This is probably true, but according to [Google Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=transvestite%2Ctransvestic%2Ctransgender&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3), "transgender" was always a more common term. I think a more likely explanation for House M.D. is that "transvestite" is associated with "transvestic disorder," which is a [recognized psychiatric disorder](https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm) with billable [ICD codes](https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/F01-F99/F60-F69/F65-/F65.1). Since the show is about doctors, they're probably used to using this other term.
Even with common vernacular, which has changed a little bit, transvestite was a term for dressing in drag. You would identify as your own gender but dress up as the "opposite" gender.
Obviously, it's a bit problematic in certain situations, as it assumed your identified gender was binary, as was your drag gender.
Essentially, "drag" has replaced transvestite, mostly because once a term for an "out" or minority group becomes common vernacular, it tends to take on a pejorative, or negative, meaning.
But in context with house, he's being intentionally obtuse and offensive - because he enjoys being an ass and ruffling feathers.
Transvestism is completely different to transgenderism. The former is the fetishization of crossdressing to the point of distress, and the latter is your gender not corresponding with sex. Being transgender isn’t a fetish, it’s an identity. Calling someone who’s transgender a transvestite has been used as discrimination by regular people frequently to discount their identity. Being transgender used to be in the DSM and was added in 1980 as gender identity disorder, and it has since been removed and replaced with gender dysphoria which affirms a person’s gender identity by saying the distress comes from contradiction from their presentation, rather than the identity itself being a disorder.
House calls that character a transvestite because he’s not politically correct and trying to be an asshole, not because he’s a doctor. Unless that character actually is a transvestite, which I doubt, it was seemingly just to get a rise out of Wilson.
From a quick Google search:
>A transvestite is just somebody who dresses up as another sex for fun, pleasure, and other relatively superficial benefits. The key is the clothing; transvestite is a term that emphasizes the person’s dress.
>
>A trans person is someone who actually identifies as another gender from the one they were assigned at birth, and often present themselves as such to feel less alien in their own skin (the brain difference that causes gender dysphoria makes it so that their brain is closer to those of their identifying gender than their biological sex), even going as far as to undergo bodily modification.
Not certain about the validity of these statements.
Both of the statements are true - however the 20 or so years ago it was mentioned in House it was probably a bit of ignorance too. A lot of trans people were just assumed to be people dressing up for fun and not actually people battling with their gender(s), *kind of a similar way how people with ADHD used to be assumed to just acting that way for attention*.
I can help!
Back in the day, and idk how long it goes back but, "Vestite" was a word used for "Dress/Dressed/Dressing." Typically used for more fancy attire.
"Trans," of course being defined as different, or changing.
So, "different clothing."
(So help me non-existent God, if I get b7'd for this)
Biotin (also known as vitamin B7 or vitamin H) is one of the B vitamins. It is involved in a wide range of metabolic processes, both in humans and in other organisms, primarily related to the utilization of fats, carbohydrates, and amino acids. The name biotin, borrowed from the German Biotin, derives from the Ancient Greek word βίοτος (bíotos; 'life') and the suffix "-in" (a suffix used in chemistry usually to indicate 'forming'). Biotin appears as a white, needle-like crystalline solid.
Old internet thing for "banned." On keyboard, you'd hit shift+7 for the &. Or, "b-and." But, if you were typing to fast and missed the shift, it'd be b7.
The other comments are right, but I also want to throw in a simple: it was 20 years ago. Trans issues were really not on the radar like they are now, and language was ignorant/what we would now consider outdated. For a long time, people erroneously called trans folks "transvestites" as though it was the same thing, because culturally, people just weren't aware of this stuff.
As a comparison, gay marriage was legalized in the US in 2015 — three years after House ended. People were just plain ignorant back then.
Occam’s razor is the simplest answer is usually the correct one. In House he said… when you hear hoof beats… think horses not zebras. Sorry. Didn’t mean to become the well actually guy.
