Cisgender
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Cisgender is an adjective[1] indicating that someone identifies with the gender that they were designated at birth. It is a neologism coined as the antonym to "transgender," and its first documented usage was on the Internet in 1994.[2]
Cisgender is a more precise term than "gender-normative", i.e., that someone has a "normal" gender for their assigned sex, as this can be confused with heteronormativity or the application of gender roles.
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[edit] Etymology
The term is derived from a Latin preposition that indicates position relative to the speaker: cis means "on the same side", chosen by analogy to the existing word transgender, itself from trans which means "on the far side." In gender, this refers to whether your gender identity matches your gender designated at birth (i.e., designated female at birth, DFAB, or designated male at birth, DMAB) which helps smooth out any connotations involving "male-bodied" and "female-bodied" terms.
Use of "cis" as a prefix for words related to gender in fact predate this English usage, as the 1914 German text "Lexikon des gesamten Sexuallebens", by medical doctor and LGBTQ+ activist Ernst Burchard,[wp] used the word "cisvestitismus" to refer to people who dress in accordance with the gender society gives them at birth.[3]
Although etymologically unusual, the same terminology has been used in other fields, such as organic chemistry. For example, trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids where the hydrogen atoms on either side of the double-bond lie across from one another, while cis fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids where the hydrogen atoms on either side of the double-bond stand next to each other. In geography, the historical Roman Gaul was divided into Gallia Cisalpina (on the Italian side of the Alps) and Gallia Transalpina , while in South Africa under apartheid there were two "bantustans" on either side of the Great Kei River - Ciskei and Transkei.
[edit] Offensive?
Due to ignorance surrounding the term, some people find "cisgender" to be offensive, but it shouldn't be. Although some transphobes, especially TERFs consider it a slur — something about identity denial, or something. If you do come across someone who doesn't like being called "cisgender", you might ask them how they feel about people being called "heterosexual"; why is one okay and not the other?
[edit] Gallery
[edit] Related terms
- Cissexism, the belief that cisgender people are superior to transgender people. It is the equivalent of heterosexism regarding sexual orientations.
- Cisgender privilege, the transgender analogue to male privilege, white privilege, able-bodied privilege, bourgeois-oppressor privilege, etc.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Try using it in a sentence.
- ↑ Dana Leland Defosse (1994-05-26). "Transgender Research". Posted on alt.transgendered newsgroup.
- ↑ http://www.transadvocate.com/so-i-hear-trans-people-recently-invented-this-whole-cistrans-thing_n_9982.htm