The term "Cisgender"/"Cissexual"

[Kibalessthan3]

I was browsing the web tonight, and stumbled upon this word. I still don't have a clue to it's purpose. Or meaning. Sure, i've checked yahoo answers and watched videos on youtube about it, but i still don't really get it. Why would someone use this word except to confuse someone? It's kinda like the word "Chirugion" and can anyone tell me what that means? (In short, it's a very old word for doctor) Basically, i'm saying this word is archaic and has no use in our society today. The only use i can see for it is a way for transgendered people to claim superiority and make fun of regular people. Can't we all just say gay, straight, male, or female? Can someone please explain this word, in simple terms, so i can understand it?

Edited December 28, 2012 by Kibalessthan3

[Traveller_23]

I'm not sure what you mean by transgendered people using to to claim superiority. I thought all cisgendered meant is that you are the gender that you were physically born it into, giving us the opposite of the word transgendered. Pretty uncontroversial, IMO 

[Gene Splicer PHD]

First, let's define very, very basic terms.

 

Gender means (very loosely) "a societal construct that defines the roles that males and females play in society". Gender is in the mind. It is not a physical thing.

 

Sex is your physical, er, sex. If you're born male, you were born with a penis, if you're female, you're born with a vagina. Very basic.

 

Cisgender (or CIS) means "my gender matches my body" - i.e. I have a male body, and I know I am male.

 

Transgender (or trans) means "my gender does not match my body", i.e. I have a male body, and I know I am female.

 

There is an "otherness" that being trans carries with it. It's different than being gay. It's different than being straight. You can be straight and trans. Or gay and trans. Or bi and trans. Its not a sexual orientation, it's an identity, and more importantly, it's a wrongness in your core identity. You know how you maybe never "fit in" with a group at school or work? Imagine not being able to "fit in" - to yourself, let alone an outside group.

 

It can be pretty isolating. 

 

Most people, being CIS, simply don't get it. We can't. It's like seeing what's behind your own head without turning around.

 

So, a transgendered person is isolated, very privately, by the idea that they're in the wrong kind of body. And when a trans person comes out (i.e. starts to dress as their proper gender, wants people to use their preferred pronouns), that isolation becomes very public. And often turns right into oppression.

 

Imagine what it would be like to walk into a mens room as a trans person who is transitioning to their proper gender - wearing right-gendered clothing and hairstyle, and have the people in it stare at (or beat up) the "girl", or walk into a womens room and get the same treatment.

 

Or meet someone special and have to discuss your penis, which may not be there in a couple of months. Or have to tell your wife that she is going to have...a wife in a year. Or that you'll probably need to start shaving soon.

 

And of course the misgendering that goes on when a trans person comes out and wants to be referred to by their preferred pronouns, and people refuse to do that. 

 

So the trans community is very small, and very misunderstood, and complicated, and isolated. CIS folks see it as very mysterious, and weird, and "wrong". Even within the LBGT community, they get the most crap from society. It's a pretty oppressed group. And they can be, I think appropriately, pretty pissed off. Some within the trans community can be pretty radical with their anger.

 

Now, within the wider, non-radical trans community, I don't think "CIS" is used to make a claim for superiority. It's used to claim equality. It's used as a way to help people who are not trans, see that transgendered people are a group, just like any other group. Within the trans community, saying "I am trans and you are CIS", I am claiming that trans is equal to CIS.

 

The superiority you see, and the use of CIS as a slur, comes from the more radical segments of the "social justice" movement (as seen on Tumblr). Within these segments, CIS is used to categorize non-trans people into a separate group which has "privilege" over non-transgendered people. In some groups I've seen (and this is a growing trend) it's even expanded to include straight people, usually white people, and often, males. By being in that group, you are considered to be oppressing others.

 

Which is, of course, very confusing and oppressive in and of itself, because "social justice" is supposed to be about being inclusive of everyone, and most often, I see debates/arguments/conversations devolve into exclusivity everywhere. 

 

CIS as an identity is not in and of itself a bad thing. It's just another label. When it is used to classify wide swathes of society or entire groups as "other" than another group, it becomes very divisive and confusing.