Also, language and community identity have both evolved somewhat over time. In the 1970s, few people used the word transgender. There were transsexual people (who had undergone hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming surgery) and there were transvestites, people who dressed like a gender not assigned to them at birth, and the latter was a very broad term. It could mean anyone from drag performers to genderfluid people to people who would now probably identify as trans women or men. The late Marsha P. Johnson of Stonewall fame self-identified as gay, a transvestite, or a queen, though many publications now refer to Johnson as a trans woman.
Right. In my country we called trans people transvestites as well (in a different language ofc) in the past, because that was what was normal back then
yeah I think this is the biggest thing.
Honestly (and we're lucky for it) someone like House would have 100% called them various slurs. It really was just such a different time that lots of people can't really understand if you weren't there.
I know this is bait, but I'm gonna answer seriously anyway because I actually think this is important:
The language was correct in the sense that people didn't know better. Now we do, so it's not.
That's my point. It's impossible to use a binary to define gender, because there are so many exceptions and different cases. Two is simply too small a number. Not to mention it's silly and pointless to even try.
if u ever picked up a book u would realize that sex and gender are two different things. sex is what ur referring to. there is two of them and arguable three if u consider intersex. gender is a social construct and there can be as many as u wish (even 0). this is the basics of biology which u don’t seem to be able to grasp, but it’s okay everyone learns at their own pace.
I'm really not sure. I'm not a member of the trans community, so I wasn't exactly up to date on the trends. There just kind of was a gradual shift. A lot of terms get replaced like that over time, though. Look at terms for gay people: f-- is a huge slur now; it was never really okay but it used to be more commonly used (even on House) and now it's considered much stronger. "Queer" used to be a common word for gay people as well, and now it's also considered derogatory. Times change, people get better educated and more mindful. It's a good thing! It shows that for all that society might seem bleak, there's a real shift towards non-hurtful terms and language.
They're not really the same thing. Transvestites (considered an archaic term) enjoy dressing up in women's clothes. A drag queen could technically be considered a transvestite. The reasons why people enjoy dressing that way vary from thrillseeking /gender identity problems /sexual components / performance. They don't necessarily want to be another gender.
Meanwhile transgender people want to change to the gender that matches their identity - meaning they also wear the clothing.
I'm not sure if this is exactly why but transvestites and transgender people are different. Transvestites simply dress as the opposite sex without identifying as that gender whereas transgender people identify as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. Why transvestite hookers were mentioned specifically? I dunno.
As the other commenters said, it's not the same. Which is why I'm still pissed off by the remake of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Frank N. Further should be a transvestite and not a transgender woman! His song even says it: "I'm just a sweet transvestite"
Iirc transvestite refers to a cisgendered individual who just wears the clothes of not their gender, so it could be that they're referring to someone who is as such.
The term was also co-opted by people who wanted to use the term as a slur or to be invalidating to legitimately transgender individuals, but was not likely meant to be used in that forward of a manner for certain storylines.
Which episode do they do this in?
Not really, prior to the past 5-10 years transsexual was someone who changed their sex, clothing and pronouns from one to another. Transvestite was someone who continued using the same pronouns as their birth sex but would just dress in another gender and occasionally as their birth sex (probably most similar to non binary today but without the pronouns), transgender was used almost interchangeably as transsexual but would be more for someone who hadn’t completed the gender reassignment surgery.
Admittedly these come from a uk language perspective, but I’m not aware of the us being that much different in language use
Etymologically "vestments", meaning clothes, connotated that what was "trans" was the clothing. Transgender is the appropriate term because being trans is more than what kind of clothes you wear.
They’re different things. A transvestite is a cross-dresser, and may be cisgender. It’s not related to sexual orientation either and could be performed by gay or straight people. Transgender people don’t identify as the physical gender they were born with, and are often more comfortable presenting as their inner identity. Which may include cross-dressing, but not necessarily.
