Cis People Can Be Offended By the Word Cis. Solutions?

Generally, I try to explain to people that cisgender is not meant to be an offensive term towards them. I explain the roots of the word. Generally, then people are more willing to understand.

The only thing that I don't budge on in this is cis people saying that they are normal people, not cis. In that case, I will kindly tell them that they are very wrong, and what they are saying is harmful. Otherwise, I just try to explain why cisgender exists and how it is not an offensive term.

 

Agreed with Brad and Chiroptera above. Cis is merely a classifier, and if more people learned what it meant and why it is used, they would not be offended by it at all.

 

The only time I've seen people get offended at the word "Cis", is when people misunderstand what it means.

I often see:

It's quite a common misunderstanding. Many people think it just means to be gay or something else related to sexuality rather than gender.

Kind of like when people get "gender-fluid" and "bisexual" mixed up.

Ect, ect.

It's understandable really that people would sometimes confuse terms, and I don't blame them. Even if it does make me cringe a little.

 

To me, saying the word 'cis' is offensive is like saying the word 'trans' is offensive. It's a descriptive word, not a slur. Sure, it can be used as an insult but so can other non-insulting descriptive words like gay, trans, or black, etc.

 

They'd rather be known as "normal", or simply "man/woman"...

 

If a person understands what cis means and is still 'offended' by is then I think that's pathetic. Its just a label used to help differentiate between different people. We have labels for everything and cis is, and always will be, one of them. Sure you don't have to state, "I'm a cis-man" every time you meet someone just like you don't have to state that you're trans. When talking specifically about trans and cis people though there needs to be a way to distinguish between them and cis is a perfect word for that, there's nothing offensive about it.

 

Homosexual is just a classification word. I should be able to refer to people as homos without offending them. Negro is just the Spanish word for black. I should be able to refer to black people as Negroes without offending them.

See how this works?

It doesn't matter if a word represents a legitimate classification or not. Any word can become a slur if used in a hateful manner. I'm not saying that "cis" is at the same level as "homo" or "Negro", but there is a very vocal part of the internet that does use cis as an attack word, and I don't think it's right to dismiss that out of hand. Personally, I don't take offense to the term cisgender. I think cisgender is preferable to cis. But, in the future, who knows how language will evolve? It may be the case that cis will be replaced by some other term if it is primarily used to offend.

 

Let's face it: the majority of people do not even know what "cis" means. For the people who do know, some of them use it as an attack, a way to make trans issues an "us vs. them" situation, where cis people are seen as the eternal enemy, the "cis scum" who need to die. Considering that trans people are already around 1% of the population and the percentage of trans people who use "cis" insultingly are an even smaller population (though no doubt vocal on certain platforms, viz. Tumblr), it's hard to see this as much of a threat. It's like trying to change the color of the ocean by putting one drop of dye in. It's just not going to do anything.

And yes, some of the people who dislike the term do not like the fact that there is a label for something they see as "unmarked" and not needing a label.

 

I've always thought the term CIS sounded weird.

 

I can see why some would think it derogatory, especially if they've been dealings with SJW's. The anger and venom that they direct into cis-people and just the term 'cisgender' is very extreme. (BTW, has anyone on here heard of the Reddit 'TumblrinAction'?) I think the connotation has pretty much ruined the term for me. How about using 'Bio-gender'?

 

"Cisgender" to me just always sounds the opposite of what it means. Maybe as it sounds like "mis-gender" or in having a prefix in front of gender (which is already a fairly established concept for the majority of people), it just sounds like it means "contrary to" which probably doesn't help.

I think the real problem with the term is that as cisgender people don't need the term, and don't actively use it, or self-label it, it is weird for them to hear it. People say "I'm trans" or "I'm gay" or even "I'm straight". People don't tend to say "I'm cisgender". To be honest I cannot think of many examples (outside of discussing trans issues) where you would need or use it.

Add to the problem that some people say gay people are "non-cis" (I nearly typed cisgender by accident then!) purely from not being straight, even when many are cisgender, and it is just a bit confusing.

 

This basically

 

If people don't want to be called that don't call them that. I have nothing against the term personally, but you shouldn't label someone as something that hurts their feelings.

 

also this
A very good point made.
I have seen many SJWs use the word Cis to attack a person, making it seem like it is a bad thing that their gender identity and sex align. It ignores the fact that gender is an innate thing we are born with, and that we have no control over what our gender is.

On the flip side I have seen cis-gender people say that they should be called "normal gender", insisting that they are normal and trans people are not. That is when I start to have issues.

 

Most people I see who say they are offended by being called cisgender (and a couple times, allosexual) are the same people who use actual offensive words towards LGBT people. So, too bad for them.

But yeah, maybe some people just don't know what it actually means.

 

I tell anyone who is "offended" by something to stop being a whiny little baby and grow up.

Happy days

 

Retard tumblr words do not offend me in any way. I can only pity people that pay attention to such trivial stuff.

 

Alright guys.... let's all bow our heads solemnly....

For the feels of the cis...