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!)

We need to fix society

Lovely, but what does it actually mean ? Does it mean anything at all ?

What is broken ?
What's the fix ?
How are you going to ensure that in fixing bits you don't break other bits ?

LadyStark Sorry, I haven't, I study astrophysics, might be why. Can I get "radical feminist who haven't put 2+2 together yet as my post count?" I agree with you, ideally, I just don't think that we will ever get to a point where everyone is fully happy with their bodies, so it's fair that they want to change. People change their hair colour, boob size, piercings etc etc. Ideally, that would be amazing, but I think it's fair enough, I mean, people have always altered their body.

Oh no. Now Sorena's going to bang on about the fixing.

Blistory Hmm well for starters I would get rid of the gendered school uniforms, and the idea that if you have female bits, you wear a dress, and if you have male bits, you wear shorts and a shirt. The fix would be a more gender neutral society (another example: very gendered baby clothes), where people were free to present in a way they wanted, and were comfortable with. Obv. hypermasculinity. Gender neutral restrooms. The whole idea that transwomen are men, I get where you are coming from, I just don't like people actually repeating it, 'cause it has the potential to seriously hurt people, and imo it doesn't benefit everyone. What else? Well I mean, maybe those bits we break are the good things? I can't imagine we could make it worse. What is broken? Gender is broken. Seperating people into binary boxes is broken.

Monkeys You bet. But I mean, no one is forcing you to read the thread.

separating people into binary boxes is broken

Except that it is quite useful from a medical point of view to differentiate between men and women.

The more you post sorena the more you sound like a gender critical feminist and the further you get from your earlier posts.
Do you know it's totes transphobic to refer to 'female bits and male bits'?

Maryz I'm terribly sorry if I misquoted you, maybe I lost track of what I am saying. I would like to apologise for that. Ignorant and transphobic, depends on what exactly you are referring to. I mean, I am ignorant about a lot of topics to, and if you are not trans, you can't really completely relate to it. Transphobic, I'm sure you won't be to an actual transperson's face, which is the most important thing, what your opinions are is your issue, so yeah, I don't remember what you are referring to (this thread has become so long) but apologies for misquoting you and calling you transphobic. Ignorant, I mean, I am ignorant about gender stuff too, I really don't understand it, since I haven't done any gender studies, which is why I often hestitate when replying people, because I don't understand it either. Hope you can accept my apology.

LadyStark Obviously those are not the correct terms, but if people consider them transphobic I will use other terms to express myself. Can you explain to me how they are transphobic so I can avoid it in the future?

merrymouse Agree, certainly.

One thing I'd like you to ask about, Sorena, on your journey to radical feminism, is: Why are girls & women socialised to give way to the males?

If a woman speaks more than 25% of the time in a mixed group, she's perceived as gobby & overbearing.

If a woman walks straight along the pavement, not giving way to oncomers, she attracts actual aggression.

If a woman disagrees with a man in a mixed group, she's often told by both sexes that she's wrong, hasn't considered all the variables, etc. If she was in fact right, a man will often repeat her opinion as his own and be supported.

And so on (you can check the above out via Google.)

Get your head around the general issue first. Then you might see the connection between this 'squeezing' phenomenon, and our resistance to being pushed into an externally-defined category.

Sorry for triple posting...

LadyStark Well I'd take gender critical feminist as a compliment, so thank you. I am certainly critical of gender, believes it does a lot of unecessary harm, and I am a feminist through and through. I believe in equal rights and oppurtunities of the sexes/genders.

Thanks for replying, Sorena.

There is absolutely nothing I can say to you that won't sound patronising so let's just continue to tread different paths.

We could start by banning gender; female, male, agender, queer, whatever. Ban the lot.

I think that "gender" as a word is useful, because we have to be able to talk about what we want to abolish.

Am totally in favour of banning the actual thing, gender. But I think it wouldn't work, we have to ban the smaller parts it consists of specifically or people can argue that giving more attention to boys in the classroom isn't part of gender, or that socialising girls to hate their bodies is not part of gender, etc.

Sorena again - your own language is apologetic, you know? You've been 'squeezed' without knowing it!

If you want to be gender neutral, try leaving out "just", "I think", "like" and "right?" as punctuation. Never apologise for your opinion - unless you are making a real apology, of course. Stop caring whether people approve of your views or not; no-one can be liked by everyone!

I bet that just doing this will make you feel stronger. Once you're used to it, you'll start noticing how respect works in conversations :)

Garlic This might be going off of a tangent, but I believe religion is to blame a lot. It teaches women to be submissive. In other cultures women and men are a lot more equal and have completely different gender roles.

I do understand the resistance to being pushes into an externally-defined category. No one should have to be.

Sorry, I'm not really sure if we are arguing the same thing.

I am sure gender will apologise to you and the rest of the world for being so harmful. I would hope it would be able to see the error of its ways...

Garlic I can apologise if I have legit hurt someone, so I am not apologising for having an opinion, that won't change. I am being squeezed because people are more likely to have a civil discussion this way, and I do find it a really interesting topic that I quite like to discuss. I still disagree with people, not the cis thing, that's new to me, but I mean, fair enough, but their argument that transwomen are not real women, that transmen don't pass, that transwomen shouldn't be allowed in female restrooms, that transmen are women.

Yeah, Sorena, I don't know of any religion that isn't heavily patriarchal. All the big ones are, for sure. You can't view religions as separate entities from societies; they inform and shape all the cultures so they're inextricable from the whole.

Oh FFS, I wasn't going to critique your posts but then you come out with wide eyed crap like this

Can you explain to me how they are transphobic so I can avoid it in the future?

Stop being a sheep and stand up for yourself. Do your own critical thinking. Just because someone calls it transphobic really doesn't mean that it is. Before you willingly accept labels being pinned on you, do some research, decide what the label means, decide whether it applies to you.

Maryz I don't have time to look up the fact, but I do believe that transpeople who transition and pass as the gender they identify as, are much happier than if they hadn't. But yes, transpeople are not born in the wrong body, if you identify as a woman then you have a woman's body, that there is nothing wrong with, but wanting to alter it is perfectly legit, imo.