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

[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*

 

[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.

Do you base all of your opinions only on your own personal experiences? I mean... that seems kind of untenable to me.

Yes, I do. I also recognize that it need not be an insult, but the OP asked how I felt about it, not what I thought that it was. Additionally, a words association with such use is precisely how they become derogatory. Unless you're willing to defend words like retard on the same grounds, then you're not being entirely consistent.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Its just spite, isn't it? It was a term coined out of spite because people kept calling non-trans people "Normal"

I dunno...its kinda like physically handicapped people coining a derogatory term for people with working legs or all their fingers. Like I get it can piss handicapped off to not be considered normal, but surely the whole point of the term 'handicapped' is to imply they can't do at least one normal, usually every day task like walking or something. Not to put too fine a point on this, but that is why we differentiate between the handicapped and the non handicapped.

I get that trans people don't like getting their feelings hurt; no one does. But it is an abnormal psychological(and occasionally physical) condition. Its not bad! There's nothing wrong with it at all! But the average human being is not trans. So to coin a whole new term when the words normal or average work perfectly well...

I see no reason for the term outside of insults.

 

[templar1138a]

Well, the opinion I have on the term isn't in your poll. The term requires some getting used to, but it is correct, and that's good enough for me. And I sometimes have to state it quite openly when dealing with people - cis or trans - who seem to take issue with my being a straight, cisgendered male.

As I see it, there are a number of people who seem to be of the opinion that you're either a gender-fluid pansexual or you're a bigot. They don't understand that there's a difference between tolerance and total embracing. I wish I could find a video clip of the South Park episode where Mr. Garrison explains that difference. The gist of it: Just because you tolerate something doesn't mean you have to like it. You tolerate a baby crying in the seat next to you on an airplane. Honestly, trans people make me uncomfortable on a base level, but I'm alright with the distinction between trans and cis and recognize the rights of both.

The only issue I have with the terms as they are is that they're clunky and difficult to shorten. "Tranny" is now considered an insulting slur (does no one remember "shemale"?), so you can't say that. Honestly, I wouldn't care if someone were to refer to me as a "Cissy" if I could say "Tranny" in the same everyday tone in which people say "gay".