It’s time for 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 label that we will be examining is: Transphobia
Standard Definition
Not yet in the dictionary (see below).
Derogatory?
People and/or groups that exhibit transphobia are most certainly offensive.
What’s It Really Mean?
Here’s something that I didn’t know before today, homophobia was officially entered into the dictionary in 1969. This word is defined as the irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Now, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that transphobia is a spin-off of homophobia (as far as word creation).
In any case, transphobia is the irrational fear of or aversion to trans people or anyone who presents themselves in a way that is not typical for their gender. This includes hatred, discrimination and prejudice.
My Take
Here is something that bugs me: when people say something dumb like, “I’m not homophobic because I’m not scared of gays.” What they don’t realize is that we’re not talking about being scared in the cowering or “running away” sense, but rather a ignorant anxiety of what they don’t understand.
Straight guys seem to get uncomfortable if they happen to find a MTF trans person attractive and this is one of the most prevalent catalysts of transphobia. Some mask their transphobia with religion, putting themselves as judges above God.
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.
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Transphobia (or less commonly, transprejudice and trans-misogyny, the latter referring to transphobia directed toward transwomen) refers to discrimination against transsexuality and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender identity .
When I researched this word I thought of all the fears of feeling as though I was bad, you know what I mean? The fear of being afraid. I had this little girl inside me that wanted to express herself but was afraid of not being acceptable to others. Jessica, just being able to express myself on your site takes much of my internal fear away. I have always been more afraid of me than society itself. We all need, as girls, to express this fear and face it once and for all in our lives. I am a girl inside, have always been and I am proud of me. What others think is not as important as what I think. I love my little girl inside.
Louise
Yeah, the phobia suffix seems to be pretty diluted these days. I think in part that is so because sticking it on the end of something is now taken to mean “aversion.” We slap that thing on the end of all kinds of words and phrases, sometimes even to comic effect (e.g. “she has a manager phobia …”). Unfortunately, as you’ve pointed out, the vernacular use of phobia tends to neglect the “irrational” part of its definition…
Thanks for the great blog!
Mel
Transphobia is also exerted by some old school feminist circles. I have recently had an encounter with a transphobic feminist…
It is also sad that my dating pool is severely cut because of the transphobia that many men have…
Unfortunately, transphobia is a fact of life. Straight, cisgendered people may feel relatively comfortable around a “straight-acting” gay person, but there’s no hiding trans in action – and that makes people uncomfortable. Uninformed individuals don’t always differentiate between gender-queer and partner-queer, and so an MTF trans person often represents the “gayest of the gay.” As a result, coming out trans can mean having to correct several misconceptions simultaneously.
Obviously, I’m not speaking about everyone. But sitting at the Thanksgiving table with generations of family members, I realized how many people I would/may alienate if and when this inner girl of mine reaches the surface. It makes me want to move to Australia and transition in distant anonymity!
Anyway, thanks for posting, and thanks for highlighting the fact that transphobia is very real, even if it doesn’t mean people running in fear from trannies as in a zombie attack.
Mira
Mira, that inner girl of yours is your most precious asset. It makes you unique and I am so proud to be able to communicate with you as a human being. I have this inner girl in me also and share your feelings. Being called anything does not take away my little girl inside. Wanting to move to Australia only shows that you want to take away a shield, that we both know, would make us totally free girl. Thanks so much for being you.
Louise
Sadly this is more prevalent than most even want to acknowledge. Any time there is an article regarding a member of the tg community in Maine, the disturbing reality of it comes to light when you read through online comment where the annonymous can ooze thier biggotry and ignorance to everyone else (remember the articles I sent you Jess) transphobia usually only shows its ugly head when a specific issue arises, but most seems to me lumped into the homophobia label as a whole, mostly spewing ignorance using relgion an excuse to hate anything they think is different. The recent Question 1 issue (gay marriage) here proved that Mainers ignorant and rather than doing a little research, they pretty much believe any piece of propagana handed to them and sucessfully made the entire GLBT community second class citizens. It does upsaet me that some people are so close minded that they need to dictate the lives of other who do not affect them at all…but it’s okay because they use religion as a front so they can sleep at night.
transitioning can be a scary thing for some girls. My close friend has gone through much transphobia when she was working at different jobs.People seam to enjoy belitting some one who is different from themselves.Men and women are guilty of this against some of the most beautiful transgendered women. They are jellous of how good they look and how feminane they are.Insecurity plays a big role in the problem.Ever so slowly this is changing and new laws help to keep some of the biggest transphobia individuals in line.