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icen-deactivated20101118 Asked
QuestionOn the topic of using "trans" and "cis" when using the terms "man" or "woman" (or "phobia" or "sexism", etc etc); what do you think about using a hyphen instead of a space between "trans/cis" and "woman/man/sexism/whatever"?
My friend Ira and I were discussing this and we both felt that using a hyphen was as correct as using a space. We agreed that not spacing the two was inaccurate and harmful but that a hyphen worked due to its use in English grammar. Namely: terms like "cis" and "trans", on their own, aren't whole words. They are more like prefixes that represent whole words. (Though terms like "phobia" or "sexism" are whole words on their own.) So (to us) it didn't make sense to say "trans woman" because "trans" is a word fragment. So we use "trans-woman" or "cis-woman". (But not "transwoman".)
Of course I am simply trying to speak from an entirely grammatical standpoint, not a social connotation one. I could be completely wrong with the usage of everything I just discussed but I dunno, it's something that is often on my mind. Answer
My friend Ira and I were discussing this and we both felt that using a hyphen was as correct as using a space. We agreed that not spacing the two was inaccurate and harmful but that a hyphen worked due to its use in English grammar. Namely: terms like "cis" and "trans", on their own, aren't whole words. They are more like prefixes that represent whole words. (Though terms like "phobia" or "sexism" are whole words on their own.) So (to us) it didn't make sense to say "trans woman" because "trans" is a word fragment. So we use "trans-woman" or "cis-woman". (But not "transwoman".)
Of course I am simply trying to speak from an entirely grammatical standpoint, not a social connotation one. I could be completely wrong with the usage of everything I just discussed but I dunno, it's something that is often on my mind. Answer
That one I’m actually unsure of. I know that grammatically it makes more sense, but I have no idea if the hyphen suggests something problematic socially.
I know that society can often use grammatical rules to push oppression so it may be a problem.
22nd September 2010
Notes: 2
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annabunches said:
I’ve not encountered the term ‘word fragment’. ‘Trans’ is a prefix certainly, but its usage in this context is not solely as a prefix. Colloquially at least, ‘trans’ has become a slang adjective for ‘transgender and/or transsexual’. #languagegeek
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genderbitch posted this
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