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Origins of the word Tranny
In the interests of serious history, I would love to know more about early use of the word tranny. I find this stuff fascinating. There are a lot of girls in here who’ve been on the scene longer than I have, somebody here probably knows something I don’t!
I don’t believe what Americans say about its history because their version is really vague and I strongly suspect it’s because the word probably came from outside America and they tend to ignore the rest of the world when they talk about recent glbt history.
Here’s what I have (I’ll start a bit early to set the scene):
In the 60s, in Sydney, probably long before the word tranny, I understand that much of the trans community was centred around the drag scene (which was bigger than it is today) – some of the drags were on hormones (the term drag then having been broader than its usage today) and since there were no other trans societies except the drag bars, if a transsexual wanted to transition medically she might start by seeking out one of the girls from Les Girls and asking her which doctors prescribe hormones.
In the 70s, the crossdresser societies like Seahorse started to appear, providing other ways for trans people to communicate in Australia outside the drag scene. Initially transsexuals were not allowed in these clubs, but that rule was later abandoned (I think it was doomed to fail sooner or later because if you get a huge group of transgender people together, inevitably some fraction of the group will eventually decide they do want to transition after all). Anyway the point is the waning drag scene was no longer the hub of the aussie trans community, so there was then a niche ready for another broad, slangy term to be coined other than “drags”.
Enough background! What about the word tranny?
I know that Doris Fish, a Sydney drag performer who also spent some time in the San Francisco drag scene, used the word tranny to describe herself in the 80s.
I know that Norrie Mae-Welby and some other t-girls used it in Australia in the 90s.
I know it was used by the British scene in the 90s, in a broad, all-encompassing sense, similar to the broader sense of transgender. For example, the trans magazine initially known as The Transvestite’s Guide to London had, by 1996, morphed into the Tranny Guide. Vicky Lee, the author of the guide, says that the word tranny did not exist in the London trans scene in the 1980s (nor did transgender; the word had been coined years before, but it was not yet used in the broad sense which made it popular; tranny and transgender appear to have appeared on the British scene at a similar time with similar meanings; Vicky Lee believes that tranny is simply short for transgender).
Meanwhile, by the 90s, Americans had come across the word tranny and many (but not all) decided that it was offensive for whatever reason. There are so many to choose from. For one there’s the linguistic difference, Australian English has dozens of noun abbreviations ending in a Y sound like truckie and bikie and postie, but American English has few and most of them are diminunitives, ie baby words like blankie or young girl words like scrunchie, things that it would be highly insulting to associate with a grown man; gender identity aside, they’re primed to hear diminunitive forms as insults. And then of course there’s all the other stuff that also applies outside of America about how, like transgender, it doesn’t distinguish between transsexuals and the rest of us; how it doesn’t sound Proper and Scientific and Medical (and pathologising!); and worst of all, how all kinds of riff-raff like drag queens and transsexual sex workers and even people who aren’t trans at all know what it means or can easily guess if they don’t!
The recent rise of more interactive web sites has brought new channels of communication between trannies internationally, allowing Americans new opportunities to tell us all how terribly offensive this word is. It’s not a new debate, but it wasn’t pushed down our throats before like it is now.
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3 Replies
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Fantastic research, Robyn, and what a fascinating topic. It would also appear that “appropriate” labels have been in discussion not only here in TR but in the community generally. Some of us don’t even know how to “label” ourselves!! Many feel that any such labels are superfluous as the different connotations of such labels are varied and for many of us we are moving from one “category” to another. Personally, I just know I’m at ease when I dress as a woman and feel more natural. Whatever category that puts me in or whatever label someone marks me with is their concern, not mine.
To quote a great singer, “just don’t call me fag**t unless you are my friend.”
Julie
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I know the word ‘tranny’ was in common usage by the early 80s, and its connotation implied being a part of a drag type club culture.
The word was quite familiar when I commenced HRT – my 25th anniversary next week, in 1985, and I had a definite dislike of the word being applied to me at that time.
That’s all I can add
Hug
Christina -
I’m familiar with the word being used in Melbourne from the early 1980’s. My first exposure to the word was from someone who described herself as a “post-op transexual”, who used it as a diminutive and slightly pejorative term referring to those who had progressed only to the stage of taking hormones. Akin to having progressed to the “trainer wheel” stage.
My sense of the way the word is used now is as a more positive and light-hearted noun that encompasses all shades of the spectrum.
