The RuPaul Drag T*Word Controversy

[candy_coated_bitch]

I have known a lot of drag queens that DO identify as gender variant in some way. I think it's presumptuous to say that most drag queens are really just cis men in women's clothing and completely unrelated to trans women. (Not that anyone used those exact words, it's just my reaction.) I am not trying to say that the two are the SAME--but why do trans women have more of a right to name themselves tranny than a drag queen? I consider that historically drag queens have been pioneers in the LGBTQ rights movement from Stonewall on--and a huge part of that has been BECAUSE of blurring the lines of gender. Yes, there is a performance aspect of it--but not always.

I think trans________, however you may or may not end that word, is a wide and diverse group of people. Tranny has long been used before the word and concept of transgender as we know it now even existed. In my opinion, it has as much history and importance of reclamation as queer, dyke, faggot (and no I also do not agree that that is an off limits word as well), bitch, cunt, nigger, and so on and so forth. I think the reclaiming of language is important and powerful. It can be a liberating and powerful experience.

Also--how the fuck do we know how Ru Paul feels about his/her gender and what pronouns he/she may or may not use? To put the label of cis man on him BECAUSE he is a drag queen seems questionable to me. Ru Paul hasn't said much on the issue, but what I did read when he finally came out and addressed the issue was "fuck anybody who wants to police my language". Amen to that, I say. Just because a person spends SOME time living and identifying as a man I don't think it negates the time they spend living, identifying, performing, and embodying another gender if that is meaningful to them. I don't know specifically what Ru Paul's gendered experiences are but I am not going to make a judgment about what words are appropriate for him to use. I think drag queens absolutely can fall into the trans* and gender variant experience.

I use the word tranny. Not always, not with all people--but I do have trans friends I use it with. Just like I have gay friends I use the word fag with. On trans pride day we wish each other "Happy tranny day!"

I have been following the discussion online and I find it extremely ironic that the loudest voices in opposition to the use of the word tranny are cis folks. Not folks from the drag community, not trans women--CIS FOLKS. Things that make you go hmmm.

This is one really good viedo I liked on the pro tranny side, or at least one that allows for that view:

[candy_coated_bitch]

God damn my inability to post a YouTube video, if someone wants to PM me and help, I will post it.

[Martina]

Originally Posted by candy_coated_bitch

I have known a lot of drag queens that DO identify as gender variant in some way. I think it's presumptuous to say that most drag queens are really just cis men in women's clothing and completely unrelated to trans women. (Not that anyone used those exact words, it's just my reaction.)

I didn't use those words, but I did say something like that. I did qualify it by the people *I* have known. I do think there are a lot of drag queens who are pretty uncomplicatedly cis. It's been my experience. I am not sure what's presumptuous about saying that.

[Liam]

I don't use the term, and I would not like it, if someone called me that.

[candy_coated_bitch]

Originally Posted by Martina

I didn't use those words, but I did say something like that. I did qualify it by the people *I* have known. I do think there are a lot of drag queens who are pretty uncomplicatedly cis. It's been my experience. I am not sure what's presumptuous about saying that.

I know you didn't exactly say that, which is why I clarified it was just my reaction. I think what *IS* presumptuous is assuming how any drag queen may or may not identify without knowing. And it doesn't seem as though that is what you are saying. But really--just my sense on a larger level is we are all having a discussion about someone's gender identity or lack thereof without full knowledge of how they feel about themselves--and by extension what right they have to use a particular word. That feels icky to me.

[Corkey]

I am Transgender, I do not use the word, nor do I think it is an acceptable word to use. RuPaul's gender aside it is offensive because Transgender people say it is. If one wants to reclaim the word for themselves that is the prerogative of the person who claims Transgender.
I do think it was done to other people, and so far I have not heard an apology from either the network or RuPaul. If said apology has happened and I missed it, well I missed it.

[Martina]

I totally go by what other people tell me they ID as.

People often think about gender in one of two ways. They either see a spectrum with lots of little points along it, and each of these is a gender, almost separate from the others. (I am wildly oversimplifying.) But basically, they understand that once someone has struggled with gender a certain amount, they are probably tg or genderqueer or gender variant or something like that.

OR, people can understand that there may be just a few genders, each rather elastic, each able to manifest in many different forms.

Either approach is liberating, and I respect any individual's conclusions about gender. (Of course.) BUT, I am more in the second camp. I do not love the list-of-qualifiers way of naming gender. I prefer expanding a few categories. I personally find that a lot more liberating than the string of qualifiers approach. I am not sure that the lived reality is much different for most non-trans folk. I know the string of qualifiers works for some, but I groove on subverting the big categories and stretching them till they scream.

So that may pre-dispose me to not assuming TG. It does not pre-dispose me to making normative assumptions.

[Corkey]

I look at the spectrum as a circle, not a line. It suits me.

[imperfect_cupcake]

I have no idea. All I know is the bigendered drag queens I know consider half their gender categories is trans. I also know unigendered straight cis drag queens. I also know uni-gendered lesbian drag queens. I could keep going with this. Drag does not auto connote gender. So I can't state all people who X are X genders and thus can't claim nuthin.

I'm a dyke. I also call myself a lezzo, a carpet muncher, a lezbean and a few other things. Why? Because I don't think there is anything intrinsically wrong with me at all. If someone calls me a lezzo, I honestly don't find it insulting. Cause its not an insult.

Some dykes feel differently. They hate it. That's fine. But they sincerely can't control what I don't find offesive and what I don't find offensive.

I'm going to assume that everyone in every corner of LGTBQ kinda feels the same way. Some people find something offensive and some don't.

[The JD]

Whether or not Ru Paul and the contestants are "entitled" by their own personal identification to use the word (that's how I see much of this discussion), it's taking place on a TV show, not their private lives, which creates another layer of context.

Participants on a game show/reality show tend to be incredibly self-aware of the "brand" they're trying to create, and try to market themselves in ways that will "sell." If you're hearing Ru Paul and the contestants use "tranny" and "she-mail", it's because the show's producers think that will sell ads. That seems to me to be much more problematic.

[Martina]

Originally Posted by candy_coated_bitch

Also--how the fuck do we know . . . what pronouns he/she may or may not use?

Ru has specifically said that she is fine with either pronoun. I don't know that that means a thing, but that's what she has said.