he-she

Noun

he-she (plural he-shes)

1. (derogatory, informal, offensive) A butch (or masculine) woman; (sometimes also) a trans man (regarded as a masculine woman).
   • [page 4:] The weekend butches were scared of me because I was a stone he-she. […] [page 27:] I noticed a grownup whose sex I couldn't figure out. "Mom, is that a he-she?" I asked out loud. […] "What's a he-she?" my sister demanded to know. I was interested in the answer too. "It's a weirdo," my...1993, Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues, Los Angeles: Accessible Publishing Systems PTY Limited, published 2010, →ISBN, page 4,27,69,137
   • The stone butch […] embodies the dysfunction of gender rigidity by taking her masculinity so seriously that she denies her female body. One twist in the narrative of Stone Butch Blues involves the breakup of Jess and her lover Theresa, which comes about at least in part owing to Theresa's...1998, Judith Halberstam, Female Masculinity, page 129
2. (derogatory, informal, offensive) A transsexual or transgender woman (a woman who was assigned male at birth).
   • Cops aren't very fond of prostitutes; they create work. […] The prostitutes in the Four-one bear no resemblance to Shirley McLaine's Irma La Douce. They are the ugliest assortment of hes, shes, he-shes, and she-hes in the world.2009, Tom Walker, Fort Apache: New York's Most Violent Precinct, page 98
   • Sophia is an out transwoman […] When the character of Sophia—who, in the memoir, is named Vanessa Robinson—is introduced, Kerman write that "the Camp was abuzz. The he-she is coming up!!!" (181) and goes on to paint a vivid portrait of Vanessa that is rife with exoticization: 'I soon got my first...2016 July 4, April Kalogeropoulos Householder, Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black: Thirteen Critical Essays, McFarland, →ISBN, page 101