Poll: How do you personally feel about the term cisgender?

[Darks63]

I don't like it it seems like its another rather clinical label that has been subverted to attack people. I put it up there with privilege as words I wish I didn't know the meaning of or internet use if you will since they now just piss me off to different degrees.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

It's good, it's a word that fulfils a needed purpose. Also I imagine TERFs don't like it so it's nice being able to piss them off as a little side benefit. Can people use it to insult others? I guess but people can use "gay" to insult people, doesn't mean nobody says gay. Also it's definitely the sort of stuff that should be thought to be people, especially in schools. I would have preferred to have learnt that things about gender and sexuality that I know now earlier in life.

It's always fun (actually more annoying than fun) when people say things like "you can't just make up words," how do you think words come into being? Also according to Wikipedia the term has been around for 20 years.

 

[vledleR]

I've never found myself in a situation that I've had to use it IRL. All the people I've met call me a man, dude, guy etc. All the forms I've filled I tick "male"; that's the way I was born, and I'm cool with it. Should I be offended?

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I've never found myself in a situation that I've had to use it IRL. All the people I've met call me a man, dude, guy etc. All the forms I've filled I tick "male"; that's the way I was born, and I'm cool with it. Should I be offended?

Nope, just like how I wouldn't be offened if you said that because my gender identity does not matching my birth sex means that I'm transgender. Now if I called you "cishet scum" in a serious manner, that you should offend you, because that's using cisgender and heterosexual in the form of an insult. Then again I once heard a trans person use "cishet scum" unironically against a person and even I was offended by that. Seriously I wanted to smack that woman for saying that.

 

[Darks63]

I said it in another thread, it's equivelant to the word goy in hebrew, it's an okay term inside the group, outside the group in can seem like an insult to others.

I don't like it it seems like its another rather clinical label that has been subverted to attack people. I put it up there with privilege as words I wish I didn't know the meaning of or internet use if you will since they now just piss me off to different degrees.

Have you actually encountered this OFFline?

Privilege, yes went I was going to college. Cis, not yet but give it time before it spills into offline venacular.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

I really don't understand why it bothers people so much. Even if you consider it unnecessary, why should that matter? If it's unnecessary then you are unlikely to be finding yourself in any situations where the word is required. If you are finding yourself in situations where the word is required, then it seems there is a certain necessity to it.

I think initially I took minor umbrage with the word, but thinking back on it, I can't remember why. Outside of the whole "die cis scum" meme there really isn't any insult to it.

Seems like a perfectly legitimate term.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Honestly, I think it's difficult for the lay person to parse what it means.

'Cis' as a prefix doesn't appear in any other word that I can readily command, so being told you're cisgendered without even knowing what that means can be off-putting for some.

Further, it kind of *sounds* like an insult. Not saying that's a good argument, but even if you explain it to someone in context; it sounds unnecessarily redundant if there's nothing else to its face value (i.e.: the gender you're born with is the gender you identify as).

Honestly, calling 'cisgendered' something like 'default gender' might just be a little more clear (and come off as less snobbish).

I'm rather on this end of things myself, I find. I've never heard it be used in my entire life until the whole Tumlbr thing taking hold of it and using it against "white privileged males cause 'oppression'" or something of the sort. I don't mind it as a term. I do, however, mind when it's used in a manner to insult anyone that essentially isn't whatever the current Tumblr user is.

Kyuubi, I didn't read all posts in your past threads, but I don't think I'd call it "De-railed" anyways, mostly cause of what one user here said. It probably didn't have a good discussion outlet. It also probably didn't help a lot of people probably didn't understand the term. Then you get some who simply just got pissy at others. But, then again, maybe I missed a lot more than I thought.

This topic is a little tricky. The world is only recently getting the hang of accepting gay people and not throwing them to the wolves, much like how it used to be. Transgender related stuff is simply going through the same sort of phases. You'll be seeing this sort of thing for awhile. But, seeing how nicely the world is progressing with some of this stuff, it shouldn't be too long until things calm down some. Now, if only Tumblr would stop existing... That'd help

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I went for "unnecessary" as I felt it to be a bit...well, unnecessary, given that 99.8% of people are that way and I didn't necessarily believe it to be a negative or positive term.

