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[I]f you’re offended by someone calling you a “tranny,” it was only because you believe you are a “tranny!” So then, the solution is: Change your mind about yourself being a “tranny.”
~RuPaul
The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
~Cesar Chavez
I’m not happy at all with RuPaul and his recent statements regarding use of the word “tranny” (which for the rest of this article I’m going to write as tr***y because so many trans people — including me — find the term to often be a pejorative). He wants those of us trans people who object to use of the term as a demeaning pejorative to define ourselves by the demeaning pejorative. He apparently wants all of us to cooperate with being humiliated with deriding, dehumanizing, humiliating words — whether that word be the n-word, the c-word, the antigay f-word epithet, and antitrans terms such as tranny, shim, shemale, it, and thing because those terms are just words.
I’m not exaggerating. For those who haven’t read the Huffington Post: Gay Voices interview of RuPaul by Michelangelo Signorile, here’s an excerpt of the interview:
Michelangelo Signorile: [Tr***y is] something that a lot of activists feel though is used against them in a negative way. But, I mean, lesbians, a lot of them call themselves dyke too, right? So, you can call yourself these words.
RuPaul: Right, because they’ve earned the right to do it. And in the ACT UP age we called ourselves queers because we earned the right, we took the word back. But in reality, once you go even deeper, you know, you have to come from intent. And black folks call themselves the n-word all the time. It’s because the intent is coming from a place of love. If the intent is coming from a place of hatred, that’s different. But you can’t legislate intent. You can’t — there’s no way to do it. So, the truth is, you have to fix that individually on a one by one basis. If somebody calls you a green [M]artian, would you be offended by it? No, you wouldn’t be. Why? Because you know you’re not a green martian. But if you’re offended by someone calling you a “tr***y,” it was only because you believe you are a “tr***y!” [laughter.] So then, the solution is: Change your mind about yourself being a “tr***y.”
As well as this excerpt:
Michelangelo Signorile: On this idea of how people identify, what they call themselves, a lot of controversy too, lately, over the word “tr***y”–
RuPaul: Yes.
Michelangelo Signorile: Lance Bass just apologized for using the word “tr***y.” What do you think of all that?
RuPaul: [Laughter] It’s ridiculous! It’s ridiculous! Words — it goes back to grade school: Sticks and stones, you know the rest. The thing is you have to look at the ego, you have to follow the money, and the payoff. And the payoff is that the ego wants attention no matter what. It will try to get it wherever the hell it can, whether it’s positive or negative. So you have to ignore it basically — you have to starve it out. And unfortunately in our culture one person can write a letter to the network and they shut something down. It’s unfortunate. But I love the word “tr***y.”
And no one has ever said the word “tr***y” in a derogatory sense. In fact, you have to go to the intent of the person saying it. Of course Lance Bass, his intent would never be to be derogatory. Never. So, you know, that’s really ridiculous. And I hate the fact that he’s apologized. I wish he would have said, “F-you, you tr***y jerk!”
So in other words, if I (or any other trans community member) called for RuPaul to apologize for his embracing of the term tr***y for all trans people, he’s said he’d tell me to f*** off — then call me the term I just would have told him is one I find a pejorative. Nice.
RuPaul is a public figure. He has a reality show entitled RuPaul’s Drag Race on LOGO, and the show is starting up a new season. RuPaul won the GLAAD Media Award for Best Reality Program in 2010 for that show:
GLAAD’s tag line is “Words and images matter.” This in notable because in January of 2009 — before RuPaul won that GLAAD Award — he commented on tr***y for the Dallas Voice.
What occured was that the Dallas Voice sometimes employed the producer of Ticked Off Tr***ies With Knives, Israel Luna. The publication glowingly reported about that film and the producer Luna, but when trans people objected to the premise of the film, and objected to how the film and the Voice used tr***y when a significant number of trans people object to the term, the Dallas Voice‘s Life and Style editor Daniel A. Kusner interviewed RuPaul and got his take on tr***y. The article by Kusner was entitled RuPaul approves ‘tr***y’, and quoting from the article:
[More below the fold.]
