what’s the history of ‘transgendered’ becoming Offensive
i wanna say it’s maybe a mid-2000s thing? but idk
and at this point i grant that there’s a perfectly reasonable like, common usage argument for not using it
but the grammatical argument that people like to throw about makes Infuriatingly Little Sense
participial! adjectives! are! a! standard! part! of! the! language!
(″so i was in this advanced u.s. history class—” “oh YEAH? who or what advancED it?!?!?!? checkmate, english!!!!)
I think it was more like late 2000s, maybe even early 2010s.
Also I’m not sure, but I feel like the difference between words like “advanced” and “transgendered” is that “advance” is an actual verb while “transgender” is not and has never been a verb? I think that’s what people were so up in arms about.
Is it really offensive? I think of it as more just clunky and outside common usage, like a well-intentioned grandma saying “We shouldn’t discriminate against anyone just because they’re a Gay.”
Let me emphasize that I can only speak for myself here, and I don’t identify as trans, but ‘transgendered’ seems low on the offensiveness scale since I haven’t seen it weaponized – I haven’t seen anyone deliberately use it to promote anti-trans arguments.
I feel like I knew the answer to this but my mind is drawing a blank. When I hear it, it feels about as cringeworthy as something like, “I have to go help that female out”
Maybe it’s to do with it like, being an action a person makes as opposed to an identity marker? A person isn’t transgendered in the way another one is ‘feeling frustrated.’ Maybe it reflects this idea that it’s a choice people make and therefore falls into the ‘doing it for attention’ bullshit.
Anyone want to weigh in here who actually understands what makes it so cringey.
Besides the fact that it should be easy enough to just use the terms trans people ask us to use… 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Thoughtfulfangirling 