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: He-She
Standard Definition
None.
Derogatory?
Yes, absolutely. This is a word meant to marginalize people and also strip them of their basic human rights, reducing them to a thing in the eye of the bigot.
What’s It Really Mean?
He-She is used by people when they are feeling transphobic and see a person who is androgynous in appearance. In some instances it is used as a slur for a MTF or FTM transsexual. Whatever the case may be, it is always used in a hurtful / hateful manner.
My Take
This week’s word was inspired by a conversation I overheard between two friends of mine who were unsure of a person’s gender. They began laughing and using the word “he-she” and then started calling the person an “it”. I was absolutely disgusted and decided to vent a little bit by writing this post.
He-she (or sometimes “shim”) is a dangerous word because of its power to break a person down and take away their human element, thus making it easier for haters to enact violence and abuse toward them.
Of course, I know that I’m preaching to the choir but my ultimate hope would be that this post shows up at the top of the google search results for “he-she” and can change a few minds. This word is extremely vulgar and tasteless and should never be used. Besides, what’s the big deal anyway? Is it absolutely necessary to know a person’s gender? Nope. Treat everyone equally is what I say.
Peace.
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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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Am I a “he-she”? I agree with you Jessica, it can be very abusive. I wrote it to search in Google and just got a lot of rhetoric. Definitions or identifications are what they are. I just turn away. Why do we need to have a label anyway? Humans are funny when it comes to identification and girls like us need to accept it or put our heads in the sand. Let us all assume who we are first, bond second and socialize to feel free with who we are.
Louise
This one just spews ignorance and I hear it constantly. This particular one is also offensive to women as well. Usually I hear it in conversaton about women who are not overly feminine in apearance. I had a rant about this a while back as well.
He-she sounds alot like another term I dislike and that is she-male.I think both are in the same catagory of gender slander. When people cant think of anything decent to say, they have create new words to put down some one who is not just like they are, hence my new term, gender slander .I think many of the people, who are so quick to comment on others, have problems of there own. They feel superior after putting down someone else in order to alievate their own problems and insecurities.
This word is absolutely deplorable. It is extremely offensive when used in normal conversation. I put it in the same context as any racial slur. When I hear someone using it I will drop out of the conversation and tune out the person speaking. I am not a he-she. I am a male that enjoys the feel of woman’s clothing .
Why is He-She or Shim derogatory? In English the pronouns are gendered, so how should you describe someone who prefers not to be labeled either male or female or whom you’re not sure? In other languages – eg, Chinese and Malay, the pronoun is gender neutral which makes it a lot easier.
When I hear someone refering to a transgendered person as “it” I get disgusted.