Writing Trans Characters: Corrections of Common Mistakes
These are just a few quick, basic things that should be taken into account that I notice a lot of writers get wrong.
Not every trans person is âpreâ or âpostâ HRT or surgeries. It can be pretty stigmatizing to think of trans peopleâs lives as part of those two categories, especially when those things have not always been part of their plan or they do not want them at all.
âAbout 14 percent of trans women and 72 percent of trans men said they donât ever want full genital construction surgery.â So for the record, your trans man character who doesnât want bottom surgery is part of the majority of trans men.
There are loads of different kinds of surgeries (even if weâre just talking about genitalia, even if weâre just talking about one type of genitalia).
âTransitionâ is a really vague term. It includes all sorts of things for all sorts of people, and it has no start and end date usually. It can literally be just coming out and thatâs it.
âTransgenderedâ is not the preferred term because it is not a verb, it is an identity (an adjective).
A great guide for phrasing things in a good way is the GLAAD media guide for writing about trans people. Thereâs some stuff in there thatâs less of a consensus within the trans communities, but itâs very minimal, and what is there is not harmful.
Do not misgender your own characters when narrating things.
âTranswomenâ and  "transmen" are not the preferred wording. There is a space between them, because as mentioned earlier, trans is an adjective. These are still women and men.
âftmâ and âmtfâ are also not preferred by everyone, because it implies we were ever our assigned-at-birth gender, and also centres around transition (which is not what defines being trans, and is also undefinable in itself)
There usually isnât a reason to feature or talk about surgeries or your trans characterâs body in general within the plot. This doesnât mean âavoid it at all costsâ - just ask yourself if it actually is necessary. Most people asking questions related to surgeries and the like do not actually need to include that information.
Itâs a common misconception that all trans men have vaginas and all trans women have penises, are perisex etc. The people who have penises cannot be summed up by saying âtrans women and cis menâ because not only does that exclude a whole lot of nonbinary people, (or how everybody generally is born with a phallus, but I digress) but intersex genitalia is extremely varied, and countless trans people do undergo surgeries. Most post-op genitalia looks indistinguishable from the kind that cis people have.
Gender dysphoria =/= body hatred. Hereâs a link where I explain what gender dysphoria feels like for me.
Trans people are not âborn in the wrong bodyâ (some folks may use this phrasing for themselves, but for the most part, with some exception, it is to explain things to cis people who have no familiarity or patience to understand).
We did not âused to be a [GAAB*]â and we are not âbiologically [GAAB]â - we are who we say we are, even when we are closeted, even when our shape was different. Some folks who experience gender fluidity are different here and itâs not uniform - but it is still inappropriate for cis people to use these phrases.
he/him =/= âmale pronounsâ etc. Donât gender pronouns! Not everyone who uses these pronouns is âmaleâ.
The terms âfemale bodyâ or âmale bodyâ are not helpful in explaining what a certain body is like. They have no uniform way of being, especially taking hormones, surgeries, and intersex persons into account. And if you identify as female, your body is female. It is your body.
See also:
I am transgender and I was not âborn in the wrong body.â (Medium)
TRANSGENDER IS AN ADJECTIVE. NOT A NOUN. OR A VERB! (Feministing)
* GAAB = Gender Assigned At Birth
