When it comes to expressing your gender identity, navigating labels can be tricky. For those identifying as transgender or non-binary, finding the right words is essential.
Obviously, it’s important for people to use language that respects and reflects your identity. Outdated or offensive terms can be hurtful.
However, it’s important to remember that you’re more than just a label!
Ultimately, what matters most is how you personally want to be addressed, regardless of where you fall on the gender spectrum.
So, let’s talk about it!
Do you have a particular term or label that resonates with you – such as crossdresser, transgender woman, non-binary person, or something else?
I’m eager to hear your thoughts, so let’s continue the conversation in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
I call my self as t-girl
T Girl or simply transgendered, it suggests a need to be female
I think I identify as crossdresser. I don’t mind the label. I want to be m to F transgender. I am overwhelmed by all the information out there
Transgendered woman, definitely. My interest in this site was sparked by my wish to expedite my transition, since I am still in waiting for actual medical help.
I have alwayslea d to tra sgendered woman. It’s my belief that I am truly a woman and eventhough its not prevalent when in appearance, its my mind and soul wich definds me. So for those ignorant people who only see thru a pin hole, take a step back and look at the whole picture. It might surprise you when you do.
Krystal
I first discovered that I wasn’t a girl when I was around four years old, when I was punished by my mother for coloring all of my finger nails like all the rest of the girls did. It took me a while to understand that I was different, and that difference was wrong.
I spent the better part of the next four decades pretending to be someone I wasn’t – even though inside I knew the truth, but was too afraid to face it. The real me managed to slip out periodically, resulting in marital problems for me, not to mention a long relationship with my therapist.
A few years ago I hit the wall – I finally sunk so far into depression that I realized that I had two choices: either face my real self and do something about it, or figure out the best way to kill myself. Ironically enough, when I broke down and made an emergency call to my therapist, she pretty much confessed that she was simply waiting for me to admit the truth to myself.
I have now faced the fact that I am transgender, and as I continue through my transition I prefer to think of myself simply as a woman with a birth defect that is taking some time to correct.
I under stand every thing you said . I guess I am just a little slower then you ,but at least you have a therapist to help you and good luck
I prefer transvestite. Crossdresser is linguistically equivalent, but to me it’s vulgar. I don’t know how it happened, but my internal definition is that transvestites try to pass and crossdressers do not. I understand that not everyone developed that same definition.
As you note, it’s hard to come up with a single label that can cover all the different people in the “T” category. Because I think T is as representative as it can get, I don’t mind t-girl as long as it’s used respectfully.
Out and about, I’m very aware of who I am and although I gracefully accept Miss, Ma’am or Ladies in direct address I’m not offended by Sir or Dude, again, as long as it’s used respectively.
It’s weird how different people hear the same words differently. I am exactly 180 degrees in my feelings about these two words. Cross dresser sounds like a soft, accepting word and transvestite sound diragatory to me. But I agree, as long as delivered respectively, all is fine, without respect, no label is ok
I agree with both of you although you have opposing views 🙂 Let me explain: I think that, over the years, the mild and gentle term ‘crossdresser’, to explain someone who needs to manifest physically their inner self-image as a woman, was completely corrupted by the community of sexual fetishists who crossdress for sexual pleasure (with or without a partner). It’s not ‘wrong’ that they ‘appropriated’ that name, because, after all, they are the vast majority (some studies calculate that around 90% of all crossdressers are sexual fetishists).
‘Transvestite’, in my country, just means an entertainment role: an artist who dons clothes from the opposite gender in order to do a show on the stage. Transvestites, in my country, might not have any sort of gender dysphoria; they might not see the performance as reflecting anything about their inner selves, but just as a means to get an audience and make some money (any true professional artist just wants to be paid). So, because of my cultural background, I have some trouble to accept the label ‘transvestite’, as I most certainly don’t want to go on a stage and perform an act!
But I understand that different cultural backgrounds have appropriated the terms differently. In Brazil, for instance, crossdressers do not live full time as women, but transvestites do. They would be the Thai equivalent of ‘shemales’ or the ‘pre-op transexuals’ in the US. Once you go through transition, in Brazil, you’d be labeled a transexual.
In my own country (Portugal), we just have crossdressers and people with gender dysphoria, who might or not be under treatment. If they are, they transition to the opposite gender, and, in the case of MtF, they become legally ‘women’ — not transwomen, not post-op transexuals, nothing of the sort: they are just ‘women’, independently of their chemistry and/or genitalia. Transvestites, as said, perform shows for entertainment purposes and have little to do with gender dysphorical individuals.
But I fully understand that this is purely a cultural issue.
I’m a transvestite in process of transsexuality and I refer to myself as a woman.