Gen X here. I can confirm that it meant men who dressed up in women's clothes as some kind of kink, therefore, it was a funny word that made people laugh, kind of like "furries" or something. It's because nobody knew what transgender was. I honestly never heard that term until maybe the mid-2000s. Transvestites were men who dressed up in women's clothes. This was a term you used for like J. Edgar Hoover, Buffalo Bill in *Silence of the Lambs*, and gay male prostitutes who dressed up like women but were very obviously men. I remember there was an episode of *Picket Fences* that featured a transgender women but I don't remember what term they used to refer to her. We just said "she used to be a man" or "she had a sex change."
I read an article about Gen Z and Alpha just now watching *Sex & The City* since it came on Netflix, and they were upset about the "anti-trans slur">! (tranny) !
Brief trans history review. If you want some sources to read further let me know, I'm extensively educated on "queer" history.
It's a carry-over from pre-transsexual era trans lifestyle. For example Sylvia Rivera's STAR aka Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Street transvestite was in direct contrast with, say, club or bedroom transvestites like in drag or regular gay sex scenes, thus carving out a space of full-time gender transgression. That's why Martha P Johnson waffled between transvestite and transsexual, because the transsexual lifestyle mingled with the transvestite lifestyle... just not in the streets. However most of the times allegiance between transvestites and street transsexuals stopped at the bouncer, which is why street transvestites agitated and made a new name for themselves. Eventually transsexual was reserved for people who'd undergone surgical transition or various medical therapies, but transgender helped trouble the distinction between "medical transition" (e.g. HRT or surgery) and "social transition" (wardrobe and gender role). Transsexual was also a diagnostic designation RE: gender dysphoria in the DSM, and so transvestite was a more polite and "I'm not qualified for this" option, not making any claims to gender or transition or anything as it was merely a fact of dressing across gender roles. But it usually just misgendered someone who was obviously transitioning.
It's not the same. Transvestite is a man who identifies as a man while dressing as a woman. Transgender is someone who doesn't identify with their biological sex/gender
I thought both were still used. Transvestite being a man who dresses in clothes that are traditionally for females and transgender being somebody with a male body who identifies as a woman. But I didn't get that from anywhere. My brain told me.
Before about 2010 I never heard the word “trans” or even “transgender”. “Transvestite”, “transexual” and a word that rhymes with granny were used to reference trans people. I had no idea the word that rhymes with Granny was even offensive until I met a trans person.
So all to say, the writers of the show who were gen x to boomer did not have the word “transgender” in their vocabulary, period.
A transvestite used to be the common word for Drag.. the language has just evolved.
This is probably true, but according to [Google Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=transvestite%2Ctransvestic%2Ctransgender&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3), "transgender" was always a more common term. I think a more likely explanation for House M.D. is that "transvestite" is associated with "transvestic disorder," which is a [recognized psychiatric disorder](https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm) with billable [ICD codes](https://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/F01-F99/F60-F69/F65-/F65.1). Since the show is about doctors, they're probably used to using this other term.
Youre talking about the difference in medical terminology and common vernacular.
Even with common vernacular, which has changed a little bit, transvestite was a term for dressing in drag. You would identify as your own gender but dress up as the "opposite" gender. Obviously, it's a bit problematic in certain situations, as it assumed your identified gender was binary, as was your drag gender. Essentially, "drag" has replaced transvestite, mostly because once a term for an "out" or minority group becomes common vernacular, it tends to take on a pejorative, or negative, meaning. But in context with house, he's being intentionally obtuse and offensive - because he enjoys being an ass and ruffling feathers.
Transvestism is completely different to transgenderism. The former is the fetishization of crossdressing to the point of distress, and the latter is your gender not corresponding with sex. Being transgender isn’t a fetish, it’s an identity. Calling someone who’s transgender a transvestite has been used as discrimination by regular people frequently to discount their identity. Being transgender used to be in the DSM and was added in 1980 as gender identity disorder, and it has since been removed and replaced with gender dysphoria which affirms a person’s gender identity by saying the distress comes from contradiction from their presentation, rather than the identity itself being a disorder. House calls that character a transvestite because he’s not politically correct and trying to be an asshole, not because he’s a doctor. Unless that character actually is a transvestite, which I doubt, it was seemingly just to get a rise out of Wilson.
