Do not call me cisgender. You have no right or authority to name me without my consent. . . . It does not come from us, as its origins are from a trans perspective. . . . Do not call me cisgender. That is offensive to me. I am offended that you consider that you have power over me, and can name me.
terms like cis allow us to identify when we mean cis men/women
instead of always using men/women to mean cis men/women while always
distinguishing trans men/women as the other. It places cis and trans
people on equal ground.
a, you are saying to yourselves, then aren’t you just a straight
person? What is the difference between straight and cisgender?
According to a Tumblr blog called What-Does-Cis-Mean:
terms like cis allow us to identify when we mean cis men/women
instead of always using men/women to mean cis men/women while always
distinguishing trans men/women as the other. It places cis and trans
people on equal ground.
I agree, that explanation was needlessly complicated. I will dumb it
down for you. A cisgender is basically a non-transgender.
But wait, you
can’t say non-transgender. It is offensive for some reason. According to
BasicRights, “referring to cisgender people as ‘non trans’ implies that
cisgender people are the default and that being trans is abnormal.”
This is the main reasoning behind the existence of the word “cisgender.”
It was created so as not to offend the trans community. (Although this
reasoning doesn’t really apply elsewhere: Referring to minorities as
non-whites means that the white people are the norm and the minorities
are not.
So, in the same vein, calling a group of people non-trans means
that transgenders are the norm.)
The earliest mentions of the word “cisgender” in academia go back to a
1995 article by sexologist Volkmar Sigusch in which he discussed
“transsexual desire and cissexual defense.” Most recently, even though
the term in effect refers to straight people, “cisgender” can be found
only on websites catering to the trans community. In fact, when
researching the definition of the word, I came across an article called
“
Trans 101: Cisgender.” If the word is meant for non-trans people, then
why is it primarily found on trans websites?
The “cis” term has been popularized in, among other places, a book
called Whipping Girl, which is not, as you might have guessed, about a
dominatrix but about the transsexual experience. Why is the transgender
community creating words for what I should call myself? So that the
trans community will feel better about themselves? In the words of a
Tumblr blogger called “Nerd is my gender”:
Do not call me cisgender. You have no right or authority to name me
without my consent. . . . It does not come from us, as its origins are
from a trans perspective. . . . Do not call me cisgender. That is
offensive to me. I am offended that you consider that you have power
over me, and can name me.
Maybe I should come up with a new word for people who reject the
cisgender label and make that the 27,957th gender choice on Facebook.
Please leave any ideas in the comments section below.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378511/cis-ridiculous-christine-sisto
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378511/cis-ridiculous-christine-sisto
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