But, after taking more than ten seconds to actually parse my feelings on the matter, I'd like to informally change it to a mix between "I think it's a pretty good term" and "I think it's become insulting."

"I think it's a pretty good term," because of the obvious; it provides a means of distinguishing trans folks from their 'opposite.'

"I think it's become insulting," because that's, almost literally, the only way I've ever actually seen the word used. It's almost always thrown in with "white" and "male" as a semi-pejorative.

Essentially, it's all about the context. Ya know. Like with all other words.

 

[Bat Vader]

I think it's literal gibberish. it's pretty much only in usage in science (chemistry and biology) so expecting anyone not a tumblrite to know what the crap is meant by it is hilarious nonsense.

You're probably right, but isn't it sad that our educational system is so shot, that people don't even learn or retain the most basic biology or chemistry?

Beyond that, I've always come at it from Dalek Caan's point of view. What possible harm is there in giving people the benefit of the doubt on this?

It's the same as indulging any other bizarre sub identification like incel or MRA or PUA, they all spout bollocks about other people and they all deserve to be roundly ignored.

I guess all we are missing now is the NRA, PLA, and GLA. Jokes aside I have heard of MRA. Never heard of Incel or PUA before.

In my experience those who are CIS don't have genders...

Spoiler: Roger, roger...

Great, I was saving that joke for a thread like this and you go ahead and use it. Thanks man, thanks a lot. I'm not really angry.

 

[EternallyBored]

I'll admit, I get a certain sort of amusement from the people arguing against the term in this thread, not for any belittling reason, but for the strange sort of parallel going on here. I've heard stories of the transgender community from older individuals who were around when the term Transsexual was first coined and spread into the common vernacular in the 1960's.

A lot of the same arguments being used here against cisgender as a common term were used against transgender/transsexual when it first started popping up. The general community saw it as a cold clinical term forced on them by ivory tower intellectuals that would just be used to diagnose them as mentally ill, different, or inferior in some fashion. There was also criticism against the term for it spreading as just an insult, much like terms like cis scum, and cissie get used by people on the internet, trans and trannie were used as evidence that transgender was a slur that shouldn't be adopted by the community as a whole. Since the transgender community was a tiny minority, they couldn't really stop it, so they tried to adapt the term as best they could, eventually changing transsexual into the slightly less insulting sounding transgender.

So yeah, it is sort of funny seeing people use the same reasoning for arguing against using cisgender as a term that transgender people used to argue against transgender as a label decades ago.

More on-topic: it is a servicable term, that like many things on the internet gets way overused, like a persistent meme. The easily offended on both sides of the debate tend to use it in stupid ways.

As another poster said earlier, it is a word that is rarely needed, only really in circumstances where you need to differentiate between transgender and non-transgender populations, so outside of a few small corners of the internet and various academic or research fields, it's not a term that really should come up often enough that we should really care that much about it. If you find yourself running into it a lot, then you probably are either spending a lot of time discussing transgender issues, or you need to spend less time on the darker corners of the internet.

 

[happyninja42]

Don't really care one way or the other. It's a word, used to define a broad cross section of humanity, just like dozens of other words that people use.

Some people are offended by it, some aren't, just like dozens of others. Considering I've had gay friends, and random people on the internet, tell me that the following words are both offensive, and also the correct term for describing a homosexual, I just chalk it up to "Nobody can really figure out one damn word to define anyone".

Queer
Fag
Gay
All 3 of these are apparently simultaneously offensive, and also "the right term to use to describe us", that I've just given up bothering one way or the other. Call yourselves whatever the fuck you want, call me whatever the fuck you want. I don't associate anything negative to cisgender at all, it's just a word used to try and define me. So knock yourself out, call me cis all you want, until you decide to call me something else. I really don't give a damn.

Also, I've never seen the word used in a direct insult phrase, like "You damn cis!" "Stupid cisgender!" like I've seen the same phrases, but with fag or queer replaced, so saying it's an insult seems odd to me. It's all about context, and in my experience, the context of using the word itself, is simply a descriptor. I've seen plenty of people use the word in insulting statements, that are blanket declaration of behavior. "All you cisgenders act like it's all about you, none of you care about anybody elses problems. You have no idea what our lives are like" But to me, the context of that insulting statement has nothing to do with the word "cisgender". It would be equally insulting if they used "heterosexual" or "straight". So again, the word itself doesn't bother me. It's the potential asshole using the word that I have an issue with.

