Transgender people use a variety of terms to refer to their genitals and other sexually dimorphic body parts and bodily functions. While some may use the standard clinical and colloquial terms (e.g. penis, dick; vagina, pussy), others follow neologistic approaches. These replacement words serve as alternatives to existing names that may conflict with a person's gender identity and trigger gender dysphoria. In medical contexts, providers may use traditional clinical terms, may mirror patients' preferred terms, or may use alternate terms such as internal genitals and external gonads.
Common approaches include using terms associated with analogous body parts (e.g. penis for a clitoris[a] or vice versa), modifying conventional terms to mark for gender (e.g. girldick or boy cunt), and novel terms that do not relate to existing terminology (e.g. front hole for a vagina). Some words are humorous, like hen for a transfeminine penis (contrast cock) or chesticles for a transmasculine breast.
The naming of body parts is an important component of transgender sexuality. Trans people may pick different words for different contexts. In both colloquial and medical contexts, experts emphasize deferring to individual preference.
Context
One way many of us show our bodies love is by rewriting the language we use to describe them. Many of us have body parts that feel gendered in ways that do not match our sense of self. This can make it difficult for some of us to hear these body parts called by their standard names.
Prior to the 2010s, there was little research on the social aspects of transgender bodies.[2] Elijah Adiv Edelman and Lal Zimman's 2014 article "Boycunts and Bonus Holes: Trans Men's Bodies, Neoliberalism, and the Sexual Productivity of Genitals" observed that while scholarly literature often cast transgender men as "female-bodied",[3] trans men—including those non-operative with respect to bottom surgery—had increasingly come to see themselves as male-bodied.[4] Edelman and Zimman associate this shift with trans men's willingness to refer to their genitals with both male and female terms, sometimes at the same time.[5] Often, from this perspective, the difference between a cisgender man's penis and a non-operative transgender man's clitoris is merely one of size, not of kind.[6]
Replacement words for body parts vary widely, and almost none approaches the currency of the word it replaces: In a 2021 study of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people, only two replacement words (chest for breasts and cum for sperm) were used by more than 50% of respondents, while 23% of the replacement words and phrases provided were unique.[7]
Terms also exist to differentiate cisgender body parts without othering transgender parts, for instance factory-direct dick to refer to a cisgender man's penis.[8]
Colloquial terminology
Several terms regarding transgender anatomy redirect here. For the body parts these terms refer to, see transgender anatomy.
A cock and hen. Hen is used as wordplay to refer to transfeminine penises, extending from the use of cock to refer to men's penises.
Many trans people refer to body parts with words for comparable cross-sex body parts based on adequation (the finding of "sufficient similarity") with those body parts.[8] For instance, some transfeminine people choose to refer to their anuses as vaginas, pussies, or cunts.[9] Some transmasculine people refer to their clitorises as a dick or cock.[10] Hybrid terms also exist: Dicklet (also diclit, dicklit, or dic-clit)[11] is attested since the 1990s for transmasculine clitorises, although the popularity of this term was waning—perceived as too feminine—at the time Zimman documented its usage in 2014.[12]
Some trans people are less uncomfortable with their body or do not associate their sexually dimorphic body parts with their gender assigned at birth.[14] For instance, in contrast to a cisnormative definition of vagina as belonging to a woman, a transmasculine person might use the term to refer simply to that structure without gendered connotations, either on its own or in constructions such as boy cunt or (somewhat humorously) mangina.[15] Similarly, a transfeminine person might refer to a girldick.[16] The transmasculine usage of slang terms for the penis and the transfeminine girl-prefixed variants are observed particularly, but not exclusively, among those undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy, which changes the appearance and function of sex organs.[17]
Trans people use such terms as part of expressing their sexuality. Replacement words can serve as a micro-affirmation of a partner's identity during sex, as this can be an environment of heightened gender dysphoria.[18] The wellness guide Trans Bodies, Trans Selves advises, "Find language that makes you feel good, use it, share it with [sex] partners, and have fun."[19]
This list encompasses only those terms that differ from those used by cisgender people. In Ragosta et al.'s 2021 study, the majority of respondents sometimes or always used the clinical term, and many used slang synonyms, such as using cunt instead of vagina.[24]
Medical terminology
Although some medical authorities recommend mirroring the terminology transgender people use to describe their own genitals, this can seem unfittingly intimate, as many transgender people use different terms in medical contexts than they would in personal settings; however, patients may also be uncomfortable with anatomical terms they perceive as gendered.[30] Specialists recommend using, or being open to using, sex-neutral terms for organs, such as external genitals or lateral folds for the labia, internal reproductive organs for the uterus and ovaries, and chest for the breasts. Others recommend terminology that can be used to refer to genitals regardless of sex, such as erectile tissue for either the penis or clitoris and gonads for either the ovaries or testes, as well as using unlabeled anatomical charts.[31]
^For the sake of clarity, this article uses clinical terminology to refer to all body parts, drawing a use–mention distinction from the replacement words it describes. As documented in this article, many transgender people describe their bodies in the same way.
