What's wrong with 'Cisgender'

[ASugar]

As someone who identifies as a cisgender woman and works in sexual health, I am honestly confused as to why so many females (sex term) who identify with being women (gender term) dislike the term Cisgender?

Now I'm not here to tell you what to say, I am genuinely curious.

However, here is my opinion for those who may be interested.

Cisgender just means you are not transgender. That your sex links you your gender and you assign any gender terms (ie. Pronouns, Gender identity, sometimes gender expression but not always, etc). I personally don't like to think that just because I was born with a vagina means I am a woman because I know many men with vaginas and women with penises. Additionally those who don't have a gender identity, then that would mean you wouldn't use women and men as they're gender terms (according to medical professionals). It would make you non binary or agender.

I understand that the term 'Cis' has been used to insult others which for that I am sorry.
My view is that if you can't allow trans women to be accepted in society and identified as women (without the need for 'trans' infront of it constantly) then we should be using cisgender. It is a medical term that professionals such as the NHS recognize. But I understand that is just my opinion.

I probably won't be commenting as I can imagine this will be filled with comments and I don't want to disrespect anyone's views. Just a cisgender woman who wants to understand more...

And as always I would appreciate if you respect my view as I'm going to be respecting all of yours.

@EightiesRobot

Haven't feminists been arguing against being defined by gender role stereotypes for donkey's years now? Why are we now being told we are either cis ( gender identity matches our sex) or trans (gender identity does not match our sex) and expected to accept it? It's just so regressive.

It's tiring isn't it?

@MammaMiaWallace

When a group requires a category to define themselves away from the mass who aren’t affected by whatever it is that creates the sub-category in the first place i.e. transgender, the remaining mass who are wholly unaffected don’t actually also need to adopt a separate name. It’s unnecessary.

Either you’re trans.... or you ain’t.

You mean like heterosexual/straight?

I'm not upset to be called cisgender for exactly the same reason why I'm not upset to be called straight/heterosexual. Both became part of the common lexicon as a result of a new way of thinking. There were a lot of people who were upset at the idea that they had a new label. "Why should I be known as straight/heterosexual when a few years ago that was just considered normal?"

I think a lot of people would wince at that kind of thinking now. I don't think you have to consider yourself any label. But I don't see why people are upset by terminology that is used for clarity as society changes

[quote ASugar]@Ereshkigalangcleg I understand that. However being female doesn't always mean you are a woman. Many people who are born female don't then identify as being a woman. As gender and sex are separate.[/quote]
OP, being female (and an adult) absolutely DOES always mean you are a woman. It's not who you are, it's what you are.

What I am is a woman. A biological fact. Who I am is completely different.

Gender is the means by which society tries to force WHAT I am into WHO I am. E.g. "You are a woman so you must be caring and nuturing and like pretty things and put others' needs before yours and do the bulk of the childcare and domestic duties and look attractive to males."

We GC feminists tend to respond with "fuck that shit."

To accept gender is to be complicit in our own oppression. And that's a firm No from me.

It reduces us to stereotypes.

If I were to label myself "cisgender" it's tantamount to claiming that I have a "gender identity" in common with transwomen although they are the opposite sex from me.

I have "listened to transwomen" extensively and that has helped me understand what their idea of a "female gender identity" is. And frankly, I'm insulted by it. I'm not going to pretend on any level that transwomen's idea of being a woman has anything to do with my actual reality of being a woman.

I don’t have a gender. I am a woman, aka an adult human female. No qualifier necessary. If anyone calls me cisgender they will be very quickly corrected and told I find the term offensive.

I find cisgender offensive both to natal women and trans people because it is outing of something that is unnecessary for me to reveal in 99.9% of interactions with people. I am not trans.

Apropos of nothing whatever happened to cisalpine Gaul ?

Maybe Caesar wasn't talking about all Gaul being divided into three parts, but humanity ? Bad translator maybe ?

ok anyone care to tell me what we are currently being distracted from spotting.

I'm female, a woman due to being adult. Don't believe in gender and am currently in jeans and a jumper with no make up so definitely not cis.

Women do not have penises. Men do not have vaginas. Women are not cervix or uterus havers or menstruators (plenty of women, adult human females, do not have either of those or menstruate, they are women because they are adult human females with no Y chromosome). Same as men are not prostate havers or penis havers. They are adult human males and have a Y chromosome.

