cis is an abusive term

[Horridemma]

I don't want to be called a 'cis' nor referred to as 'cis' in any sort of patronising way. Not sure if I really understand but from the way it is bandied about it does not sound good.

I am a woman not a 'cis'

SeniorRita

I'm with @PipGirl404 - I can't find it offensive at all and it certainly isn't hate speech. Never heard such nonsense.

All the things people are saying it 'mean' or 'implies', as far as I can see this is all in your heads.

I wonder why you would think that? Do you normally encounter people who raise fictitious issues for no reason?

The word cis is consistently used as a slur.

This screenshot is from a group set to identify and oust people who were questioning the trans-ideology from the Labour Party.

Their woman's officer is included in the group. Their remit is to attract as many women as possible to the party. They are a 19-year-old biological male.

Also, @SeniorRita you don't agree with me as I don't agree with myself at the start of this thread.

Knowledge is power and I will not have a label plastered on me.

Also, @SeniorRita you don't agree with me as I don't agree with myself at the start of this thread.

Using something as a slur is not the same as it being a slur in general though. I can see that the examples given are clearly slurs, but the word itself is not.

I can call you a banana, as a slur, that doesn't make the word 'banana' a slur itself, does it.

Sorry Pip, for misrepresenting you, I hadn't picked up your view change.

How would a word be used if not in practice though? Words in a vacuum aren't anything, but words are never in a vacuum.

@SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace - of course they have to be used to exist.

The premise of this thread is that in every way and every context it is an abusive term. I don't see it that way.

I agree it can be used offensively, and have seen it used that way (usually by people in an argument) but it is not always.

When isn't it?

It's interesting that 'tranny' is agreed as a slur. It literally is a diminutive of the word transgender or transexual. So the intended meaning is accurate. It's clearly that the way it is used and the intent of the user is pejorative. It's associated with scorn. It has connotations of disrespect. is mostly rejected by transgender people as a word which feels demeaning. So it is a slur.

We can think of racial terms which follow similar rules.

(Although sometimes people reclaim those words themselves, it is still not acceptable for them to be used against another person like a weapon)

Terf is used in exactly the same way as any other slur.

It is used against others in a demeaning and pejorative way. It is rejected by the recipients. It is commonly understood to have negative connotations.

The major difference I can see is this : its also a lie. It's applied to people who are NOT radical feminists. It's cast at people who DON'T exclude transmen from female spaces or feminism. And it's cast almost exclusively at biological females.

If a word has unwarranted negative connotations and/or is intended to marginalise the person it is being used to label, is rejected by the recipient and is in fact an untruth, I think it ticks all the boxes to qualify as a slur.

applauds Barracker exactly right.

I can call you a banana, as a slur, that doesn't make the word 'banana' a slur itself, does it.

As with most words, it very much depends on context. 'Banana' is certainly a slur used against a group of people I used to work with - in the same way that 'Coconut' is. The thing is, that banana and coconut can be used to refer to actual bananas and coconuts (who, being vegetation, don't mind that, as they don't have minds), and are sometimes used offensively to refer to people with atttitudes that other people don't like.

TERF, and cis are words that are imposed upon people who do have minds, and do mind it, just like people do when the names of fruits and vegetables (or herbs) are used as slurs about them. There is no innocuous context to the words, the common usage is to put people in a box they don't want to be in - JUST like using banana and coconut as slurs.

Is cis a slur? Yes.

Using cis in association with women is attaching an assumed group identity to a huge category of people on the basis that because they share reproductive anatomy, they also share a similar identity or brain type or comfort level with their subordinate sex role, or whatever we're currently inventing as the meaning of gender identity.

That's a slur on all women.

The reason I believe it's offensive is that it's impossible for one woman to adopt cis for herself individually without it extrapolating meaning onto all other women.

If I decare there is an association between a group of people sharing a physical characteristic and their mental state, I'm implicating all those other people in my false belief when I go around blithely claiming I'm an example of this association.

For CIS to exist, it literally HAS to refer to something else associated with female anatomy.

I don't see how the word cis is offensive? It means a person who's gender matches up with their birth sex, a male born with a penis is " cis " and a woman born with a vagina is " cis ". it's not offensive I don't see why it shouldn't be used, I refer to people as a woman or a man but that doesn't mean someone can't use the word. It just means someone who isn't trans.
A cis woman as opposed to a trans woman.

lucylouuu, but what if you don't have a gender? Is a genderless female allowed to call themselves 'women', with no customer?

Read the thread, Lucy.

Customer?, I mean cis.

BigDeskBob then they would be non-binary.

A non binary what?

Lucy What do you mean when you say a person whose gender matches up with their birth sex?

What specifically is that person like?

BigDeskBob a non-binary person? If they don't identify as male or female then I wouldn't call them a non-binary male or female Id just call them a non-binary person. However I went to school with someone who was non-binary and wanted to be referred to as "them/they" and took a while to get my head around it.
I don't want people to think i'm here for an argument and that i disagree with a lot of people's points by the way it was the just term cis i don't see a problem with.

whoputthecatout I can't tell you specifically what a person is like, I mean a person who is not trans or non-binary, somebody who was born with a vagina and doesn't want to be a man or someone born with a penis who doesn't want to be a woman. A female who is a woman and a male who is a man

lucy - someone who's sex is female, and who doesn't have a gender is no less female for that. They're not non-binary - they're of the female sex, and they reject or do not experience gender

If we're going to separate gender and sex, then we need to be able to deal with that linguistically. Female, Woman, Girl refer to sex. Masculine, Feminine refer to Gender is my preferred set of definitions

What would you suggest?

Bleedin' Nora!

According to the bloody ideology itself, EVERYONE SELF DEFINES. If I say cis is offensive to me, you all have to respect that. That's the entire point of the whole sodding religion. Not respecting my right to self define is literal violence. You said it. Not me.

So.

Don't bloody cis me.

It means a person who's gender matches up with their birth sex
It will eventually mean that the word woman, and the identity bestowed by it - meaning people who are born as a certain sort of biological human being - has been arbitrarily robbed from humans of that kind by a minority of trans-activist bullies and the mindlessly following, politically correct.