Back by popular demand is our series of posts here at Jessica Who?, titled “Word of the Week”. In these short articles, from here on out published each Friday, I will explore the various labels and umbrella terms used to label us. By doing this, I hope to educate not only myself, but also anyone who may not be familiar with these terms. Feel free to add your own knowledge to each post by leaving a comment 
.
The third label that we will be examining is: transvestite.
Standard Defnition
According to the dictionary a transvestite is a person and especially a male who adopts the dress and often the behavior typical of the opposite sex especially for purposes of emotional or sexual gratification.
Derogatory?
No, this is our first “word of the week” that actually isn’t a derogatory term.
What’s It Really Mean?
Transvestite was once the word of choice to describe men who wear women’s clothing, although over the years the use of this term has taken a backseat to the term crossdresser.
My Take
During my childhood, this was the only term that I knew of to describe myself. When I finally learned about the word crossdresser, I took a liking to it. Transvestite just sounds like someone suffering from a disease. Of course, there are those that still use the word prevalently, specifically in the UK.
Transvestite is more searched on Google than the term crossdresser. Also, it has a search volume index of 100.o in England, the highest rank possible. For this reason, I started to use this word in my blog so that more people could find it when searching the internet for information about crossdressing.
I don’t typically use this word to describe myself, but nevertheless take no offense to those who might use it on me or themselves.
Your Take
Have you anything to add? Please leave your take on this word in the comments section, I hope we can open up a dialogue and learn from each other while educating the masses.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
> specifically in the UK
Yup, although it’s frequently shortened to ‘tranny’ or just ‘trans’.
Thanks for the confirmation, Lynn
. Of course, I don’t live over there so it’s nice to learn the info.
Yeah, that was my term growing up. I kinda liked the cold clinical sound of it. I was slow to warm to crossdresser, as it just sounded a little kinkier, maybe a bit too descriptive. Of course, I wasn’t sharing that with anyone at the time. As I’ve come out, I use “crossdresser” and “transgender” to describe myself and others. Transvestite? That’s SO yesterday.
It does have a cold clinical ring to it, and I too prefer crossdresser or transgender
Reuters advises their journalists to avoid using the word because its potentially negative meaning. Transvestite can loosely be translated from latin as crossdresser anyway. Those who have been around still use it but I notice those newer to the scene use crossdresser. (Guess who was writing a post on the same subject)
I didn’t know that, thanks for sharing the info about Reuters.
Hmm… for some reason I find this word a bit offensive. Perhaps it’s the negative connotation I picture in my mind. Intellectually I know it’s just a description for a certain behavior. Yet somehow transvestite feels more ‘girl on the street’ to me than crossdresser. Which feels more ‘man in the closet’ to me than transgender. Which feels less forbidden than transsexual.
Funny, how our experience can bring meanings to words that weren’t really intended.
I don’t like it either. For me, it’s because it sounds like some sort of disease.
Interesting to hear everyone’s views. As Lynn says, and as you point out it is quite prevalent in the UK and I kind of like it and the derivative tranny although I tend to use tg and tgirl quite a lot too. Strangely, I find crossdresser rather impersonal, I suppose a lot of it is based on what you have read or seen in the media.
Hugs TinaCortina xx
http://tinacortina.wordpress.com/
It needs pointing out that ‘tranny’ IS an offensive derogatory term. And the shortened word trans is generally for transgender. Same for tg.
Transvestite is also an insult when it’s used to describe transsexual people because transsexual people are the gender they are presenting as, not just dressing up or doing so for sexual gratification.