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Gender & Sexuality dictionary

t-girl

or T-girl [ tee-gurl ]

What does t-girl mean?

A t-girl is a term for a transgender girl or woman. While some in the LGBTQ community embrace the term, others find it offensive.

Related words

cis, queer, gender-fluid, gender-neutral pronouns, genderflux, bigender, nonbinary gender

Where does t-girl come from?

T-girl is based on transgender woman or trans woman, a person who was assigned male at birth but whose gender identity is female. T is short for trans(gender) and girl, of course, is a term for a young female. The transgender man equivalent of a t-girl is t-boy.

Early instances of t-girl online are found in personals posted on gender-and-sexuality-based Usenet groups in the late 1990s. Today, t-girl is sometimes used in the pornography industry to label or promote content. Some have argued that this use of t-girl fetishizes or objectifies transgender woman. Others, such as a self-identified transgender commentator Daniella Argento in 2018 blog post on the term, have observed:

Wherever the usage is, the pornographer follows. However, I simply cannot agree that a word being used by a pornographer invalidates other uses of that word. It is simply a nonsensical argument. Using obscenities in polite society does not raise their register. Using high register words to describe obscenity does not destroy the meaning of the word.

Examples of t-girl

these girls using pride as an excuse to get drunk and high but when was the last time you supported a t-girl's gofundme??
@yxng_meezy, June 2019
Nightlight in cities from coast to coast have always been gay-centric and left queer, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people at the door. But for GAMI, the Miami born and raised T-girl, this kind of homosexual nonsense she’s witnessed growing up in the city is ready for retirement.
Chris Thomas, Out, October 2018

Who uses t-girl?

The term t-girl is disputed within the LGBTQ community. Some transgender woman identify as t-girls. As noted, others find t-girl offensive, especially because the term is associated with pornography featuring transgender women.

Given that some people may be offended, it’s always best to ask a person about their identification preferences. Additionally, calling a woman a girl (outside contexts where women themselves are using it playfully or affectionately) is sexist.

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of t-girl like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of t-girl that will help our users expand their word mastery.