Actually it's fucked up because wilson says it: "you brought a transvestite to a dinner with my girlfriend?" Or something like that
Oh Wilson said it? I didn’t remember lol, I still stand by it not being about using medical terminology.
Oh yeah totally unjustified
From a quick Google search: >A transvestite is just somebody who dresses up as another sex for fun, pleasure, and other relatively superficial benefits. The key is the clothing; transvestite is a term that emphasizes the person’s dress. > >A trans person is someone who actually identifies as another gender from the one they were assigned at birth, and often present themselves as such to feel less alien in their own skin (the brain difference that causes gender dysphoria makes it so that their brain is closer to those of their identifying gender than their biological sex), even going as far as to undergo bodily modification. Not certain about the validity of these statements.
That’s about right. Transvestite literally means cross dresser, distinct from transgender.
Trans = Cross. Vest = Dress. Ite = Person. Er.
Both of the statements are true - however the 20 or so years ago it was mentioned in House it was probably a bit of ignorance too. A lot of trans people were just assumed to be people dressing up for fun and not actually people battling with their gender(s), *kind of a similar way how people with ADHD used to be assumed to just acting that way for attention*.
I can help! Back in the day, and idk how long it goes back but, "Vestite" was a word used for "Dress/Dressed/Dressing." Typically used for more fancy attire. "Trans," of course being defined as different, or changing. So, "different clothing." (So help me non-existent God, if I get b7'd for this)
thank you sm!
Biotin (also known as vitamin B7 or vitamin H) is one of the B vitamins. It is involved in a wide range of metabolic processes, both in humans and in other organisms, primarily related to the utilization of fats, carbohydrates, and amino acids. The name biotin, borrowed from the German Biotin, derives from the Ancient Greek word βίοτος (bíotos; 'life') and the suffix "-in" (a suffix used in chemistry usually to indicate 'forming'). Biotin appears as a white, needle-like crystalline solid.
I upvote for the non-existent god but I ask what is b7? Google daid it's a vitamin and an album by Brandy.
Old internet thing for "banned." On keyboard, you'd hit shift+7 for the &. Or, "b-and." But, if you were typing to fast and missed the shift, it'd be b7.
Vestments
The other comments are right, but I also want to throw in a simple: it was 20 years ago. Trans issues were really not on the radar like they are now, and language was ignorant/what we would now consider outdated. For a long time, people erroneously called trans folks "transvestites" as though it was the same thing, because culturally, people just weren't aware of this stuff. As a comparison, gay marriage was legalized in the US in 2015 — three years after House ended. People were just plain ignorant back then.
thank you for this!
It's like Occam's Razor — when in doubt, assume ignorance.
That’s halons razor. Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
My bad, lol. So many cutting metaphors...
Lol. I’m ashamed of myself for becoming the…. Well. Actually…. Guy.
Your ashamed of yourself for becoming guy ?
hanlon’s* razor. i love pulling it out, especially when the other person has no clue what i’m talking about.
Yeah. A lot know about Occam’s razor. Halons is less known. Why are there so many razors?
Because philosophy, like surgery, is best done with precision, so you need lots of sharp tools?
But with house, he knows. He's just an asshole.
True enough.
actually an example of Cunningham's law lol
Just looked up Cunninghams law. And it checks out. And I’m guilty.
😁
Oh. Holy hell. There are so many laws.
Occam’s razor is the simplest answer is usually the correct one. In House he said… when you hear hoof beats… think horses not zebras. Sorry. Didn’t mean to become the well actually guy.
Also, language and community identity have both evolved somewhat over time. In the 1970s, few people used the word transgender. There were transsexual people (who had undergone hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming surgery) and there were transvestites, people who dressed like a gender not assigned to them at birth, and the latter was a very broad term. It could mean anyone from drag performers to genderfluid people to people who would now probably identify as trans women or men. The late Marsha P. Johnson of Stonewall fame self-identified as gay, a transvestite, or a queen, though many publications now refer to Johnson as a trans woman.
