Transgender women (often shortened totrans women) arewomen who wereassigned male at birth. Trans women have a femalegender identity and may experiencegender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their sex assigned at birth).[1] Gender dysphoria may be treated withgender-affirming care.
Trans women face significant discrimination in many areas of life—including in employment and access to housing—and face physical and sexual violence and hate crimes, including from partners. In the United States, discrimination is particularly severe towards trans women who are members of aracial minority, who often face theintersection oftransmisogyny andracism.
The termtransgender women is not always interchangeable withtranssexual women, although the terms are often used interchangeably.Transgender is anumbrella term that includes different types ofgender variant people (including transsexual people).
The termtrans women is sometimes used to mean transgender women or transsexual women. Transsexuals are a subset of transgender people,[8][9] referring to people who desire to medically transition to thesex with which they identify, usually throughsex reassignment therapies, such ashormone replacement therapy andsex reassignment surgery, to align their body with their identified sex or gender. The term is rejected by some as outdated, though others within the trans community still identify as transsexual.[10]
Transfeminine (ortransfemme) is a broader umbrella term for assigned-male trans individuals with a predominantlyfeminine identity orgender expression. This includes trans women, but is used especially for AMABnon-binary people, who may have an identity that is partially feminine, but not wholly female.[11]
The spellingtranswoman (written as a single word) is occasionally used interchangeably withtrans woman (wheretrans is anadjective describing a kind of woman). However, this variant is often associated with views (notablygender-critical feminism) that exclude trans women fromwomen, and thus require a separate word to describe them.[12] For this reason, many transgender people find the spelling offensive.[12][13] Some prefer to omittrans, and be called simplywomen.[10] Older terms sometimes still seen aremale-to-female (MTF,M2F), but these are outdated.[14]
In severalLatin American countries, the wordtravesti is sometimes used to designate people who have been assigned male sex at birth, but develop a female gender identity. The use oftravesti precedestransgender in the region; its distinction fromtrans woman is controversial and can vary depending on the context, ranging from considering it a regional equivalent to athird gender.[15][16]
Papa Moe (Mysterious Water), an oil painting by Paul Gauguin from 1893. It depicts amāhū in Tahiti drinking from a waterfall.[17][18]
InThailand,kathoey refers to a trans-feminine individual, though the term "transgender" is infrequently used to refer to those with this identity.[19] The term is sometimes translated to "ladyboy" in English.[20] Most trans-feminine Thai individuals simply referred to themselves as women, orphuying praphet song, meaning "another type of woman."[21]
AmongstNative Hawaiians andTahitians,māhū are people of athird gender who possess spiritual and social roles.[22] The term has historically been applied to people assigned male at birth, but now may refer to a large variety of gender identities.[23] The term is sometimes seen as disparaging or a pejorative, similar tofaggot.[24]
Trans women vary greatly in terms of sexual orientation.[25][26][27][28] A survey of roughly 3,000 American trans women showed 31% of them identifying asbisexual, 29% as "gay/lesbian/same-gender", 23% asheterosexual, 7% asasexual, as well as 7% identifying as "queer" and 2% as "other".[29] A 12-month survey of trans women in Europe found that 22% identified as heterosexual, 10% were attracted almost exclusively to men, 3% were mostly attracted to men, 9% were bisexual, 7% were mostly attracted to women, 23% were almost attracted exclusively to women, and 20% were lesbian. A smaller 2013 study of Italian trans women found that 82% identified as heterosexual.[30]
The European study found that sexual orientation did not change over the 12 months.[31] A 2018 study found that the most common sexual partner for trans women was cisgender women prior to transitioning. Trans women who had been for transitioning for ten years or more were more likely to report a shift in their sexual orientation.[32]
In a 2008 study, nostatistically significant difference inlibido was detected between trans women andcisgender women.[33] As in males, female libido is thought to correlate with serumtestosterone levels[34][35][36][37] (with some controversy)[38] but the 2008 study found no such correlation in trans women.[33][39] Another study, published in 2014, found that 62.4% of trans women reported their sexual desire had decreased after sexual reassignment therapy.[40]
Some trans women may seek to feminize their voice through transgender voice therapy, as hormone therapy does not significantly affect the voice of trans women. The aim of voice therapy (in the context of transitioning) is frequently to change thefundamental frequency,resonant frequency, andphonatory pattern to reflect that of cisgender women.[45] This can be accomplished through speech therapy, or surgeries (includingfeminization laryngoplasty). Throughout multiple studies, voice therapy has generally been shown to increase vocal satisfaction of the patient and a greater listener perception of a feminine voice.[46][47]
While the relationship is not completely understood,[49]feminizing hormone therapy appears to reduce the ability toproduce sperm.[50] Individuals who have been on hormone therapy for an extended period of time have been shown to have a lower total sperm count than males not on hormone therapy.[51] Cessation of hormone replacement therapy has been associated with a renewed level of fertility.[52][53]
Tucking is also associated with lower quality sperm production because of the increased temperature of the testicles, causing premature sperm death.[54][55][56]
Like all gender variant people, trans women often facediscrimination and transphobia,[29]: 8 particularly those who are notperceived as cisgender.[57] A 2015 survey fromThe Williams Institute found that, of 27,715 transgender respondents, 52% whose families had rejected them attempted suicide, as did 64.9% of those who were physically attacked in the past year.[58]
A 2011 survey of roughly 3000 trans women living in the United States, as summarized in the report "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey", found that trans women reported that:[29][specify]
60% of the trans women who have visited ahomeless shelter reported incidents of harassment there.
When displaying identity documents incongruent with their gender identity/expression, 33% have been harassed and 3% have been physically assaulted.
