promoting transsexual erotica!

Before I offer any suggestions, I'm curious what type of "transsexual erotica" you're referring to. Especially since the word "transsexual" is quite outdated, and when I've encountered erotica that uses it, it's frequently been... exploitative. The type of stories where someone who is transgender is essentially a freak and a sex toy.

I'll chime in with my perspective. Having worked for a trans rights organization for years, we advised people (media, etc.) that transgender is the preferred term, often called an "umbrella" term because it encompasses many different identities. transsexual in itself is not an offensive term, however, it is an outdated term, often used by the medical community. Some transgender people choose to identify as transsexual, but it is not an umbrella term the way transgender would be.
GLAAD actually has a great guide on terminology:
http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender

LucyPR said:

I have a friend who refers to herself as transsexual because she was born a man but now identifies as a woman; however, she hasn't had her penis removed so she doesn't identify as transgender. If the term is used offensively in erotica I'll change it to transgender as I don't want to give the wrong impression.

Click to expand...

I'm not arguing with how your friend identifies (different people prefer different terms), but her reasoning is the opposite of what I usually hear. Transgender has become the more common term in recent years, and in my experience, most people who use both transgender and transsexual use transsexual to mean someone who has medically transitioned (such as taking hormones or having surgery) and transgender as more of a catch-all term for people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth (and may or may not have transitioned or have plans to do so). The reasoning is that sex is something you can alter, but gender is who you are. I've known many people who identified as transgender who have no plans to transition at all. I'm a little surprised by how your friend uses the terms.

Like I said, I respect how she self-identifies and respect that you want to use terminology that your friend is okay with. But like Maryn suggests, I think it's a good idea to have more than one source and to learn more about what terminology other members of your target audience might use.

I haven't heard that distinction between transgender and transsexual, TBH. The vast majority of trans* people I know only use transgender, regardless of what medical procedures have/haven't happened. In fact, the general consensus of trans* people I've met is that their medical procedures are no one's business, so I'd be very surprised if one wanted to be identified that way.

(Again, this is my experience, so I'm not speaking for the trans* community at all, just going off what I've heard/observed.)

Here's the thing: In the context of niche categories for erotica, personally I don't see transgendered as being a sexual orientation (like being bisexual, hetero, gay, lesbian, etc). It's more about identity than anything else. A transgender male (F2M) will consider himself straight if he likes other women, or gay if he likes other men.

When the term transsexual comes up, I'll be honest, I think it will attract straight readers (99% male) who have fantasized of being with a "shemale." I say this because these kinds of guys almost always use the term transsexual or tranny or shemale. There are also Brazilian and Japanese terms too.

So, purely for the purposes of knowing how to market your erotica, use the proper language. If your main characters are transgendered and that is not being fetishized (much in the same way transsexuals are fetishized) then use transgender to set yourself apart from that other type of erotica.

http://www.ladyvalorfilm.com/ Great personal documentary of a transsexual who shares her life story. Highly recommended. Just tossing this in here.

Well, back to the subject of promoting her writing, I have thought to advertise on this site. It certainly is where people come to read transgender material. http://www.nifty.org/nifty/transgender/ Readers of the short stories here might be interested in longer works with more character development. They do use the term transgender as well.

brainstorm77 said:

http://www.ladyvalorfilm.com/ Great personal documentary of a transsexual who shares her life story. Highly recommended. Just tossing this in here.

Click to expand...

Kristin's story is amazing. I had the privilege of spending a weekend with her last summer, and she's an amazing person. I highly recommend her film to anyone.

/derail

Helen_Rouge said:

Well, back to the subject of promoting her writing, I have thought to advertise on this site. It certainly is where people come to read transgender material. http://www.nifty.org/nifty/transgender/ Readers of the short stories here might be interested in longer works with more character development. They do use the term transgender as well.

Click to expand...

Interesting site.

Nifty is an ancient site, in web terms. I first found them back in 1994.

Like DancingMaenid, I have occasionally heard people who have *medically* transitioned (i.e. surgically) refer to themselves as "transssexual."

To the best of my memory, the few people I've heard using the term that way are older, more likely to be from the generation that heard "transsexual" as the generally-accepted-and-used term.

Being transgender is not a *sexual orientation*, as Lhowling said. It's a gender identity. One thing I'm learning--mostly from my teenagers--is there are three factors at play: sexual orientation, gender identity, and romantic orientation. One does not necessarily impact the other two, though it certainly can.

In erotica, my personal opinion is that if you're *not* writing something that fetishizes transgender individuals (which I hope you aren't...), the only time in the story that the fact that they're trans* would even matter is when you're writing the actual sex scenes, when mention of genitalia might be necessary. Otherwise, you're writing about a man or woman who is hetero, homo, or bisexual, or whatever. The transgender identity isn't entirely relevant when it comes to categorizing the story.