Despite what you’ve heard from the so-called ‘TS Separatists’, it doesn’t seem as if transsexuals were “colonized” at all.
The Data, Part 1
Consider the following dataset:
– click graph to enlarge –
What is this you might ask?
This is a comparison of the following 5 terms:
- Transgender People (light blue)
- Transsexual People (red)
- Transgenders (green)
- Transsexuals (yellow)
- Transgender Community (dark blue)
This is a graph of how many times the above terms were used in 20,090,715 books from the year 1970 through the end of 2007 (37 years worth of data). Data from the last 2 years is not yet available.
Lets take a closer look at this data. Here’s the same metric presented for the years 1990 – 2008:
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In other words, is this what “colonization” looks like?
– click graph to enlarge –
This is a comparison of the following 2 terms:
- Transgenders (blue)
- Transsexuals (red)
– click graph to enlarge –
This is a comparison of the following 2 terms:
- Transgender People (blue)
- Transsexuals (red)
A Note About Valid Data
I’m looking at terms used for grouping people together into a community*. In other words, it would not be an apples-to-apples example if I used the following:
– click graph to enlarge –
In this graph, we have two terms used to explore the very specific idea of groups (‘transsexual people’ and ‘transsexual community’) and a term that can be used in a multitude of ways: transsexual (transsexual books, transsexual makeup tips, etc). Obviously comparing a dataset that includes concepts like ‘transsexual books’ cannot be considered as being a valid comparison to datasets that explicitly looks at transsexuals as groups.
Similarly, this is not a valid comparison:
– click graph to enlarge –
If someone wanted to be dishonest, they could claim that this graph proves that ‘transsexual people’ (red) have been colonized by the term ‘transgender’ (blue). If this is what you see when you look at this dataset, you need to be working at Fox News.
Exactly like the first dataset that compares ‘transsexual people’, ‘transsexual community’, and the general term ‘transsexual’, the above dataset does the same thing: compares 2 explicit concepts (transsexual people, transsexual community) against one term that can be used in a multitude of ways: transgender (transgender books, transgender makeup tips, etc).
I know… a TS Separatist will inevitably run off to google and compare ‘transgender’ and ‘transsexual’ and present it saying…
– click graph to enlarge –
“See! See! See!!! THIS PROVES IT! Transsexual has been colonized by transgender!!! This is an apples-to-apples chart! It compares transsexual (red) to transgender (blue) and transgender came out on top!!! ”
To which I would say that you would be correct if ‘transgender’ referred to one type of trans person or experience, but it doesn’t. This is a comparison between a term that refers to one specific type of trans person or experience and a term that refers to all types of trans people or experiences. If anything, this shows that there was almost NO change (there was, in fact, a small net increase) in the amount of times the term ‘transsexual’ was used in the year 1990 as compared to the year 2008.
The TS Separates Logic
I can hear a TS Separatist somewhere saying, “Just looking at how often these terms were used in 20 million books isn’t proof that there’s not a colonization going on!” To which I would say… “Ah, the old teapot argument…”
Here’s an example of TS Separatist logic:
Also, late transitioning transgender males and white heterosexual cross dressing males are not the only ones who have the right to vote on issues pertaining to transsexual, transgender and intersex (TTI) equality, however, they have colonized the transsexual community. The results of this colonization has been devastating to the progress of transsexual (TS) and intersex (IS) Americans. Look at the history, and the law books- it’s all there. Ever since cross dressing men and transvestites co-opted the transsexual movement, TS folks have actually LOST already pre-existing rights.
There are several claims made in the above statement:
-
Non-transsexuals have colonized transsexuals.
-
The result of this was devastating.
-
The historical record proves the above two claims.
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Transsexuals had more rights before there was a transgender community.
Is any historical record actually given to support these claims? Nope. She asserts, “Look at the history, and the law books- it’s all there.” Did she bother to even cite even one source? Nope. Looking at the historical record isn’t welcome or wanted for a number of TS Separatists. For them, the name of the game is ‘Prove to me that I don’t have a baseball!’ I understand that reviewing 20 million books to see if there has been a colonization by the transgender community isn’t absolute proof that ‘there is no baseball.’ I’m not saying that the data ‘proves there is no baseball‘; what I am saying is that this data doesn’t seem to support the victim narrative favored by a number of TS separatists.
