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1. MIND THE GAP!!
Do you remember when the space first appeared? When the word ‘transwoman’ became ‘trans woman’? I do. It was several years ago now. That gap, that space is very powerful…
Do you remember when the space first appeared? When the word ‘transwoman’ became ‘trans woman’? I do. It was several years ago now. That gap, that space is very powerful…
2. Having successfully trained us all to use the word ‘transwoman’ & to accept that there is such a person as a transwoman, who must not be referred to as a man, the gap was introduced.
3. No longer did we talk of ‘transwomen’. Now we had to talk of ‘trans women’.
What is the difference?
What is the difference?
4. ‘Transwoman’ is a noun. Nouns refer to objects, in this case a person.
What does the noun ‘transwoman’ say? Well, a transwoman is not a man, because we have a different word for this person.
What does the noun ‘transwoman’ say? Well, a transwoman is not a man, because we have a different word for this person.
5. But a transwoman is not a woman either. Again, because we have a different word. A transwoman is not a man or a woman. A transwoman is a transwoman.
6. What does that space do? The space that turns ‘transwoman’ into ‘trans woman’ is very powerful. Where once we had a noun now we have a noun and an adjective. Now the adjective ‘trans’ describes the noun ‘woman’.
7. Now a ‘trans woman’ is not a transwoman, a being that is neither man nor woman. That space makes a ‘trans woman’ into just another sort of woman and removes him entirely away from being any kind of man.
8. Now a trans woman is just another sort of woman. Like a black woman. Or a disabled woman. Or an old woman. Or a gay woman… Just as it is discriminatory to exclude any of these women, so it is discriminatory to exclude a ‘trans woman’. That space is were the power lies.
WHERE the power lies... ugh...
Note: the take home message here is not to insist on using the word 'transwoman'. We already have perfectly good words to use when we need to refer to human males.
Language MATTERS. Words are powerful.
Language MATTERS. Words are powerful.
