It seems easy for some to use words without knowing the historical context or the difference; such as “transvestite” or (transsexual?), and the bigger question is; why is it important to label someone…It is the same in literature when the writer identifies one by the color of their skin but never identifies the main character as white… so whether it is labeling one black or transvestite trans_exul (minus the *s* is a way the trans community has taken back the word) or by the color of ones skin can be seen as privileging whiteness or heterosexism over the other.

so why is it easy for those in privilege positions to randomly throughout these terms?… or is it just another way to situation the writer as one of certain normal privlaged class i.e.; “I am not that… I am the normal one… I do not need a label.”

Are words such as transgender, transsexual, transvestite, hermaphrodite and berdache accurate descriptions of who we are? Or are they just convenient (or in some cases, derogatory) categories for containing the unknown? Philosopher Judith Butler asks a few more questions:
Is there 'a' gender which persons are said to have, or is it an essential attribute that a person is said to be, as implied in the question 'What gender are you?'? [...] If gender is constructed, could it be constructed differently, or does its constructedness imply some form of social determinism, foreclosing the possibility of agency and transformation? Does 'construction' suggest that certain laws generate gender differences along universal axes of sexual difference? How and where does the construction of gender take place? [...] When the relevant 'culture' that 'constructs' gender is understood in terms of such a law or set of laws, then it seems that gender is as determined and fixed as it was under the biology-is-destiny formulation. In such a case, not biology, but culture, becomes destiny. (7-8.)


Crossdresser (Transvestite - CD or TV) - Trans* person who does not have surgery or use hormones, but dresses in clothing typically associated with the opposite sex. Sexual orientation varies. (Note: The word "transvestite" is on its way out because of the connotation of a "transvestite prostitute," and because most people automatically think "fetish" when they hear the word transvestite. A tremendous number of crossdressers really don't crossdress for sexual arousal.)

Knowing or Epistemology
Most of us need some structure to our world. We would not be able to maintain completely open minds on all things, making decisions completely anew on the complex facts of every encounter. It is comforting to know what a chair is, to be able to recognize any one of several members of the class "chair," and to have a word for that class of objects. Unfortunately, having a word for that class of objects means that sometimes we cannot see anything but a chair, once we have classified and labeled the object. Thus, when an artist suspends a chair from a cord, hanging it by one leg, we may be confused and uncomfortable, for one cannot sit on an object so suspended. The artist is forcing us to reassess what we know, in particular, what we know about chairs.

The process we have just described of learning to recognize and classify a chair as a chair is called "naming" or "labeling." Once we have named or labeled an object we tend to see the object in that role or use. It becomes harder to see the object in another, different light. Whorf refers to this as the phenomenon of language as a cloak, of our tendency to interpret the objects we see by the names we have for them. Other authors, like Rokeach (The Open and Closed Mind), speak of dogmatism. Dogmatism describes the difficulty we have of conceptualizing solutions that rely on concepts outside the set of named categories and expectations we have learned.

In labeling others, we are often off mark and offensive


In spite of the old nursery rhyme about sticks and stones, we all know that words can hurt. Words can also have a powerfully positive effect, however. They can convey respect and acknowledgment instead of hatred and exclusion. One of the most important lessons from the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and other struggles for liberation has been the recognition that everyone, especially those who have been oppressed, should have the right to choose what to call themselves.