20% reported harassment by police, with 6% reporting physical assault and 3% reporting sexual assault by an officer. 25% have been treated generally with disrespect by police officers.
Among jailed trans women, 40% have been harassed by inmates, 38% have been harassed by staff, 21% have been physically assaulted, and 20% have been sexually assaulted.
The American National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' report of 2010 anti-LGBTQ violence found that of the 27 people who were murdered because of their LGBTQ identity, 44% were trans women.[59] Discrimination is particularly severe towards non-white trans women, who experience theintersection ofracism and transphobia.
Discrimination against trans women has occurred at theMichigan Womyn's Music Festival after the Festival set out a rule that it would only be a space for cisgender females. This led to protests by trans women and their allies, and a boycott of the Festival by Equality Michigan in 2014. The boycott was joined by the Human Rights Campaign,GLAAD, theNational Center for Lesbian Rights, and theNational LGBTQ Task Force. The "womyn-born-womyn" intention first came to attention in 1991 after atranssexual festival-goer, Nancy Burkholder, was asked to leave the festival when several women recognized her as a trans woman and expressed discomfort with her presence in the space.[61][62]
A group ofArgentinetravestis carrying the coffin of their murdered friend, August 1987
Trans women face a form of violence known astrans bashing. TheWashington Blade reported thatGlobal Rights, an international NGO, tracked the mistreatment of trans women in Brazil, including at the hands of the police.[63] To commemorate those who have been murdered inhate crimes, an annualTransgender Day of Remembrance is held in various locations across the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with details and sources for each murder provided at their website.[64]
According to Trans Murder Monitoring, between Oct 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023, 321 trans and gender-diverse individuals were killed, with trans women or trans-feminine individuals accounting for 94% of the deaths.[66]
In 2015, a false statistic was widely reported in the United States media stating that the life expectancy of trans women of color is only 35 years.[67] This appears to be based on a comment specifically about Latin America in a report by theInter-American Commission on Human Rights, which compiled data on the age at death of murdered trans women for all of the Americas (North, South, and Central), and does not disaggregate by race.[67][68][69]
In 2016, 23 transgender people suffered fatal attacks in the United States. TheHuman Rights Campaign report found some of these deaths to be direct results of an anti-transgenderbias, and some due to related factors such as homelessness.[70]
One type of violence towards trans women is committed by perpetrators who learn that their sexual partner is transgender, and feel deceived ("trans panic"). Almost 95% of these crimes were committed by cisgender men towards trans women.[71] According to a 2005 study in Houston, Texas, "50% of transgender people surveyed had been hit by a primary partner after coming out as transgender".[65]
Transrepresentation in television, film, news, and other forms of media was slim before the 21st century. Early mainstream accounts and fictional depictions of trans women almost always relied on commontropes andstereotypes.[72] However, portrayals have steadily grown and improved in tandem withactivism.
^Forsyth, Craig J.; Copes, Heith (2014).Encyclopedia of Social Deviance.SAGE Publications. p. 740.ISBN978-1483364698.Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved12 April 2016.Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identities, gender expressions, and/or behaviors are different from those culturally associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.
^Bevan, Thomas E. (2015).The psychobiology of transsexualism and transgenderism : a new view based on scientific evidence. Santa Barbara, California. p. 42.ISBN978-1-4408-3126-3.OCLC881721443.The term transsexual was introduced by Cauldwell (1949) and popularized by Harry Benjamin (1966) ... . The term transgender was coined by John Oliven (1965) and popularized by various transgender people who pioneered the concept and practice of transgenderism. It is sometimes said that Virginia Prince (1976) popularized the term, but history shows that many transgender people advocated the use of this term much more than Prince. The adjectivetransgendered should not be used ... . Transsexuals constitute a subset of transgender people.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Alegria, Christine Aramburu (22 March 2011). "Transgender identity and health care: Implications for psychosocial and physical evaluation".Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.23 (4). Wiley:175–182.doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2010.00595.x.ISSN1041-2972.PMID21489011.S2CID205909330.Transgender, Umbrella term for persons who do not conform to gender norms in their identity and/or behavior (Meyerowitz, 2002). Transsexual, Subset of transgenderism; persons who feel discordance between natal sex and identity (Meyerowitz, 2002).
^Levon, Erez; Mendes, Ronald Beline, eds. (2016).Language, sexuality, and power: studies in intersectional sociolinguistics. Studies in lanaguage, gender, and sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-021037-3.
^Jackson, Peter Anthony; Sullivan, Gerard (2015).Lady boys, tom boys, rent boys: male and female homosexualities in contemporary Thailand. New York London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-7890-0656-1.
^Sherwin BB, Gelfand MM, Brender W (1985). "Androgen enhances sexual motivation in females: a prospective, crossover study of sex steroid administration in the surgical menopause".Psychosomatic Medicine.47 (4):339–351.doi:10.1097/00006842-198507000-00004.PMID4023162.S2CID12961569.
^Sherwin, B (1985). "Changes in sexual behavior as a function of plasma sex steroid levels in post-menopausal women".Maturitas.7 (3):225–233.doi:10.1016/0378-5122(85)90044-1.PMID4079822.
^McKinnon, Rachel (2016). "Gender, Identity, and Society". In Petrik, James M.; Zucker, Arthur (eds.).Philosophy: sex and love. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks. Farmington Hills, Mich: Macmillan. pp. 175–198.ISBN978-0-02-866336-4.
^SCHILT, KRISTEN; WESTBROOK, LAUREL (2009). "DOING GENDER, DOING HETERONORMATIVITY: "Gender Normals," Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality".Gender and Society.23 (4):440–464.doi:10.1177/0891243209340034.ISSN0891-2432.JSTOR20676798.S2CID145354177.
