Blank_User said:
Yes, that’s basically my point.
We know there are trans women upset with the word, but is this a shared belief among the majority of trans women? Is it used as a slur outside of anime communities? I just want to make sure this isn’t like that supposedly racist “black hole” comment a politician made once.
I will say that it does seem to be the common belief among trans communities, at least from what I've seen - I'm not a trans woman, but I am trans and interact with trans communities quite a bit.
There are definitely some who do not agree. (There are also a minority who view "femboy" as a slur, but that's a very small minority that tends to get loudly disagreed with.)
“Trap” in this context sounds similar to “queer” to me. Some in those groups see it as offensive, others have no problem with it, and some even use it to describe themselves. So I also don’t think it’s right as a cisgender person to assume it should always be seen as a slur. It’s a yellow light, not a red light like the n-word.
I’m not saying no one ever uses it as a slur, but I’m wondering whether people used it as such because people thought it was without regard to actual history. In other words, the idea of it being a slur made it an actual slur.
The comparison to queer is closer, I think, but still slightly off - the common opinion towards queer skews positive nowadays. But the point about the term being controversial even within LGBT spaces is correct, not everyone agrees on the word "trap" being a slur, even if it's a commonly held belief.
I think the main issue is that the use of the word to refer to anime femboys (barring specific cases like post-Strive Bridget) largely isn't related to why it's often considered a slur among trans communities. Like I said in the other thread, that belief comes more from its use for real life trans pornstars such as on the subreddit r/traps, and the uncomfortable similarities to the trans panic defense.
It's kind of like, two separate but related uses of the same word conflicting, I guess? The "overlapping" comment earlier in the thread had a good point.