to think Mumsnet should delete posts in which women are called cis

[violetsarentblue]

I (and I imagine quite a lot of women on here) are fed up with being referred to as cis. I find the term deeply insulting.
I'm a woman and prefer to be addressed as a 'woman', not a cis woman.

I noticed MN are quick to delete posts where transgender people are called 'he' instead of 'she', because that group of people find the term insulting and MN don't want to offend.

Generally we delete posts in which people persistently refuse to refer to people by the pronoun (he/she; him/her) by which they’ve asked to be referred, out of respect for that individual’s wishes.

Please - could we have the same depth of consideration for our wishes?

Thank you.

I think cis is fine, what I don't like is when it's used as an insult.

I don't like it when "gay" is used as an insult either.

Or "short".

Lots of words are OK when used descriptively but not when used as an insult.

Stillunexpected, in the same way that you wouldn't call yourself nurotypical (if you are) or heterosexual (if you are), you wouldn't refer to yourself as 'cis', unless in was in context.

howtorebuild

But woman is the only word needed. No qualifiers are required.

Here's an article which attempts to explain why 'cis' people need to check their privilege and be careful not to be cissexist.

everydayfeminism.com/2015/11/common-examples-cissexism/

Trills is correct. Cis- is not an insult, nor is it a made-up word; it is a prefix deriving from Latin, just as trans- is. There is a definition here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender
I have no problem with being called cis, any more than I have a problem with being called a woman.
Men can also be cisgender.
I'm surprised, in fact, that so many people on MN don't seem to have heard the word before.

Not made up, CFSwoman - cis- and trans- are prefixes used in organic chemistry!

If I afford the courtesy of using posters' preferred pronouns - which I do - then I expect the same courtesy back. So I will report any repeated use of cis, in the same way I'd report any repeated misuse of pronouns. If we all report, and mnhq always deletes, then it will just become the way things are done , no?

If it's ok we'll just say "non-cis" instead. Job done.

As a prefix, it just means on the same side as, in the context of 'cis woman' it would mean a woman whose gender and sex matched.

OP I haven't RTFT, but I genuinely don't mind being called cis if it's just a description, not a derogatory term. It's interesting and relevant I think that so many people who aren't used to being labelled are objecting fiercely to labels when the people doing the labelling put up with labels every day. If we don't like it (though I don't care at all so far) maybe that should teach us something about why they are fed up of it.

I think the comparison with neurotypical is a good one. Neurotypical just means "not autistic". Cis just means "not trans".

Neither neurotypical nor cis are used as insults or forms of abuse.

As "he"! my fingers disobeyed my brain!

And context is the word that wasn't rolling to the correct part of my brain. It's all about context.

Worra has just reminded me, I need to shine my shoes.

Still, some people would call you a ciswoman as opposed to a woman. If you reject that, it might be for a number of reasons:

• perhaps you don't think that transwomen are simply women and therefore there is no need to specify that you are a ciswoman - all women are women or transwomen; the term woman has existed for time immemorial to describe people like you and it doesn't need changing

• I object to it for slightly different reasons. It's an expression that means "your internal sense of gender identity matches the sex of your body at birth". This is simply not the case for me. Gender is a social construct that has always felt profoundly wrong and insulting to me, in terms of the behaviour that is expected of me as a result of my assigned gender. In that sense I am not cis, and just because I have become accustomed to walking around with a woman's name and wearing dresses doesn't mean that I am comfortable with other wider associations and demeaning implications of femininity and my position in society, particularly vis a vis stupid men who adopt an instinctive position of patronising superiority towards me; and my rejection of it is socially problematic and usually punished; alternatlvely my sometime attempted docility towards it results in psychological back lash and mental health fallout

• I also object to the assumption of "cis unless stated otherwise" DON'T FUCKING ASSUME

• I'm not shouting at you lot by the way but at jumped up snivelling whining white boys who have invented "cis privilege" without having a fucking clue what it's like walking in a woman's shoes for 44 years, from the very beginning

Who the hell apart from me knows if my sex and 'gender' match anyway?

Still - it's a prefix, so on the side of whatever word follows it. So Cisalpine Gaul = Gaul on 'our' side of the Alps from the Roman point of view. Transalpine Gaul - Gaul on the other side of the Alps, from the Roman point of view (i.e. the bit of Gaul that's north of the Alps) (gaul = France, more or less).

I'm surprised people haven't seen it on MN. It's all I read on here atm along with the odd smattering of parking whinges and gripes about Christmas.

FWIW, I don't particularly like it either and would prefer that it wasn't part of the MN lexicon.

If it's used as an insult then yes it should be deleted.

The only time I see it on mn is posters demanding that no one call them cis no one did, you brought it up
The other time is during a relevant discussion but just to make the discussion easier to follow.

Thank you all, I must be a bit tired and am going to bed now.

eastwest, I think we get the latin derivation. But like trans, it is now culturally specific massively loaded term.

So much bullshit in that link, Hairy

(14). I am a tall not-trans woman with large feet, i buy men's clothes or make my own because nothing in mainstream stores fits. No fucking privilege or sexism about that.

(16) has happened to me as a teen with 'unusual' clothing choices. No biggie.

(17) i am regularly mistaken for a man, even to the point of being asked if I was in the wrong loos at a service station. No-one is mortified.

Sorry...

...it is now a culturally specific ...

'Cis just means "not trans".'

I thought woman would cover that well enough.

I don't need to state I'm not trans, and should a situation ever arise where I felt the need to do so, I'd say I'm not trans. Cis implies my 'gender' and sex are matched. As it is my genitals have no bearing on my personality and my 'gender' is the box I've been pushing against for as long as I've been aware of it. I've had enough of labels.

Yanbu

It doesn't make discussion clearer either, because the prefix is unnecessary. The opposite of transwoman is erm...being a woman.