It’s been quite remarkable how Christian Siriano has managed to single-handedly changed the vocabulary of a nation, or certainly that of gay men.
The term “hot tranny mess” has become almost universal to describe almost anyone badly dressed or badly behaved, or simply a bad situation.
I have used it many times myself and have laughed out loud in many situations where it has been used by others.
This is something we rightly criticize radio DJs and comedians for doing when the word “gay” is substituted for the word “bad” and for the impact this has on the way young people view gay people as a result. Yet as gay men we are guilty of exactly the same crime when we unashamedly use the word “tranny” or "hot tranny mess”.
Some people would say I am being politically correct but personally I have no problem with political correctness. I think it can be excessive at times but generally it’s about politeness and respect for other people. There are plenty of people who would similarly say that we are being “politically correct” when we demand that others stop using the word gay as a synonym for bad.
This issue came out into the open when Christian Siriano was criticized for an interview with New York Time Out. He was asked:
“Drag has always been part of our experience and always will be. What is its everlasting appeal? Why won’t it ever die?”
He replied: “If you think of heterosexuals, they have white-trash women and trailer parks, and we have drag queens and trannies. I don’t know if I’m the one who can explain it. It’s, like, drag queens are just there. These answers are hard!”
He was criticized for the reference to “white trash” but for me it raised the wider issue of the “hot tranny mess” line and the derogatory use of the word “tranny” by gay men.
I am not blaming Christian for this at all. It was the gay audience watching Project Runway who enthusiastically embraced the term “hot tranny mess” into common usage and started using “tranny” more frequently again.
I have used these terms many times and maybe I will again but the more I think about it the more I realize that I really shouldn’t and none of us should. This is a different argument as to whether gays and lesbians should use the f-word (or similarly offensive terms) within exclusively gay company as that is a term that is used to describe us. The word “tranny”, while it may have lost some of its original meaning, is a less than oblique reference to transgender people and is a term for a different group of people who do not deserve to be disrespected.
While it may be very funny at first, when you think about it for a while it actually isn’t and we cannot take the moral high ground with those who use the word “gay” in a pejorative sense if we continue to do the same with the word “tranny”.
Let’s take “fierce”, “ferocious”, and “oh my god I wanna die” from this year’s Runway but perhaps “hot tranny mess” to quote Christian once again has “expired”.
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This is a great post and totally thought provoking.
Seems to me that taken in context with Siriano’s quote it is referring to people on the edge of society. Arguably in many ways that is very true.
Think about it this way, it is really a part of a phrase, not just the one word, which I think softens it. Secondly, we’re bringing a word into mainstream language. A word that represents a group of people that mainstreamers (and a lot of gays and lesbians too) would normally completely and actively ignore.
This phrase to me is more representative of the 15 minutes that some SNL catchphrases get. Soon it will be over. But maybe ” Hot Tranny Mess” will somehow get us just a little closer to better understanding the people it represents.
I mean, its got us talking and thinking about it, right?
Does that may any sense? I’m totally thinking out loud here.
No one I know has ever used this phrase in a social situation. Which kind of reaffirms my sense that trying to connect with GLBT consumers through pop culture misses an awful lot of GLBT people.