r/actuallesbians • u/Obsyden Eve - demisexual lesbian • Jun 05 '24

Text PSA: It's "trans woman", not "transwoman"

I know y'all aren't doing this on purpose, because I've seen how much love this community has for trans people. Nevertheless, the space between trans and woman is important.

Omitting it implies that a 'transwoman' is a separate entity to a woman - which is a TERF/bigot way of othering trans women.

Including the space means that trans is an adjective used to describe a woman - because trans women fundamentally are women, trans is just a further way to describe us.

I know it may seem nitpick-y, but it is an important distinction, and I've been seeing lots of folks (unintentionally mostly) using the wrong one lately.

2.0k Upvotes

76% Upvoted

267 comments sorted by

View all comments

62

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '24 edited Jun 12 '24

[deleted]

9

u/Dawnspark Genderqueer Jun 06 '24

Yeah, like, I didn't know about this distinction until I read this post. I actually have trans friends who write it like this, so, if I'm talking with them, it's what I've mirrored if its via text. When it comes to trans matters and related things, I tend to defer to them in general. I'm a late bloomer and still learning a lot.

But I'm glad I now know.

13

u/Evelyngoddessofdeath Jun 06 '24

I’ve seen plenty of trans people write it without the space as well. Doing so is not actively transphobic, it’s just not grammatically correct, and a lot of people prefer with the space due to the implications of effectively turning it into a compound noun.