“Okay, Let me put on my Judge Judy robe,” RuPaul says. “People really need to get a life. And quit taking every opportunity to be offended by the world. Years ago, political correctness made it unbearable for anyone to have a laugh or be free. You can’t make the whole world ‘baby safe.’ That’s really the uneducated approach to dealing with issues. “There are more things to do in this life than to try to correct people with how they should refer to you. That’s your problem. That’s not their problem,” she continues. …”We are obsessed with trying find areas where we get offended,” RuPaul says. “And people who identify as being victims have a hard time accepting a new identity. They hold their ‘victim identity’ in place. And they continue to look for people or organizations where they can point their finger at and, in essence, confirm their victimhood.” …”When we say ‘tr***y,’ or ‘drag queen’ or ‘queer,’ we’ve taken the word back and owned it again. And that it’s coming from a place of love and respect.”
So RuPaul espoused essentially the same view to the Dallas Voice in 2009 as the one he espoused to the Huffington Post in 2012.
Personally, I sat through the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial in Greeley, Colorado in early spring of 2009, and listened to Angie’s killer refer to Angie as “it” and “thing.” I’ve personally had “it,” “thing,” “shim,” and “tr***y” used among other terms as epithets against me. In one case I was called tr***y by a white supremacist, and in another case was referred to as Pam’s House Blend’s “house tr***y” by an antitransgender activist.
And in one case, I had a Federal Marshal refer to me as a “shim.” Many of us in LGBT community are personally aware that societal authority figures sometimes refer to us by pejoratives.
In the latest interview of RuPaul by Michelangelo Signorile, RuPaul stated:
…And no one has ever said the word “tr***y” in a derogatory sense. In fact, you have to go to the intent of the person saying it.
RuPaul is apparently willfully ignorant of how pejoratives such as tr***y are used; RuPaul is utterly wrong in his assertion that tr***y is never used in a derogatory sense.
In the old 2009 interview RuPaul said “There are more things to do in this life than to try to correct people with how they should refer to you. That’s your problem. That’s not their problem.” In the new 2012 interview RuPaul said “And listen, if you’re offended by a name that somebody calls you, or something, whatever, you gotta take that up with your therapist, kiddo…”
Well, it’s not just my trans peers’ and my “problem” when epithets and pejoratives are used to refer to us. It’s also the problem of the people who use the terms when they know people are offended by the terms — it’s and issue of sensitivitiy to the concerns of others. And well, some of us in community don’t want to reclaim particualar words that have been used against us as epithets.
Donna Rose wrote a letter to the Dallas Voice about that 2009 article excerpted above, and she wrote this in response to Kusner and RuPaul:
Words matter. Labels matter. As a writer you, better than anyone, should know that. Those of us who advocate for “marriage” over “civil unions” for same-sex couples are well aware of the social and cultural weight that words can carry and the strong emotions that they can generate. You don’t hear transpeople telling others to get over their sensitivities and grow up, or of dismissing the importance of these things to others. Many of us respect these sensitivities simply because we recognize the importance. I’d urge that you demonstrate that same level of respect in how you handle sensitive issues about the transgender community. The way you handled it this time smacks of disrespect. Contrary to what some would believe, those of us who self-identify as transgender are not simply a collection of confused victims, loud whiners and needy complainers. Our voice and our sense of dignity is no less worthy of respect simply because we’re a minority within other minorities or that some would identify us as historically easy targets. Transgender is a community of communities with a wide variety of opinions, ideas, comforts, discomforts, needs, goals and labels we use to describe ourselves. Our diversity is not something any of us need to apologize for. Indeed, it’s something about which many of us are proud. I recommend that you to make an effort to actually get to know us before you try to define us.
