She-Mail

A few years ago RuPaul got in trouble with some millennials over the term She-Mail. Not Shemale, but the word She-Mail. A line was drawn in the trans community that what this really meant was that she was making fun of transgender people. Ironically she recreated a word, and coined it on a show that is famous for crossdressing for entertainment purposes: Drag.

I think above all else that the context in which this was used is how she should be judged on its usage. After all if you take someone to court over an issue you can't charge one way and mean another. In the realm of public opinion it gets a little messy because the court of public opinion has no rules or set boundaries.

The prevailing idea about the term She-Mail was that RuPaul was delivering some mail via the television to her contestants. She wasn't treating them inferior and calling them porn actors with the term she-male. Which in a different spelling and different context means something completely different.

That's why language is so fascinating to me. Words have meaning based upon the context in which they are used. Same with people going on a television show to "Roast" someone. You know what you signed up for. All jokes, good and bad are going to be on limits and nothing off limits. It is its own context.

#TeamRuPaul
#TeamContext
#TeamSanity