I don’t have a ‘gender identity’ so I don’t use the word CIS when referring to myself and I don’t want others to use it in reference to me. I am a woman. That’s it. Doesn’t need a qualifier or a prefix.

Cisgender just means you are not transgender

Yeah no it doesn't. It means your 'gender identity' aligns with your birth sex.

I don't have a 'gender identity'. I was born female, and I have a personality. That's it.

It would make you non binary or agender

Oh would it now? Look at you just handing these little titles out for free, aren't you nice. You can stick my non-binary agender up your chuff :)

I think you're disingenuous. It is hugely hurtful to be insulted for who you are. It has been used as an insult. Is used as an insult to silence people from expressing themselves. With no sense of irony from the trans community. The trans community does not accept people are even really cis, they just slander it and act as though no diversity exists! I consider myself cis but a few trans people have tried to tell me I am not then tried to tell me to shut the fuck up.

So yeah. It's hurtful. Used to hurt and to silence. Much like being labelled a "stupid little girl" when I was young.

Because I am born of the sex that menstruates, produces eggs and is able to grow another human being.

I am a woman - only and exclusively women, adult human females, can do the above.

My biological sex is that of a woman. No other word needed to describe that.

I don't understand the question about why we need to know the gender of our children? Surely, if gender is all about how we "identify" (whatever that actually means), we can't know the gender of our children until they are old enough to take a view on this. Surely, what parents actually want to know is the biological sex of their children, that is, whether it is a boy or a girl. (And yes, I believe that these terms refer to sex, not gender, when we are talking about tiny babies.) As for shopping for certain clothes/toys, many of us have tried to avoid buying into the tired old gender stereotypes, so again, gender isn't relevant. Sex, on the other hand, is important, as parents will need to teach children about their bodies and biological functions.

I also find cisgender offensive because it is always used as a label by people who want to assume something while they simultaneously don't want people to assume anything about them.
Cisgender is a double standard.

Because I am not a ciswoman. I'm a woman. Or I don't 'identify' as any 'gender' - I'm a women plain and simple.

@sofakingg00d

I am a woman.

I am not a subset of woman.

I do not have a gender and find it absolutely fascinating that to misgender a trans person is "literal violence" but to misgender me is absolutely fine. It's just unbelievably hypocritical for you to come on here and tell women what they should call themselves. I'll decide that for myself thanks.

Just this ^^

why so many females (sex term) who identify with being women (gender term)

You're making a fundamental mistake about the distinction between sex and gender,. And you're misusing the word 'woman.'

Sex is biological and immutable

Gender is a shortening of 'gender roles' or 'gender stereotype' which we should probably call 'sex stereotypes' for clarity.

Gender is a system - it is the historically & culturally specific set of expectations of a human, based on their sex. For women (adult human females), gender roles (of both men & women) are oppressive. Sex stereotypes/gender roles limit women, they make women vulnerable to male violence, they require women to put others before themselves, I could go on .....

Someone in here once said:

Patriarchy is the theory, gender is the practice.

And as for "cisgender" - I am not a subset of my sex. I am a woman. I need no other word.

I do not identify with the oppressive sex stereotypes that patriarchy tries to impose. Therefore to say that I am "cis" because I identify with my sex assigned at birth is both untrue (my sex is observed and innate) and insulting.

(Transwomen are transwomen, and that's perfectly fine).

To say I identify as a woman is to say that I identify with my oppression. It is to say that I accept a set of offensive stereotypes that do not reflect my lived reality. When you call me “cis” you might has well call me a “dumb blonde” or “bad at math”

@SSW101

I'm not upset to be called cisgender for exactly the same reason why I'm not upset to be called straight/heterosexual. Both became part of the common lexicon as a result of a new way of thinking. There were a lot of people who were upset at the idea that they had a new label. "Why should I be known as straight/heterosexual when a few years ago that was just considered normal?"

I think a lot of people would wince at that kind of thinking now. I don't think you have to consider yourself any label. But I don't see why people are upset by terminology that is used for clarity as society changes

Because it's not used for 'for clarity', it's highly ideological used to erase the category of biological women and their hard-fought protections by turning actual women into a subcategory of a redefined idea of 'women'. Surely that's not difficult to understand?

No-one is just going to conveniently forget that it was created as an insulting term and now everyone is frantically back pedalling.

Trying to divide everyone into cis and trans is like asking if they are Catholic or Protestant.

Unbleievers wont fit either catergory, for religion or gender.