In 2009 to now, I feel like I’m experiencing RuPaul Derailing For Dummies You’re Just Oversensitive/You Just Enjoy Being Offended/Being Offended Is Great For You moments. Paraphrasing a bit:
You’re disowning your own responsibility, and this is absolutely the crux of any derailment – you just can’t repeat or reinforce it often enough. No matter what, none of this is your fault – nothing you said that was hurtful, offensive, bigoted or discriminatory is really to blame here, because you said it in all innocence! After all, what reason have you ever had to examine your ingrained prejudices? Why should you start now? So you want the marginalized person to know this is how you feel and that you really believe the responsibility is all theirs – if they weren’t looking so hard for offence, everything would be a lot more pleasant…for you.
GLAAD’s tag line is “Words and images matter.” I will hope GLAAD takes this issue of RuPaul’s insensitivity to those of us trans people in LGBT community by publicly commenting on it because…well, RuPaul’s words matter.
I will also hope people in LGBT community take the use of a term that a significant number of trans people find offensive seriously as well; I will hope that LGBT community members take it seriously when a public figure in LGBT community is embracing and advocating insensitivity towards the significant number of trans people who find the term “tr***y” to be an offensive, demeaning, and dehumanizing.
And, LOGO should look at this too. LOGO needs to own that one of their reality show stars has made long running comments about terminology a significant number of trans people find offensive, and to us in trans community who object to being characterized as tr***ies…well, he’s told us he will tell us to f***-off, and that he will call us the very pejorative we object to.
Is that the kind speech LOGO wants to embrace? I’m personally not going to cooperate with humiliating and demeaning labeling — we’re going to see if LOGO is going to cooperate with one of their reality show stars using which a significant number of trans people find to be humiliating and demeaning speech to define the trans people in LGBT community.
~~~~~
Further reading:
* Transadvocate: RuPaul: F*** You, You Silly F****t! (A much harsher take than mine on the controversy – with four-letter and antigay language. ~A).
21 Comments
It’s not reclaiming if you already have it. In order for it to be reclaiming, it has to be about people of the group victimized by it deciding to or deciding not to use it. Only trans women (and certain other MAAB trans people) could ever reclaim t*****, anyone else using it and telling them to be okay with it is just telling their victims to suck it up and accept the usage of slurs against them. Not to mention that in-group and out-group usage are important in reclaiming language. Being called a dyke by a queer woman doesn’t feel the same as being called a dyke by a cis hetero. As someone who used to identify as a dyke (I don’t so much anymore, because I don’t ID as a woman now), if a cis hetero had called me a dyke, unless I specifically asked them to, I would have considered it an attack. One person’s useage of a reclaimed slur as a self identity doesn’t give the out-group a right to use it against others either.
Wow. He actually used the old “sticks and stones” whale-shit. Can I slap him and his producers for the insult to bullying victims?
LOGO has a pretty good history of using anti-trans sentiments as comedy. I remember “The Big Gay Sketch Show” having skits such as “Tr***y 911″ and “Are You Smarter Than a Tr***y Hooker?” I found both sketches to be horribly offensive.
I’d heard of RuPaul’s defense of that word and found it odd coming from a black drag performer, someone who has likely endured insulting labels. Your critique of the issue is enlightening.
There are a lot of nasty things I could say. Ru Paul really needs to look in a mirror and grow up.
Ru Paul is a drag queen. If you can not accept a drag queen’s perception of the world that speaks volumes about you. Do you want to stomp a mud hole in his heart and then stomp it dry like the Tennessee house speaker from district 27 just west of Chattanooga? I find Ru humorous and quite harmless. I wish he would register Republican and go mix it up with Gingrich and Romney in the primaries. Now that would be truly entertaining.
I happen to be a woman who made a transition to my authentic self several years ago. I wish to be accepted as such… a woman.
Calling me a “tranny” because of my past existence presenting as male only serves to “other” me, and calls my womanhood into question.
I didn’t transition to be special, or to be part of anyone else’s activism. I transitioned to be known as just another woman in the room.
