shown to be unsympathetic when doing so – or at least morally complex – and in the first season at least, Alexis, having seemingly been pitched as a villain, turns out to have a fair amount of justice on her side After that, the writing gets far more wobbly, but she is never seen as a joke character, being ultra-competent and occasionally ruthless as well as beautiful and vulnerable.
Carmelita in Dirty Sexy Money is a more complex case. Often treated with disrespect by some of the show’s central characters, she is also shown to be unselfish and loving and morally superior to most of the family whose scion she is having an affair with. She stands up for herself effectively with eg. the family’s patriarch (Donald Sutherland). On the other hand, then she gets killed. On the other hand, at least she was played by a transwoman -Candis Cayne – whereas Alexis is played by Rebecca Romijin.
Roz Kaveney
6 Mar 09 at 5:41 am
I was shocked when I saw Alyson Hanigan’s character on “How I Met Your Mother” throw out the term like that, in reference to the car. I’d had the impression that the jokes in that show weren’t made at the expense of marginalized groups. After that, I also started to notice the word popping up all over the media. Not good, this trend. Not good.
Ash
6 Mar 09 at 8:11 am
Hi Roz
Well, I can’t speak to Dirty Sex Money, haven’t seen it. Though I think it’s interesting that such an utterance can be cut into an ad, stripped of any context. I mean, that shows how apparently “harmless” it’s supposed to be, right? You don’t tend to edit hate speech into ad–it might appear as an emotional climax, for a point, maybe.
My point about Ugly Betty wasn’t that the character is always and only a joke, but that the word “tranny” is still being used as a punchline. I stopped watching Ugly Betty after about three weeks in a row of it, and then when she was arrested…
queenemily
6 Mar 09 at 8:33 pm
I think part of the problem is that the cis-media and audience have not yet learned that “tranny” is a problematic word. I’m cis and I didn’t realize that until fairly recently, when I started to educate myself. I think it’s going to take a lot of reiterations of “No, that word is not okay, it’s a slur,” before it starts to sink into the general cis mindset that, yes, it’s a slur and it hurts people. We need to know that.
Teka
6 Mar 09 at 8:33 pm
What Teka said, to some extent, although it doesn’t seem right at all that trans people have to again and again bang their heads against a brick wall trying to get the cis media (& audiences) to wake up and realise that no, it is *not* acceptable and it’s *not* a joke. Because surely to say it once should be enough? Shouldn’t *need* to be reiterated again and again and again…
I did not know it was a hate word until about a year ago but that’s cis privilege isn’t it the ability to not even think about how the words you use might affect trans people.
What seems particularly wrong is when people are told “no, you can’t say that” and instead of saying “I’m really sorry, I didn’t know, I won’t say it again and will make sure I take anyone else to task who says it and educate everyone I know that it’s totally unacceptable”… they say, “well I only meant it as a joke why are you so defensive” etc.
Ruth Moss
7 Mar 09 at 1:34 am
Yes, all of this is fair, and the usage is offensive – it is something people can’t reclaim because it is still a term of abuse…
The handling of Alexis was far better in season 1 than later. Has anyone seen the pilot for Pretty Handsome? Ryan Murphy has pretty ambiguous form on trans issues.
Roz Kaveney
7 Mar 09 at 2:08 pm
On a bit of a tangent…since you mentioned The Guardian’s role in offering a platform to Julie Bindel, you may be interested to know that she’s been no-platformed by the NUS Women’s Campaign (http://transactivist.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/nus-womens-campaign-no-platforms-transphobic-speakers/)
transactivist
8 Mar 09 at 12:55 pm
[...] A couple more great examples Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Trans Men and Ciscentric Male PrivilegeTrans and [...]
“Tranny” & Cis Women: Re-Reclaiming Tranny (or not) part 2 « Taking Up Too Much Space
8 Mar 09 at 6:53 pm
[...] has negative implications. But in fact the term is offensive and derogatory. QueenEmily over at Questioning Transphobia put it this way: See, the word “tranny” gets used with alarming regularity in the media, and [...]
“Tranny” Is a Form Of Hate Speech « The Gender Blender Blog
31 Mar 09 at 10:40 pm
What’s In a Name?…
[...]And as queenemily says, “the word ‘tranny’ gets used with alarming regularity in the media, and Im not sure it actually registers that it is a slur. Its always so jolly, like its a whimsical, fun term that cis people can throw around with ab…
Ask a Tranny Podcast
11 Nov 09 at 11:36 am
As a cis man, I have to admit to having been just ignorant on the word’s badness until very recently, but I didn’t have to be *told* it was bad–when I started educating myself on trans people a few days ago, I said it a couple times in a sentence (only in the company of other cis folks and not intentionally as a slur) and instantly realized how and why it was bad.
The part that bothered me was how thoughtlessly it came out–I’d never have said a racial slur, or one about sexual orientation, yet this slipped out.
At least there was nobody in earshot who would have found it hurtful, but that’s about when I decided I was definitely on the boat of actively using more inclusive language.
It’s saddening that people don’t get it, but I guess it goes hand and hand with the disgusting way the news media and other outlets portray trans people. Clearly there’s a lot of progress to be made.
hexalm
8 Mar 10 at 2:39 am
@Hexalm,
I appreciate you following this thread and sounding as if you get it. What’s really annoying is when you hear other LGBTQ people who, when informed how their use of the word “tranny” is offensive and problematic to many, continue to defend their use of it as though they have some privilege to ignore its demeaning message. At its core, tranny = man pretending to be a woman for sexual purposes
To be accurate, ‘tranny’ was used on several episodes of Ugly Betty in reference to Alexis (at least once by Christian Siriano, the most famous serial ‘tranny flinger’). Most importantly, both Alexis and Carmelita were both essentially written out of those shows after they’re served their freak show purpose. (and I’m happy to say both those shows sank after the trans characters left). This has happened on other shows where trans characters were used for “quirkiness/tawdriness/shock value”. One of the better trans characters was in a show called “The Education of Max Bickford.” (starring Richard Dreyfuss) One for the mean characters in the show was trans but, of course, she was written out after about 6-7 episodes. The show went down the toilet shortly after.
Gina
8 Mar 10 at 10:40 am
So I know this post is kind of old. But I don’t understand how people are SO SHOCKED to be told the word is a slur when IT’S USED AS A SLUR. All the usages we are talking about here are negative. How is it not evident that the word is a slur?
jayinchicago
8 Mar 10 at 11:19 am
When this happens, PLEASE report this to the FCC. This is one really good way of helping inform (the government at least) that this is profane, and unacceptable for broadcast. I would put this slur on par with “faggot” or “nigger”.
The online complaint form is@ http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
They want to know the date, time, channel, and a few other things to report, so I can’t report anything at this time, as I do not know the episode, or even watch any of these programs.
This can help. Please try!
Courtney
31 Mar 10 at 3:59 pm
[...] by NIKKI I’ve just read some interesting articles on transphobia. And one blog entry, here. I hadn’t really thought about the word “tranny,” but I see now why it would be [...]
cissy « wish i was in heaven sitting down
31 Mar 10 at 6:48 pm