18 definition by fish trap

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

to shank someone in the junk, creating an axe wound but like with a switchblade. used as a threat by trans women, but is all just big words bc no trans person actually has the energy to spare doing someone this service

also called "a free vaginoplasty"