 

[JimB]

So what do you all think?

It is a word that describes a real thing, so I'm good with it. I think the real thing it describes is a concept we need to have a word for just to avoid othering the trans community, so...yeah. I'm okay with it and think we should keep it.

 

[Shadow flame master]

I couldn't give a shit less about it if it wasn't for the fact that I us Tumblr too. Besides, whenever the word is brought up, it is followed by "white guy," and seeing as I am a black guy, the word apparently has nothing to do with me.

 

[Kingjackl]

It works well enough. "Trans" is a commonly accepted term, it makes sense we should have an alternative to refer to people who identify as their physical gender as well.

 

[lunavixen]

Well it's an accurate, if clinical term. I'm not cisgender (I'm pretty sure I'm genderqueer, I don't really identify as female, but I don't identify as male either), but I have no problem with people using the term as long as it's not used in a pejorative manner (like how some people use the terms 'queer' or 'trans' as pejorative terms). To be honest, I find cisgender less offensive than "normal" as a term because "normal" implies that those that aren't, need fixing.

 

[EyeReaper]

I don't really have a problem with the word itself, Though, like others, I have felt that it seems to carry some negative connotations in the more backwaters area of the internet.

However, anyone or anything that tries to pass off "cisplaining" (or mansplaining orany other -splaining, if there are any) As an actual way of deflecting criticism or silencing opinions can go fuck themselves with a rusty spork sideways.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Also, I've never seen the word used in a direct insult phrase, like "You damn cis!" "Stupid cisgender!" like I've seen the same phrases, but with fag or queer replaced, so saying it's an insult seems odd to me. It's all about context, and in my experience, the context of using the word itself, is simply a descriptor. I've seen plenty of people use the word in insulting statements, that are blanket declaration of behavior. "All you cisgenders act like it's all about you, none of you care about anybody elses problems. You have no idea what our lives are like" But to me, the context of that insulting statement has nothing to do with the word "cisgender". It would be equally insulting if they used "heterosexual" or "straight". So again, the word itself doesn't bother me. It's the potential asshole using the word that I have an issue with.

Never seen the phrase "die cis scum"?

OT: I agree with Senordesol [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.875373-Poll-How-do-you-personally-feel-about-the-term-cisgender#22009637]. As a descriptive word it's pretty bad, because to know what it means most people will need it explained to them.

I had never heard the prefix 'cis' ever before in my life, so for months I would see the term 'cisgender' and just figured it was some new faction of internet trangenders until I finally decided to look it up.

Ideally a descriptive word that is hoping to see use in the common language would draw from the common language so as to be understandable by the average person.

Beyond that the term just feels like a re branding of the vast majority of the population by a tiny minority, and that's probably a reason why quite a few people find it insulting. That's made worse by the fact that it's a word foreign to common speech that most gender normal people wouldn't have even considered using to describe themselves. It's like the transgender community is coming out and saying "No you guys, we all define ourselves by our gender identity in relation to our birth sex and so you all have to as well. And here is what we have decided to call you." Not saying that's what happened, but that's what it feels like.

 

[Mong0]

Considering how often I've seen it used to dismiss the beliefs of people someone disagrees with, often in a sort of smug and self righteous way, I'm going to say that I think its insulting. That doesn't mean that needs to stop being used though; sticks and stones and all that.

 

[Mong0]

Considering how often I've seen it used to dismiss the beliefs of people someone disagrees with, often in a sort of smug and self righteous way, I'm going to say that I think its insulting. That doesn't mean that needs to stop being used though; sticks and stones and all that.

Do you blame all tools for the way they're sometimes used?

I'll change my opinion of it when I start to hear it used properly; something that I've yet to experience even once.

 

[FPLOON]

Meh... I wouldn't know... I only seem to use that word online when my comments imply that I'm "cis"ing about yet again...

But seriously, I would probably only use that word [to describe myself] when it's actually relevant to the conversation... and that's about it... *gets back to "cis"ing about yet again*