“This is why it is good practice to ask someone for their pronouns if you are not sure how to address them – it could spare a lot of discomfort and confusion,” says Reu Vlok, a UP student who unpacks what it means to be a trans woman.

What is a trans woman?

Before we begin speaking about inclusivity, we have to address who exactly we are accommodating - and clear up a few misconceptions along the way. A trans woman is someone who was assigned a male identity at birth but experiences their gender as female. This is a complete albeit short definition.

Notice that it does not make presumptions about appearance. In fact, a trans woman can:

Look indistinguishable from your average cisgender male. Usually, trans women who are still early in their journey of change fall into this category.
Look androgynous, or like a male who is expressing feminine gender tropes.
Look indistinguishable from a cisgender female. Many trans women “pass” as cisgender women after a certain point, and for many (but not all) this is a primary goal in transitioning.

Thus, it is impossible to tell whether someone is trans merely by observing them. Someone who appears to be a feminine male could be trans, or simply gender-nonconforming. This is why it is good practice to ask someone for their pronouns if you are not sure how to address them – it could spare a lot of discomfort and confusion.

What affects trans women at university?

Negativity towards trans women comes from gender policing. This is when someone takes it upon themselves to exclude a trans woman from a female space, or force them into a male one based on the assumption that they need to conform to their assigned gender.

The most prominent example is public bathrooms. A significant fear for most trans women is to be “clocked” (recognised as trans) in a female-only space and then be treated like a man intruding in that space, for instance, being physically assaulted, verbally harassed, or forcibly ejected. Even for trans women who pass, this remains a fear since the threat of violence is always present. For trans women who do not pass it is often enough to make them opt to use the men’s restroom instead, placing them in an environment that causes severe emotional discomfort and puts them at risk of being assaulted by men. In short, in a transphobic environment, nowhere feels safe.

In addition, another significant source of discomfort is the dual troubles of misgendering and deadnaming. To misgender a trans woman is to refer to her in a male fashion, and to deadname her is to refer to her using her pretransition name – the one she has left behind. Beyond the personal level, these issues are often caused by bureaucracy – any trans person has to go through the lengthy process of changing their documentation to match the identity they feel comfortable with, which can take months or years. In short, if a slip of paper tells you to refer to someone in one way, and the human being in question prefers something else, go with what the human wants.