 

TL;DR: CIS means "my gender matches my body", Trans means "it doesn't", and CIS when used as a slur means "check your privilege, white boy".

Edited December 28, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD

[MikeL]

I've come across Cisgender and Cissexual before.  They didn't strike me as particularly useful words, and I haven't used them.

 

Chirugion is just one of those spellings that got us from the Latin to Surgeon.  English is like that.

[NotNoNever]

Sheez, how many times ... gender is your sexual identity, the sex your head feels you are. Sex is the bits and bobs of the body.

 

To say you are cisgendered means that your head's notion of your sex matches that of your body. Transgendered means that your head's notion of your sex is different to that of your body.

 

It's a plain statement of facts, not a oneupmanship.

 

Furthermore, it would be inaccurate to call a transgendered person gay if they have the body if a man and the mind of a woman, but are sexually attracted to men. That is actually 'straight', because the body is not the identity, the consciousness (i.e. the mind) is the identity. There are people on here who have the mind of a man and the body of a woman and are sexually attracted to men. That makes them gay, even if the book cover does not match the content.

 

I'd go as far as to suggest to you that it is not the people who claim to be transgendered who are being superior, but people like you who demand your (mis)understanding become the norm, and affect to have everybody live according to a set of parameters just so you can understand. You are basically decrying them for expecting what the rest of us want, i.e. an uncontested space in the world where their specific peculiarities are just as uncontested as your peculiarities or my peculiarities.

 

I do appreciate that you are asking the question, but I don't appreciate the high and mighty tone it is delivered in. You are young and living in a generation where certain things are much more acceptable. For instance, how would you react if someone told you that you could not adopt children or father your own because you don't have a great set of milk jugs and you like taking it up the ass? It would be ridiculous. So is your stance.

 

We cannot expect to be granted an uncontested space in the world if we cannot grant the same grace to others.

[Kibalessthan3]

I'd go as far as to suggest to you that it is not the people who claim to be transgendered who are being superior, but people like you who demand your (mis)understanding become the norm, and affect to have everybody live according to a set of parameters just so you can understand. You are basically decrying them for expecting what the rest of us want, i.e. an uncontested space in the world where their specific peculiarities are just as uncontested as your peculiarities or my peculiarities.

 

I do appreciate that you are asking the question, but I don't appreciate the high and mighty tone it is delivered in. You are young and living in a generation where certain things are much more acceptable. For instance, how would you react if someone told you that you could not adopt children or father your own because you don't have a great set of milk jugs and you like taking it up the ass? It would be ridiculous. So is your stance.

 

We cannot expect to be granted an uncontested space in the world if we cannot grant the same grace to others.

 

I didn't mean to offend with the question, or the tone. The only way i've seen this word used is in a derogatory fashion towards, well, cis people. Such as the infamous "Die cis scum" The trans i've seen use it have meant it as if they were better than everyone else, and so they think it's ok to hate other humans. Or at least thats my take on their tones. Is there also a trans term for homosexual? or lesbian? We're all human on this earth, despite our sexual identity, our gender identity, or our societial identity. Hating on people who aren't like you is wrong, on both sides of the argument. I am pretty conservative in my views, but this isn't the place for politics. Sure, not everyone is as progressive as they should be. Some people still believe in the eternal fire and brimstone that will consume the gays for all eternity! And i can understand the rage that some trans people can exhibit. And they are completely entitled to it, just like everyone else. Just don't lord it over everyone and take it out on the people who are working to try and make the world a better place for everyone. Because they aren't the only ones who deserve rights.

 

We cannot expect to be granted an uncontested space in the world if we cannot grant the same grace to others.

 

^ And that exactly the point i'm trying to get across. ^

[Arpeggio]

I never met a transgendered person who felt they were superior. Most think something is horribly wrong with their body. 

Edited December 28, 2012 by Arpeggio

[Y_B]

Gene, how much do I need to pay you to copy your post, turn it into a term paper, and then sell it to someone taking Gender Studies 101?

[W_L]

Sticks head in...notices its full of gay males and take a seat next to yb and lacey.

 

There are words that stop being hateful after wide use like nigger has become over time from a racist slur to a term of black affirmation and pride. A word is just a few letters on a piece of paper, its meaning comes from human emotions placed on that word.