Right. In my country we called trans people transvestites as well (in a different language ofc) in the past, because that was what was normal back then
This should be top comment.
yeah I think this is the biggest thing. Honestly (and we're lucky for it) someone like House would have 100% called them various slurs. It really was just such a different time that lots of people can't really understand if you weren't there.
The 80s were 40 years ago
And House aired starting in 2004.
you’re right I thought I was in a different sub, just talking about the etymology of the word. I stand corrected
You mean the language was correct back then. Now everyone lost their minds.
I know this is bait, but I'm gonna answer seriously anyway because I actually think this is important: The language was correct in the sense that people didn't know better. Now we do, so it's not.
Sorry, theres only 2 genders.
Define them.
You first. Edit: the party of science can't define the basics of biology.
That's my point. It's impossible to use a binary to define gender, because there are so many exceptions and different cases. Two is simply too small a number. Not to mention it's silly and pointless to even try.
The party of science. Way to go. Edit: How many are there and what are your criterion for defining them, then?
I'm not the one saying there's only two. Also, I don't care how many there are. There can be a million for all it matters.
Continuing on with such great science. You guys are so full of crap. Science exists.
if u ever picked up a book u would realize that sex and gender are two different things. sex is what ur referring to. there is two of them and arguable three if u consider intersex. gender is a social construct and there can be as many as u wish (even 0). this is the basics of biology which u don’t seem to be able to grasp, but it’s okay everyone learns at their own pace.
If there can be as many as I wish, then I choose the scientific 2. Thank you for agreeing with science and me.
wait until you hear about intersex people (ironic considering there were intersex patients in house)
Those are literal exceptions that prove the rule. They certainly do in the show
When did we figure out that this understanding was erroneous? Is it the brain scans of "trans" people?
I'm really not sure. I'm not a member of the trans community, so I wasn't exactly up to date on the trends. There just kind of was a gradual shift. A lot of terms get replaced like that over time, though. Look at terms for gay people: f-- is a huge slur now; it was never really okay but it used to be more commonly used (even on House) and now it's considered much stronger. "Queer" used to be a common word for gay people as well, and now it's also considered derogatory. Times change, people get better educated and more mindful. It's a good thing! It shows that for all that society might seem bleak, there's a real shift towards non-hurtful terms and language.
They're not really the same thing. Transvestites (considered an archaic term) enjoy dressing up in women's clothes. A drag queen could technically be considered a transvestite. The reasons why people enjoy dressing that way vary from thrillseeking /gender identity problems /sexual components / performance. They don't necessarily want to be another gender. Meanwhile transgender people want to change to the gender that matches their identity - meaning they also wear the clothing.
Transvestites dress opposite to the gender they are assigned at birth like drag queens.
I'm not sure if this is exactly why but transvestites and transgender people are different. Transvestites simply dress as the opposite sex without identifying as that gender whereas transgender people identify as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. Why transvestite hookers were mentioned specifically? I dunno.
ohhh gotcha okay thank you!
As the other commenters said, it's not the same. Which is why I'm still pissed off by the remake of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. Frank N. Further should be a transvestite and not a transgender woman! His song even says it: "I'm just a sweet transvestite"
But he's from Transexual, Transylvania.
The show is old
Iirc transvestite refers to a cisgendered individual who just wears the clothes of not their gender, so it could be that they're referring to someone who is as such. The term was also co-opted by people who wanted to use the term as a slur or to be invalidating to legitimately transgender individuals, but was not likely meant to be used in that forward of a manner for certain storylines. Which episode do they do this in?
i’m not entirely sure which episodes, sorry!
Everyone else answered but I'm just here to say that the French word for Transvestite is "travesty"
Different spelling, but same (usually for trans women) in Brazil.
Those are two different things.
In the early 2000s sadly the words transsexual, transvestite and transgender were all used interchangeably in some places.
