20 definition by fish trap

adjective for a trans person who looks like they're cis, whether intentionally or not

usage mostly limited to where trans people are functioning within cis society, where everyone is assumed cis until informed otherwise — a person "passes" for cis until clocked. within trans circles, passing is irrelevant and a rarely used term, because everyone is assumed to be trans.

adopted from an older use of passing, meaning african-americans who move within white society in order to survive. sometimes disambiguated as white-passing and cis-passing. a less appropriative & more accurate term for trans "passing" is masking.

a trans girl with pronounced physical features that subject her to transmisogyny, like broad shoulders, strong jawline, deep voice, etc.; opposed to a fish.

originally used within trans circles (1970s) where passing and surgery were assumed to be everyone's objective. not usually used as a pejorative, but more as a sympathetic or pity term.

"it's a goddamn shame bc she's such a sweet bb angel, but she's a real brick and no amount of tits or FFS will make her able to pass in women's spaces." "ya, she'll probably commit suicide in a few years and there's nothing anyone can do about it — :'(((("

reclaimed as a result of the Monster Pride or Trans Visibility movements as a term of pride for non-op trans women.

a tran, used as a term of endearment from one trans girl to another trans girl.

"hey fish, let's swim over to the G.L.O.S.S. show already"

"ya sure, i can't wait to make that pit into a fish bowl"

evolved from a hooker code term for cis women sex workers (1970s) aka girls who sell vagina (fish-scented junk) as opposed to ass. later referring to trans women (1980s), especially asians swimming in white scenes, who look so much like cis women that for all intents and purposes are cis. later (briefly), referring to girls who've had bottom surgery and are card-carrying members of the vaginosis crew. reclaimed circa 2016 to mean all trans women, including bricks, as a fuck-you to the gay male chaser scene; now considered beyond the pale when used to signal a person's genitalia.

used awkwardly by gay men to refer to cis-passing drag queens because they look so much like a trans woman. like when rich white boys call each other hood on the golf course.

used pejoratively by gay men to refer to trans men at the club in a desperate attempt to self-affirm their trans-exclusionary homosexuality, in the same way that str8 men think touching a dick will instantly turn them gay (as if they weren't gay already).

when a tran is looking and acting like a cis, for survival.

a more accurate term than the older passing, which implied assimilation into a larger society, focused on the mainstream's point-of-view of transness, and included people (ie. fish) who may or may not be actively trying to look cis.

masking better describes the experience of the trans person, who is actively creating a mask, that the act is for superficial defense & survival, and doesn't imply that the tran is in any way attempting to actually become cis.

someone who dates a lot of trans people

often a john or sugar daddy who's convinced themselves that they can have their cake and eat it too without being out of the closet. even when acting a perfect gentleman, chasers can't help dehumanizing or fetishizing their trans dates, because they're not being honest about their own needs. because they're so thirsty, chasers are the #1 provider of material support for trans girls outside of Lyon-Martin.

also used within trans circles to signal that someone's dating habits are ethically questionable, ie. they /only/ date trans women but not cis women, or they date cis women and femme trans men but not trans women — aka invalidating trans identities while simultaneously claiming allyship.

shortened from tranny chaser by trans women to remove the distasteful slur and focus on naming the offense.

a girl who is trans

a casual umbrella term for any TMA trans person. more universally accepted than trans woman or trans feminine among non-binary people for some reason, maybe because of the presence of gender-neutral terms giiirl in gay culture and grrl in dyke culture.

preferable to MTF or AMAB because it signals the person's actual identity rather than reiterating mainstream society's perception of them

1) a posi noun for a trans person, replacing the pejorative noun tranny.

useful linguistically where the more common adjective trans won't flow in your sentence. plural: "trans," bc none of this was confusing enough already. usually only used to refer to oneself, preceded by a single adjective, as a caption for a selfie (ie. "glam tran"); if used to refer to another person, it could be interpreted as a slur, which would defeat the purpose of making up new words to distance ourselves from ru paul.

2) a common Việt family name (Trần). 11% of all vietnamese trans are also Trầns.