Banning the term "cis"

[OlennasWimple]

Apologies if this had already been done, but can MNHQ consider banning the term "cis", given how horrifically offensive so many users of MN find it?

I don't think I need to set out the background and reasoning to this request (but can do so if it would help!)

So cis is short for cisgender (like trans is short for transgender) and it's only really relevant if you're needing to make that distinction. It's a subgrouping. I wouldn't refer to someone as (for example) an older woman unless that was relevant to the conversation in some way (to distinguish her from a younger woman; to reference her life experiences, perhaps). Similarly I'd only refer to myself - or someone else - as a cis woman if I particularly wanted to make reference to experiences I've had that a trans woman necessarily wouldn't, or vice versa. It's a useful word!

Rhymes with sail Derek.

My very working class parents grew it in the 80s. Grew like wildfire too.

stars what's wrong with using "woman" and "trans woman"?

Cote-
I'm lucky enough that I identify as the gender that I was assigned at birth and that I appear to be. I am aware there are plenty of different meanings to gender and that there are many ways to be female, male, both, neither or other. Generally I refer to myself as a woman, because that is what I identify as. However if I was discussing trans issues then I would use the word cis when relevant.

I don't state that I am naturally blonde in every conversation either, to give a trivial example, but in a conversation about hair dye it would become relevant so I would refer to it.

On Call me Cait they pronounce cis as sis.

Thanks for the quick responses! I'm going to report this thread so MNHQ see it

(I also agree with EatShitDerek's list, but probably ones for a separate thread )

In certain circumstances I refer to myself as myself as cis. It's a useful shorthand description. Being cis is the norm, but to describe myself as normal would be saying that those who are non-cis are not normal - that would be nasty.
OP, go find yourself a grip.

Thanks stars- that's really helpful

'Woman' = all people who identify as adult females

'Trans/cis/tall/blonde/disabled/whatever' = sub categories within 'woman'

Most women are cis. Most women are also able bodied. Doesn't mean that saying someone is able bodied in a conversation about disability disrespects them or invalidates their experience. Or, indeed, makes them more oppressed than disabled people.

It is getting all too confusing. I miss the days when I could know whether someone was a woman just by checking for earrings in their ears.

I am a woman. I am offended by the cis prefix.

It is very strange, that in blurring the gender/sex definitions, in an attempt to make us all more equal, I think? We need so many more labels.

purple because it means that women by definition can never be trans women, and vice versa. Which TBH I suspect is why a lot of people here seem to dislike the word; for me, I don't see any problem with trans women being one kind of women and cis women being another (and the vast majority), like women who don't use Mumnet are one kind of women, and women who can't resist getting involved in contentious threads are another ;)

I've got a grip fine, thanks Annie

I find the term offensive; lots of other posters find the term offensive. If it was a term used to describe someone's race, class or disability and lots of people to whom the term might arguably apply said they found it offensive, I doubt there would be so many people dismissing it as something that we should just "get over"

So if a load of straight people started saying that we don't need the word straight as we can just use normal, would that be OK?

No. Because the people with less power - the lgbt+ people - get their voices amplified by the allies with power - the non dick head straight people.

I find cis a useful word when specifically discussing trans issues and would happily use it to describe myself. I obviously don't use it in everyday circumstances! If another poster asked me not to use it to describe them I'd obviously respect that, as I'd hope they'd respect my use of it to describe myself. You can't ban it, but it might be useful to explain somewhere - if MN hasn't already - that not everyone is comfortable with it (outside of MN I don't know anyone who objects to cis so I can easily imagine someone using it without realising it's controversial).

The term "cis" is offensive?? It literally means you identify as the sex you were born as. It's not offensive in the slightest.

Who says lgbt have less power than women though? It's oppressed minority (or majority) in both cases.

I didn't say that, I compared straight people to lgbt+ people. Which I think is undisputed.

It's literally just the linguistic opposite of trans (“across,” “beyond,” “through,”) - cis ("on this side of"). Both Latin.

The term "cis" is not neutral and harmless. It's deeply loaded, and mainly used to set up a false dichotomy with spurious reasoning and wank on about ridiculous concepts like "cis-sexism" and "cis-privilege".

Well, no it doesn't actually. Cis literally means "on the same side".

I don't like it because they're fast becoming 'dirty' words. They are used in chemistry for a specific reason and I don't want it to get to the point when we have to use different words academic because a load of keyboard warriors have redefined them!

You can't compare gay/straight with women/trans women (ie biological men). False analogy.

Why can't we just use

Woman
Trans woman.

And that's it.

Why do we now need a prelude when we have just fine with out one till now?

I find it highly offensive.

I am a woman. Nothing else thank you very much.

That's ridiculous. It's not used to piss you off, it's used only in context to describe someone assigned to the gender they identify with because writing cis is quicker.

I do not identify with the gender I am assigned by people around me.

As this has been said before, by someone who is better with words than I am, here is a quote:

^"I do not identify with being silent

I do not identify with being pink

I do not identify with being soft

I do not identify with being scared

I do not identify with being weak

I do not identify with being submissive

I do not identify with being irrational

I do not identify with being hysterical

I do not identify with being bad at maths

I do not identify with being unintelligent

I do not identify with being followed

I do not identify with being grabbed

I do not identify with being assaulted

I do not identify with being raped

I do not identify with being inferior

I do not identify with being a woman as society has created it.

I do not identify as cis. I am not cis. I am a woman trying to fight with every fibre of my being against everything that my “gender identity” tells me to be. Woman as defined by society is not my gender identity. My gender identity is fuck this oppressive bullshit, and let me be a human fucking being".
—

Week Feminist - A Pox on the Patriarchy^

I am not cis.