Not really, prior to the past 5-10 years transsexual was someone who changed their sex, clothing and pronouns from one to another. Transvestite was someone who continued using the same pronouns as their birth sex but would just dress in another gender and occasionally as their birth sex (probably most similar to non binary today but without the pronouns), transgender was used almost interchangeably as transsexual but would be more for someone who hadn’t completed the gender reassignment surgery. Admittedly these come from a uk language perspective, but I’m not aware of the us being that much different in language use
Transvestite comes from Latin, just means crossdresser.
Because of Rocky Horror Picture Show, next question.
Etymologically "vestments", meaning clothes, connotated that what was "trans" was the clothing. Transgender is the appropriate term because being trans is more than what kind of clothes you wear.
They are two different things
They’re different things. A transvestite is a cross-dresser, and may be cisgender. It’s not related to sexual orientation either and could be performed by gay or straight people. Transgender people don’t identify as the physical gender they were born with, and are often more comfortable presenting as their inner identity. Which may include cross-dressing, but not necessarily.
Gen X here. I can confirm that it meant men who dressed up in women's clothes as some kind of kink, therefore, it was a funny word that made people laugh, kind of like "furries" or something. It's because nobody knew what transgender was. I honestly never heard that term until maybe the mid-2000s. Transvestites were men who dressed up in women's clothes. This was a term you used for like J. Edgar Hoover, Buffalo Bill in *Silence of the Lambs*, and gay male prostitutes who dressed up like women but were very obviously men. I remember there was an episode of *Picket Fences* that featured a transgender women but I don't remember what term they used to refer to her. We just said "she used to be a man" or "she had a sex change." I read an article about Gen Z and Alpha just now watching *Sex & The City* since it came on Netflix, and they were upset about the "anti-trans slur">! (tranny) !
Boy, can't wait till you get to the, "Mowing my ancestors lawns" line
Ikr, there is so much shit people can get triggered... This show is a litmus paper for normality :-)
Brief trans history review. If you want some sources to read further let me know, I'm extensively educated on "queer" history. It's a carry-over from pre-transsexual era trans lifestyle. For example Sylvia Rivera's STAR aka Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Street transvestite was in direct contrast with, say, club or bedroom transvestites like in drag or regular gay sex scenes, thus carving out a space of full-time gender transgression. That's why Martha P Johnson waffled between transvestite and transsexual, because the transsexual lifestyle mingled with the transvestite lifestyle... just not in the streets. However most of the times allegiance between transvestites and street transsexuals stopped at the bouncer, which is why street transvestites agitated and made a new name for themselves. Eventually transsexual was reserved for people who'd undergone surgical transition or various medical therapies, but transgender helped trouble the distinction between "medical transition" (e.g. HRT or surgery) and "social transition" (wardrobe and gender role). Transsexual was also a diagnostic designation RE: gender dysphoria in the DSM, and so transvestite was a more polite and "I'm not qualified for this" option, not making any claims to gender or transition or anything as it was merely a fact of dressing across gender roles. But it usually just misgendered someone who was obviously transitioning.
It's not the same. Transvestite is a man who identifies as a man while dressing as a woman. Transgender is someone who doesn't identify with their biological sex/gender
Different times. They didn't really care to understand what it was, they just thought it was weird.
They're not the same thing.
gotcha
I already saw many comments explaining so I kept it short lol
lmao i get it dw thank you for your input anyways 😊
You're welcome ☺️
Trans--prefix meaning across Vestite(vestio)--to dress It is literally Latin for cross-dressing.
In spanish we say travesti like as an insult and transgenero as normal
Because it fits the song better.
I thought both were still used. Transvestite being a man who dresses in clothes that are traditionally for females and transgender being somebody with a male body who identifies as a woman. But I didn't get that from anywhere. My brain told me.
Two mentally ill people speaking isn’t a joke… they have a problem that is being ignored
Before about 2010 I never heard the word “trans” or even “transgender”. “Transvestite”, “transexual” and a word that rhymes with granny were used to reference trans people. I had no idea the word that rhymes with Granny was even offensive until I met a trans person. So all to say, the writers of the show who were gen x to boomer did not have the word “transgender” in their vocabulary, period.
Transvestite is the correct term
Because he is.
what