^Not all of these terms have the same level of currency, or may have become dated since their usage was documented. Some may be considered offensive in some or most contexts.
^ abClinically speaking, both males and females have both a breast and a chest. In colloquial English, however, the former term is more associated with women's breasts and the latter with men's chests.
^Edelman & Zimman 2014, p. 682. Quoting, by way of example, a Craigslist personal ad: "[I]f you're wondering what this transman has to offer ... / You get to play with a trannie cock ... / Testosterone tightened up my cunt a little, which provides a cozy ride" (pp. 684–685).
^Zimman 2014, p. 15. "[T]he single individual in my data who used the word dic-clit was only just reconnecting with trans communities after a long period of absence—which took place precisely during the time that this shift [away from the term] occurred. His use of dic-clit [in an online forum] was quickly objected to by a commenter who found the blend inappropriately feminizing, writing that 'there is no reason to use female terms to refer to trans men, pre-[testosterone] or not.' The movement among trans speakers away from dic-clit and toward dick has occurred in lockstep with the growing tendency for trans men to describe themselves as male-bodied, and with the diminishing acceptance of describing non-trans men as biological men, a term that occurred only once in my data despite its relative prominence among trans people in the past."
James n.d. Defining both girlcock and girldick as "a transfeminine person’s penis, especially one changed by hormone use".
Zimman 2014, p. 14. "My suggestion is that this is part of a broader tendency among trans men to use vernacular—rather than medical—'male' language when talking about their (usually hormonally-enlarged) phalluses. To account for this fact, it seems to me important to remember the way that many trans men invoke scientific discourses to legitimate their emphasis on the continuum between penises and clitorises, as I have discussed. Some of these individuals may not be willing to dismiss scientific and medical authority all together, and might feel that claiming a penis, rather than a dick, is a riskier assertion, open to rebuttal from authoritative sources."
Edwards 2021, p. 166. "An issue with mirrored language is that if people create names for their genitals, those names are much more likely to be names they use with intimate partners, not medical providers."
Hill-Meyer & Scarborough 2014, p. 356. "For others, using clinical language is most comfortable because we feel it describes the body part that we have, not the gender we are. ... Whatever we want to call our body parts is up to us. You might want to use different words in different contexts. Talking to medical providers and talking to lovers may call for different communication styles."
Ragosta et al. 2021, pp. 712–713. "[F]ive TGE respondents noted that the term 'vagina' was either 'too clinical' or that they would only use 'vagina' in a medical context. ... For 'period', [one] wrote, 'I use both; "period" to doctors that don’t understand transgender, or use "shark week"'."
Cromwell, Jason (1999). Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders, and Sexualities. Urbana: U of Illinois P. ISBN9780252068256.
Dinour, Lauren M. (2019). "Speaking Out on 'Breastfeeding' Terminology: Recommendations for Gender-Inclusive Language in Research and Reporting". Breastfeeding Medicine. 14 (8). Mary Ann Liebert: 523–532. doi:10.1089/bfm.2019.0110. PMID31364867.
Pulice-Farrow, Lex; Bravo, Alex; Galupo, M. Paz (2019). "'Your Gender is Valid': Microaffirmations in the Romantic Relationships of Transgender Individuals". Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling. 13: 45–66. doi:10.1080/15538605.2019.1565799.
Rider, Nic G.; Caso, Taymy J.; Czech, Spencer; Karasic, Dan H. (2022). "Terminology in Transgender Medicine". In van Trotsenburg, Mick; Luikenaar, Rixt A. C.; Meriggiola, Maria Cristina (eds.). Context, Principles and Practice of TransGynecology: Managing Transgender Patients in ObGyn Practice. Cambridge UP. doi:10.1017/9781108899987. ISBN9781108899987.
Steinbock, Eliza (2017). "Representing Trans Sexualities". In Smith, Clarissa; Attwood, Feona; McNair, Brian (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. London: Routledge. ISBN9781315168302.
.jpg)