RuPaul, let me go and be that woman in the room. Stop holding me back.
He is feeling this way because he already has it made. He doesn’t consider the effect on the average trans person. He’s forgotten where he came from. How sad.
I guess I’ll be the lone person to agree with RuPaul here. He’s right. People as a whole need to stop being so sensitive about language. What matters is intent. Is somebody being hateful or not? Are they spreading hate towards people or not? Excising words completely from the acceptable lexicon is just silly. If somebody calls me a faggot, what matters to me is not that they used the word, but rather whether they intended to be hateful or homophobic.
What really frustrates me is the waste of time & energy over debates and infighting like this, instead of into things that make a real difference like legislation and activism to ensure the civil rights and equality of transgender Americans.
Also @Veronica, RuPaul never called you a “tranny.” Don’t put words in his mouth.
RuPaul may have forgotten there’s a huge segment of people who can’t distinguish drag queen from transvestite from transgendered. His use of the term has a tremendous legitimizing effect, particularly among the more ignorant.
Or perhaps he’s well aware of it. Or doesn’t care.
We can’t move onto things that make a “real difference” unless we get some respect. The language people use tells you a lot about what they think of you. This word tell us they have no respect for us. And if they have no respect for us they certainly aren’t going to work with us on anything that’s going to make a “real difference”.
Gandhi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
This language (the T word) basically equates to “then they laugh at you”.
To get respect we need to stop the laughing. That isn’t going to happen until they see us as the men and women we are. We’re being othered.
I was verbally assaulted at The Transadvocate (I was mis-gendered) for what I wrote. I’ll say to you what I said to the person who verbally assaulted me (who is the Managing Editor at Baltimore OUTloud):
These discussions are VITAL because they regulate how acceptable anti-gay or anti-trans sentiment is publicly acceptable. And suggesting that we must only concentrate on legislation is myopic. We are a multifaceted community with a multifaceted agenda. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
furthermore, I’d like to quote Denise Norris:
As I said on Facebook:
Hi Autumn,
This is Laura Gonzales Administrator/Editor Transgender.FM
I read the statements from RuPaul and was as shocked as anyone. RuPaul comes into my transgender community nightclub (Club SHINE Saturdays athe Oxwood, Van Nuys) and other similar clubs in LA and is always pleasant and considerate. But he always comes in as a man, which he is, not a person transitioning, exploring or even considering as such. RuPaul is a gay man who makes a living by impersonating a woman in outlandish costumes and layers of caked on make-up and glitter. He is NOT a representative of the transgender community and should not speak for us as such. I wrote a rebuttal to the INSTINCT Magazine article and I would like to share it here as well. Thank you for keeping this topic alive, my hope is that RuPaul will look deep and change his opinion, I am hoping this because I like him personally. However, if he doesn’t, then I have no choice but to join in the rally cry with you. LOGO has not yet begun to hear our collective voice on this matter. Laura
=========================
Response to RuPaul’s comment on the general use of the label: “Tranny.”
From Laura Gonzales, Administrator, Transgender.FM http://www.transgender.fm
Bigots have used certain words for generations, to belittle, insult, hurt or dehumanize a certain race, religion, or group.
Now we find a word, a label that has come to insult the transgender community and it is the term: “Tranny.” With this word, we are not men or women or even human, we are a sub-category. Transgender is used to describe those that have or are transitioning. It is primarily used as an adjective as a transgender man or transgender woman. But when we don’t know which direction a person is transitioning, we say transgender person. But “TRANNY” is used as a derogatory noun for us, it is what we have BECOME and aspire to and NOTHING MORE.
