Meaning of he-she | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A butch (or masculine) woman; (sometimes also) a trans man (regarded as a masculine woman).
   derogatory, informal, offensive
2. A transsexual or transgender woman (a woman who was assigned male at birth).
   derogatory, informal, offensive

Examples

“[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 father laughed. "Like⟳ a beatnik." Rachel and I nodded without understanding. […] [page 69:] Angie [said] "I remember⟳ being in a restaurant with my mother and stepfather and I saw⟳ a woman who looked something like⟳ her [that butch]." […] "You like⟳ tough women, don't you, butch?" [Angie asked ...] I nodded. "That's like⟳ the time I was about fourteen and I saw⟳ this he-she. […] Everybody was staring at the jewelry department. There's this couple—a he-she and a femme. […] The pressure just popped those two women out the door like⟳ corks. […] And all the while I was thinking, Oh shit, that's gonna be me." […] [page 137:] Some of the older butches had warned me that sometimes on a job the guys would pressure one of the women to sleep⟳ with a he-she, as a joke, and then come⟳ back and tell⟳ everyone about it. That was the last⟳ day on the job for the butch, who usually left in shame. But sooner or later the stigma also came back around and stuck on the woman who slept with one of us, and she had to leave⟳ too.”

“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 involvement in the burgeoning women's movement. The year is 1973, and work⟳ is hard to come⟳ by for he-shes. Jess decides she must start⟳ passing as a man or else risk⟳ death by violence or suicide. Theresa cannot accompany⟳ her butch on this particular journey and explains painfully: "I'm a woman, Jess. I love⟳ you because you're a woman too. . . . I love⟳ your butchness. I just don't want⟳ to be some man's wife, even if that man's a woman" (148). As Jess begins her hormone treatments, […] [Theresa] hands a poster of two naked women on the wall of their kitchen, and it is clear to the reader that this image precisely excludes Jess and her kind. He-shes, women who are not received anywhere in society simply as women, […]”

“Max Ray, a white transgender man […] recalled […] 'I went to swipe my pass⟳, and there was three or four teenage guys on the front of the trolley and they started saying, "That's a female. That's a female. They think⟳ that's a female. You're a he-she."'”

“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.”

“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 glimpse of Vanessa—all six foot, four inches of blond, coffee-coloured, balloon-breasted almost-all-woman that she was. […] This was no unassuming "shim" […]”

CEFR level