To not really know what 'cis' means?

[BinarySearchTree]

I mean, of course I've looked it up, and I nod along whenever anyone describes me as cis.

But I don't really know what it means. I am a woman. I experience the world as a woman. I look like a woman and I am happy to be described as a woman. I could not be described as a tomboy. I support women's rights and equality.

But I wouldn't say I 'identify' with the female gender. I find it quite constraining and oppressive. But I would say I am a woman. Am I cis? Am I not? I don't understand!

Excellent explanation of the evolution of 'cis', pisacake.

I would add that transgender ideology could not have gotten as far as it has without the word 'gender' itself, which is a weasel word that is widely used as both a synonym for sex AND to refer to sex-role stereotypes. This double meaning allows transgender activists to position their campaign to eliminate sex as a legal and social category as somehow progressive and revolutionary, when it fact it is the elimination of sex roles that is revolutionary, while sex remains an immutable fact of our existence.

Feminists made a huge mistake when they started using 'gender' in place of the original phrase, 'sex roles'. Take away the word 'gender' and a lot of the trans arguments are exposed for the sexist nonsense they are:

'I don't conform to the gender that society has imposed on me'

vs.

'I don't conform to the sex roles that society has imposed on me'

Thank you Pisaake and DonkeySkin.

When and how did 'gender' come into use? I've never been comfortable with it. It feels like being asked an opinion or a self evaluation on myself and I'm not introspective on such matters. Certainly not enough to grade myself beyond just being a woman.

I've only been called cis once, and I'm afraid I yelled at the person who did it. Poor teenage dd, not sure she's really forgiven me, but I think it was important to let her know that I really have a problem with gender ideology being imposed on me (and I'm not alone). I have also been told that I 'identify' as a woman, and I let those people know I object to that too.

Anyway according to Stonewall I'm probably trans as they have given the word such a broad interpretation as to almost be almost completely meaningless. I've also done a few gender quizzes and come out as 'biologically male' which is obviously bunkum.

Is it any different to being called 'neurotypical'?

I dislike both

Respect people's prefixes motherfuckers.

Or indeed their right to assert that they don't need a prefix at all because the word woman alone describes, perfectly and succinctly, exactly what they are and how they were born. No further explanation needed.

It seems the concept of respecting other people's right to choose how they define only swings one way with some.

Being described as "cis" annoys me too.

On a staff forum online at work, a couple of transgender people tried explaining it to me, to which I asked why it was necessary. (I work in a large public sector business). They said it was to identify people who then identify with the sex they were born with. So I asked, most people do identify with the sex they were born into! Only a tiny minority do not! It's called gender dysmorphia!

I hate labels. It's pigeonholing people into certain roles. If I took the traditional view of what being female meant, I wouldn't be doing the job I do. If a person is trans, or "gender fluid" (shudder) then I ok, I won't make assumptions, but stop pigeonholing ME!

It seems the concept of respecting other people's right to choose how they define only swings one way with some.

Right? Gender identitarians insist you must never impose a gender identity on someone without their consent, yet they are determined to impose 'cis' on women who are explicitly saying they don't consent to it.

I think the reason they do that is because, now that they have claimed 'women' for male people, they need a way to refer to the people previously known as women; that is, the people with vaginas.

So what 'cis' actually does is point to women's genitals. While trans ideologues insist that it's unbearably rude to ask whether a trans-identified male still has his penis, and say 'Why do you need to know what's in someone's pants?', they label us as 'cis', which gives away what's in our pants by default.

And it's very telling that 'cis' (i.e., vagina-ed women) is often used in derogatory or dismissive fashion, I might add. When they call us 'cis' they actually mean, 'those lowly and/or privileged creatures with vaginas'.

I mean, of course I've looked it up, and I nod along whenever anyone describes me as cis.

Well, you could always stop nodding along and ask for clarification.

I haven't had the pleasure stupidity of being described as 'cis' yet, but I'm locked and loaded for if/when it happens. 🔫🔫🔫

They'll never take me alive.

It's a scientific term that is misused to put women back in their boxes.
It's a nonsense word that has absolutely nothing to do with sex or gender.
I'm a woman.
I'm not a cis woman.

I think the point is that the majority get not to be prefixed, which is a privilege.
So in this case the minority have decided to show them what it feels like for your normal to become a label that defines you as other.

It doesn't really bother me .

In this whole debate around the Gender recognition Act I'm grateful to mumsnet feminists for opening my mind to the extremism of some of the transgender community. After much reading and thought I think I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking that there's a compromise needed.

It's the new laws around self indentification that are the problem. The fact that the Act has taken away completely the burden of proof or medical, pathological and social proof that transition is real. So it seems obvious that instead of the demands that were made previously, that were emotionally and socially degrading for some trans individuals there needs to be a compromise process, that is serious enough that it deters the opportunistic and the mentally ill but is not traumatising for the genuine.

Is that a train of thought that can de polarise this debate?

You should correct people if they refer to you as cis. Just as they would if you refered to them as deluded.

I have trans friends. They are just as horrified at what is going on as I am.
I saw a poster put it in a great way in a different thread, they pretty much said that women have always invited trans women into their spaces on a trust basis. On a night out a transwoman can quite easily apply their lippy and use the ladies toilets. No One really gave a shit, but now, we have people that don't even try to 'pass' lunging at 60 year old women that want to keep some sensitive spaces penis free. (Rape units, prisons, children's changing facilities)
It's not right. A few men wanting it all are putting women in danger. Again.

Cis woman
Trans woman

This is the terminology now, according to an email I got at work recently. Not transwoman; trans woman. I would guess the next terminology will be t woman and c woman. Followed by - woman. And with the GRC, it will finally be illegal to call the 50 year old who decided to transition aged 49 anything but a woman.

I hate the term 'cis' TBH. I feel like, to me, it's pretty offensive.

I'm female, people would still identify me as a female but do I identify with the gender of being a woman?

Well...I have long hair, wear make up and sometimes dresses. I like kittens, chocolate and throwing parties.

I'm also very unemotional, I rarely cry, I'm annoyingly logical, ambitious, work in a traditional male field, am the breadwinner, not the primary carer of our DC and tend towards the selfish rather than nurturing/pleasing.

Gender is bollocks IMO so I reject the term 'cis' because I reject that I identify with some weird social construct of what a woman is supposed to be like.

Oh come on, do we really have to bring this to AIBU??

The urban dictionary's definition seem pretty accurate

Short for cis-gendered, meaning someone who identifies with the sex they were born as. Typically used by whiny tumblr users who complain about not being accepted for who they are and yet bash these "cis" people for being born and being okay with the sex they were born with.

Who keeps calling you this that it’s a problem op? And how have you missed the endless discussion about it on here?

Annandale did you tell your workplace that you object to the term cis?

It's an offensive term often applied to those born female.

Cis and trans are chemical terms to describe the same chemical molecule built in two different ways, one is a mirror image of the other if you like, but both containing the same atoms.

Some smart arse has decided to apply it to describing gender and/or sex of an individual.

I find it offensive because it defines me as woman in relation to something I'm not and therefore don't need.

Cis, for me, is the same as non trans....

I don't need it.

I am a woman..... as shown below, enjoy.

I'm 53, do I have to identify as anything?

I am transsexual.

If we have people who are gay, they would say that there are also straight people.

If we have people who are transsexual, then there are also people who are....

I have no idea what the appropriate term is that is acceptable to people.