So is that, what everyone here found out about themselves at the age of 4 or 5 or 20 or 40? That you are no longer a man or a woman but a “Tranny?” No… you found you were born in the wrong body and (if in a female body) you are a MALE. If you were born in a male body, but a female inside, you are a female. Getting the world to accept and understand us is going to be a long, weary and costly battle. What we do have on our side is modern science and medicine which is helping us to make our body’s match our souls and our true gender. This physical and painful process is called “transitioning.” And …during the transitioning process is when we generally call ourselves being “transgender male or transgender female.” But being transgender is NOT the end game, matching your body to your true gender is, whether it is FULL or PARTIAL. But the word “Tranny” never gives one the chance to transition, because a “Tranny” is neither male or female, it’s an IT. That’s why we need to rid this word from general society and OUR society.
I know some of you may not agree, but when I grew up being called a “spic” in school, people told me, don’t worry about it, no big deal. But we fought for respect, tolerance and elimination of derogatory words to the Mexican-American community…and we won. We HAD too. Now it’s time to eliminate names that de-humanize us.
Unfortunately, RuPaul has joined into the fray, but on the other side. RuPaul finds it “ridiculous” that the word “Tranny” is an offensive word. But RuPaul is gay and a (by his description) a drag queen. This is how he makes his living, not living or transitioning to be a woman, but by mocking them, imitating them with outlandish make-up and wardrobes and getting paid a ton of money to do so. If that is what he wants to do for a living so be it. But he shouldn’t pretend to be a spokesperson for us, for those who fight everyday battles to survive, keep our jobs or find one and always at risk of the loss of our families and lives. RuPaul can take off the make-up and go be himself with all the benefits that people like Harvey Milk and The Stonewall Riots gave him.. maybe not everything, but better than transgender men and women have. We are still here, on the front lines of intolerance, battling just to survive and be accepted…and even within the gay community.
Give us a break RuPaul, work with us, not against us. You come to our clubs, you have friends who are transitioning. Words may seem harmless to you, but were they to YOUR parents and grandparents? Have you been out to the Museum of Tolerance lately?
Join with us RuPaul, try a little harder to understand us and help us. Drag Race ain’t going to do it.
Love you still,
Laura Gonzales
Administrator/Editor Transgender.FM
http://www.transgender.fm
Promoter: Club SHINE, Los Angeles
We have told you as our rainbow community allies that the t-word is now considered by an increasing majority of the trans community to be a slur.
If you use it after we tell you it is a slur or try to come up with weak reasons to justify using it, then it stands to reason in our minds by you doing so you meant to be disrespectful toward our community and it’s going to piss transpeople off.
We thought we made it clear in 2009 to white gay media and the GL community that RuPaul is not a trans person. he is a self Identified gay male who made it clear he wasn’t trans and should not be regarded as an ‘expert’ on our lives.
GL people dismissively ignored that message we tried to tell you nicely in 2009, and the result is another community kerfluffle in which we had to point out in a language you GL people understand what RuPaul said was transphobic, it ain’t okay, and don’t do it any more.
Transgender is an umbrella term that does include transvestites and drag queens. Per GLAAD’s definition
“Transgender–An umbrella term (adj.) for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term may include but is not limited to: transsexuals, cross-dressers and other gender-variant people. Transgender people may identify as female-to-male (FTM) or male-to-female (MTF). Use the descriptive term (transgender, transsexual, cross-dresser, FTM or MTF) preferred by the individual. Transgender people may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically.”
And what if many GLB people consider the term cissexual a slur? It is not a medically used word–it came about in the last 90s and is not scientifically or medically used often. So if someone tells you they prefer non trans rather than cissexual, will you stop using the term? There are transmen and transwomen who have used that word against non trans people who have clearly stated they do not like the term.
Per GLAAD’s definition, Ru Paul is transgender as well as you.
You haven’t been reading. I found information on this at Americablog Gay days ago.
I agree with Ru. It’s about EGO, it’s about how you see yourself. If we keep treating it as a bad word then it will always mean something bad. Forcing apologies is only going to reinforce that.
YES! Thank you, I loathe the term cis-gendered. I find it hard to imagine some people as organic molecules with bonds off to one side!