survey

[adrienmundi]

What does the word trans mean to you?

Please give me as much or as little as you care to. I'd rather not hear what people think they're supposed to say, or what they think I want them to say. I'm honestly interested in the pulse of a self selected, nonrandom grouping here on lj. If you've friends who might want to comment, send them over. I'm trying to cast my nets as widely as possible.

Thanks

Comments

[ineffabelle]

When I hear it (as a standalone) these days it's hard not to think of it in terms of gender... to me, it implies transcendance/transformation - something outside the standard.
That's why the common usage of "transman"/"transwoman" took a while to get used to for me. "Trans" implies leaving, not arriving.

[fierce-rabbit.livejournal.com]

transitional, fluid, in motion.

[theinnocence.livejournal.com]

so many things pop into mind :
being something other than what god intended
being neither here or there
or motion or becoming

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

I hear 'trans' and I think it's short for transgressive; crossing boundaries we're not supposed to. It's a subset of gender outlaw. (there are other types of gender outlaw that aren't trans.)

[grendel317.livejournal.com]

Almost nothing. When I hear it applied to a person, I just suppose there's probably something gender-ish going on besides the usual boy/girl thing.

[mr-myriad.livejournal.com]

trans fat. first thing that popped to mind. then if i think harder *squint*, i think transition.

[adrienmundi]

You callin' me fat? ;)

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, "trans" both alone and as a prefix means "accross" to me. And "accross" means something different than "one or the other," a position among (not between) points, in the sense that one has a foot in each clustering or concentration of meaning within one's field, though one may or may not "physically" occupy any combination of these points at one time. Was this close to being english?
For example, "transnational" or "transatlantic" bring to mind movement or the possibility of movement between multiple and aesthetically discrete points but without necessarily fully abandoning one cluster of symbols or meanings for another. Rather there may be "transformation" but this transformation is not a simple "transition" from one whole to another whole, but a process of (e)merging, relevant and informative of all, but identical to none.

trans

[katrionakeg.livejournal.com]

in basic it's what we took to quickly get us to another envigorating session of hurry up and wait XP

on its own travel, change, exciting newness

applied to a person trans doesn't have any specific meaning to me...it mostly depends on whos saying it, to whom it's being applied, how it's being said and the context in which it was delivered.