To not know transvestite was an offence term?

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Sorry for my ignorance but I always thought that a transvestite was a person who dressed in the opposite genders clothes and a transsexual was someone who was planning to actually have the operation to become the opposite gender.

Is this incorrect, I read that transvestite is offensive and no longer used.

Cross dresser is more acceptable since Transvestite was shortened into the offensive "tranny"

A cross dresser is not, by the way, the same as a drag queen.

Not all cross dressers want to become women physically either.

I thought that's what those words meant too. What is someone called who 'cross dresses' then? (I'm sure you're not allowed to say that either but I don't know what to call it.) is it maybe the term 'tranny' that's offensive?

Transvestite isn't an offensive word.

Not as far as I'm aware anyway.

Sorry, X post

I don't think transvestite is deemed offensive. Grayson Perry describes himself as a transvestite on this Twitter profile.

Well look SOME people find it offensive. So I think it's better not to use it.

I didn't know it was offensive either, who told you?

Come to think of it though, no one really says it, cross-dresser is what people tend to say.

Every day a school day.

I thought transvestite was the polite term for a cross dresser who had no gender issue.

Doesn't Eddie Izzard label himself as a transvestite?

Tranny always brings to mind dr frank n furter, damn good he looked too, with his muscles at finery! ..... Halloweens a coming!

Someone will always take offence

There's always somebody waiting to be offended once people start applying labels to describe sex/gender/sexual orientation/ethnicity/clothing choices etc etc...

Transvestite: wearing opposite genders clothes, not necessarily trying to looknlike opposite gender. Eg: man wearing women's jeans but no makeup, wig etc.
Crossdresser: wearing opposite genders clothes and trying to pass as opposite gender. Eg: man wearing dress with full makeup and wig, heels etc.
Drag Queen: over the top version of Cross dresser, usually done for entertainment pruposes. Eg: Ru Paul, Lilly Savage, same Edna.
Transgendered: someone who believes that they are the wrong gender, may or may not have operations and hormones etc.

Obviously they're all massive generalisations and the lines are very blurry.
But that's what I believe them to be. I fit into Transvestite and cross dresser, not drag queen or transgendered.

I was reading an article in which Laverne Cox says that is an a transphobic and antiquated term.

I will try and link the article

www.vulture.com/2016/10/laverne-cox-on-her-rocky-horror-apprehension.html

I agree with last poster if we stopped using words that some people find offensive we'd all be mute

Eddie Izzard actually refers to himself as transgender now.

Laverne Cox is a lunatic who cries at the thought of male sex offenders being sent to men's prisons. I wouldn't take too much notice of Laverne's advice

hermioneWeasley I didn't know that about her, I do actually like her and think she's very good in OITNB but crying over sex offenders is a bit off putting.

I think we need a back story OP have you used it and had someone have a go?

I thought Transvestite was the PC term tbh! YANBU

Let me see. Rocky Horror, writen in the 80s by, oh yes! Him!!!

He who is now "70% man" I am sure he would re-writ eit if he felt he hd insulted himself! Or maybe, being a sensible humanbeing, he would leave it, marking the passage of time, PCness and social mores... who he was back then to who he is now!

It's very confusing these days. Although all the 'transgender' people I know just call themselves 'women who used to be men'. This seems pretty acceptable.

Ye gods! Written in the bloody 70s for gossake!

These days, if someone says some term or word is offensive we are all supposed to stop using it.
It's impossible to keep up.
Transvestite is just a word that means someone who wears the opposite sex's clothes...it's only offensive if you choose to be offended.

Saggy I don't think I quite agree with your transvestite definition myself. I always thought it was the same as a cross dresser but some definitions agree with you and some agree with me...

If you are right then I suppose I too am a transvestite as I often wear clothes that are sold in the mens sections... eg tops, pjs (why are men's pjs so much nicer than women's!) and socks (seem to last much longer and I have big feet lol) but I have also at times worn my partners jeans (accidentally and on purpose) and went through a phase of sleeping in his boxers (make great shorts for the summer nights).

But if that is the correct definition then if you asked someone from over a hundred years ago (pre 1920's) then they might think that about all us women who wear trousers...

I also think that it politically correct terms depend on where you are in the world. People/person of colour is acceptable some places and black is acceptable in others but use it in the wrong area and it would be offensive. Same with gay and homosexual, and I'm sure there are many more. As a PP said, if you didn't use any word that someone would find offensive you would never talk.

It's impossible to keep up

Seriously?