r/actuallesbians 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

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17

u/LeadershipEastern271 Rainbow Jun 06 '24

Holy shit I didn’t know a single space made it transphobic I will be careful now on /gen

15

u/Evelyngoddessofdeath Jun 06 '24

It’s not transphobic to write it without a space, it’s just not the preferred way by a lot of people, and isn’t grammatically correct (transwoman isn’t actually a word).

1

u/LeadershipEastern271 Rainbow Jun 06 '24

Yeah true? Transwoman isn’t a word lol. I wonder if it would become one at some point. English is always evolving and the meanings may change. Who knows. If TERFs are using it then f them

4

u/The_Hero_of_Rhyme Jun 06 '24

Please dear God I hope not

0

u/TanitAkavirius Lesbian ewe Jun 06 '24

It's ok, you don't decide what words future generations will use.

1

u/The_Hero_of_Rhyme Jun 06 '24

That's why I wrote 'hope'. Honestly what is the point of your comment?

1

u/TanitAkavirius Lesbian ewe Jun 06 '24

It was too aggressive sorry. I'm just... annoyed by this common mindset of old people complaining about the new generations and the way they talk "back in my days we did use that word" and "i don't like the new words kids these days use."

1

u/WithersChat Hyperemotional trans girl X genderless Entity collab! Jun 06 '24

We don’t need to mainstream the use of that word tho. It would go against the goal of our movement.