The Data, Part 2
Okay then. Let’s look at the internet search and news reference volumes over the past 7 years or so:
This is a comparison of the same 2 terms we looked at in The Data, Part 1:
- Transgenders (blue)
- Transsexuals (red)
What do you see most of in the above dataset – red or blue?
The above is a comparison of the same 5 terms we looked at in The Data, Part 1:
- Transgender People (light blue)
- Transsexual People (red)
- Transgenders (orange)
- Transsexuals (green)
- Transgender Community (purple)
If anything, this review of how people look for groupings of trans people shows that news stories and searches for ‘transsexuals’ (only one type of trans person) far exceeds parity. In other words, transsexuals are but one constituent grouping found within the transgender community (according to the English language). However, transsexuals beat out the transgender community in terms of both search and news reference volume a number of times. If there was really a colonization going on, one would expect that ‘transsexuals’ and ‘transsexual people’ would have been completely obliterated in search volume and news reference.
However, what does one find? One finds that for google the…
‘Transgender Community’ does not have enough search volume for ranking.
This is what you also find:
7/23/211 EDIT: One critique was that I didn’t include USA-only data in this section. So, here’s the US-only data as well:
The top searches from the top subregions:
The top searches from the top cities:
See that green bar? That represents search volume for “transsexuals” in the top 10 regions. See those other blips that look like dots instead of bars in the bar-graph? That represents search volume for:
- Transgender People (light blue)
- Transsexual People (red)
- Transgenders (orange)
- Transgender Community (purple)
Just to drive the point home:
– English Searches, Worldwide –
– English Searches, USA Only –
That orange lump represents ‘transgenders’ and the light blue speck represents ‘transgender people’. The huge green bar represents search volume for ‘transsexuals’.
Trolls
The amount of drama created by those that paint themselves as the oppressed victims of a Borg that stripped them of their self-identity is incalculable. In fact, that’s their point:
A while back, two of us got together and formed an internet group. We formed with just one premise, i.e., to speak individually, but as one voice, in challenging the transgender at every opportunity. We don’t sit around writing endless narrative. We don’t sit around quoting the latest research. We are coordinated. We act. We respond. And, we do so consistently, persistently, and reasonably. Our group is growing and we’ve succeeded in shutting down threads spouting TG non-sense. When someone’s name is brought up for membership in our group their position on the gender debate is discussed in depth. Each of us come from different spheres of internet experience, all of which are related to the gender debate. Once we decide amongst ourselves if there is someone out there of whom might share our position we approach them…present a little information, ask if they think they might be interested in joining. Some have accepted. Some have declined. Most have not been asked to join. All of us share one thing in common: a sense of loyalty and unity in our quest to speak with one voice to the transgender. If one of us goes at someone, we all go at them. If someone attacks one of us, they may as well attack each and every one of us. We know who our allies are…and aren’t… for sure.
– Susan
I understand that the trolls in the above group aren’t interested in what the data has to say. I get that they will claim that google’s data is bad or that the data I’ve presented here is somehow wrong or irrelevant. I also understand that providing objective historical evidence that calls their victim narrative into question will be disregarded or they will question the authenticity of the historical record.
I’m not interested in feeding the trolls; that’s not why I’ve been doing this research. As I’ve said before, I’m personally grateful for the drive to fact check their unsubstantiated assertions.
If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you too were on the receiving end of a barrage of ad hom attacks from these trolls and/or you’re genuinely interested in researching the facts associated with some of their unsubstantiated assertions.
I encourage everyone to fact-check the data and/or historical record I’ve presented. I urge you to do your own research and (PLEASE!) add it to the available historical record online. However, please stop engaging these trolls. I’ve tried to engage them before and it’s like talking to a creationist. They seem to have a belief (unsupported by objective evidence) about the world and in their version of reality, they are being attacked; they’re victims of stupid people who’ve harmed them. You won’t change their minds. It’s best that you don’t engage them.
*Community: I use this term in a manner consistent with the current English langue to mean:
Research tools I used for this post: Google Trends | Google Book Ngram Viewer
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