transgenderism

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From transgender +‎ -ism.

Noun[edit]

transgenderism (usually uncountable, plural transgenderisms)

  1. The state of being transgender. (See usage notes)
    • 1965, John F. Oliven, “Sexual Deviations”, in Sexual Hygiene and Pathology: A Manual for the Physician and the Professions[1], 2nd edition, →OCLC, page 514[2]:
      Transexualism. Where the compulsive urge reaches beyond female vestments, and becomes an urge for gender ("sex") change, transvestism becomes "transexualism." The term is misleading; actually, "transgenderism" is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism. Psychologically, the transexual often differs from the simple cross-dresser; he is conscious at all times of a strong desire to be a woman, and the urge can be truly consuming.
    • 1981, Linda Lee, “Public Speaking”, in Female Mimics International[3], volume 11, number 8, Studio City, CA: Eros Publishing Company, page 47, column 2:
      To the same end, I steer clear from any "far out" explanation of the transgender phenomenon. I have seen a speaker have an audience fairly well with her and then, in the space of a few minutes, alienate a substantial number of them by trying to tie transgenderism to the concept of reincarnation.
    • 1994, Gordene Olga MacKenzie, Transgender Nation, page 37:
      Instead of searching for physiological causes of transgenderism, the early psychoanalysts proposed possible psychological origins for cross-dressing and transgenderism.
    • 2012, Richard D. McAnulty, Sex in College: The Things They Don't Write Home About, page 169:
      We will briefly discuss the interaction of gender orientation and sexuality, including transgenderism.
    • 2013, Simona Giordano, Children with Gender Identity Disorder, page 9:
      In this wider sense, transgenderism is on a continuum line with the condition of anyone who may seek to live a life that is authentic to themselves as individuals.
    • 2018 June 19, “Transgenderism no longer a mental illness: WHO”, in France 24[4], archived from the original on 2018-06-19[5]:
      Transgender people, who identify as the opposite gender to the one they were born with, should no longer be considered mentally ill, according to a new UN categorisation.
      The World Health Organization issued a new catalogue Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorised transgenderism. []
      Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark.
      Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgenderism.
  2. (dated, sometimes derogatory) A purported ideology behind transgender identities, trans activism and trans rights movements; transness as an ideology. (Compare homosexual agenda.)
    Coordinate terms: homosexualism, gayism
    • 2012 May 29, Sheila Jeffreys, The Guardian[6]:
      Let us be free to debate transgenderism without being accused of 'hate speech'.
    • 2014 August 5, Michelle Goldberg, “What is a Woman?”, in The New Yorker[7]:
      The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism.
    • 2023 March 4, Peter Wade, quoting Michael Knowles, “CPAC Speaker Calls for Transgender People to Be ‘Eradicated’”, in Rolling Stone[8], archived from the original on 2023-03-04:
      “If transgenderism is true, if men really can become women, then it’s true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false ... it’s false for everybody too. And if it’s false, then ... for the good of society — and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion — then transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:transgenderism.

Usage notes[edit]

  • The term is common in science and social science literature, but is little used by the transgender community and considered offensive by some. GLAAD says the term is primarily used by anti-transgender activists, and recommends synonyms like "being transgender".[1] Julia Serano agrees that it has been appropriated by transphobic authors in recent years and used as though it referred to an ideology (compare e.g. liberalism or conservatism) rather than a state of being; she does not consider it offensive per se but notes that it has started to be objected to.[2]

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • Oxford Dictionaries, [9]