Is it offensive to say "straight" or "neurotypical"?

[MerlinsLostMarbles]

I've been trying to understand why the gender critical movement are saying "cis" is offensive and still not quite getting it since it just means "not trans" (cis and trans are prefixes with opposite meanings).

From what I can gather the argument given by the gender critical movement is that the "default" is not-trans, therefore there shouldn't need to be a word for the "default", just as we don't have a specific word for someone who doesn't collect stamps (an example I've seen given).

But we have "straight" and "heterosexual" to refer to people who aren't homo/bi-sexual, we also have "neurotypical" to refer to people with typical neurological development or functioning. You could say these are also "defaults".

So why is "cisgender" an apparent "offensive slur" when straight and neurotypical aren't?

Because we don’t need a prefix to denote sex. Sex is unchangeable and decided at conception.

Women are not a subset of our own sex for gods sake.

I don’t subscribe to the gender cult and won’t be coerced into using their language. It’s a complete nonsense.

Err, straight is often considered offensive in this context as an antonym for bent. Your homophobia is showing there.

Cis is offensive and nonsensical as it denotes acceptance of oppressive sex-role stereotypes (aka the gender hierarchy).

We don’t need the word ‘cis’ because we gave a perfectly fine word ‘woman’ . Why do we need a non-trans word, when one already exists. I ‘don’t identify’ with my birth sex, I was born female. I didn’t decide (or no- one decided for me) that I was to become a woman.

Because cis and trans are not categories of sex but gender.

Woman and man are the sex categories for adult humans.
Transwoman (a transgender man) and transman (a transgender woman) are the gender categories for adult humans.

If a woman wants to be called a cis woman, that is their right. But most women don't, so it is offensive to label them against their wishes.

Talking about cis women and transwomen as if that together is the group 'women' mixes up sex and gender and labels many women as something they are not or even explicitly reject. Hence being offensive.

Sorry, not sure why I quoted the OP there

From what I can gather the argument given by the gender critical movement is that the "default" is not-trans,

No, it's the gender movement that thinks the default is not-trans. They're the ones calling us "cis".

But how do you know we're not trans? How do we know we're not trans?

You need to define trans before you call us "not trans". And in a way that doesn't involve "gender", because we don't believe we have one.

Until then, we are neither trans nor not trans.

Homosexual and heterosexual have different meanings. One means attracted to the same sex, the other to the opposite sex. Heterosexual does not mean “not gay” or “normal”.

If you are arguing that cis is similar to heterosexual, can you explain what you think it means? If you believe it is similar to heterosexual, then it can’t mean “not trans” it means something in its own right.

In which case, I think we are left with a definition that relies on the belief that we all have a gender identity that is either in harmony with one’s sex or not. And that’s where the problem lies for me. I don’t believe in gender identity. To agree I’m cis would be to agree with the centra tenet of genderism, that we all have one.

I've been trying to understand why

Have you really?

^^ this.

It's like asking an atheist 'but which God don't you believe in?'

That question implies that God does exist, the atheist is just to silly to understand that. Rather than accepting that to the atheist, God doesn't exist full stop.

Or, its like referring to non believers as 'heathens' - its judgemental and implies a lack of adherence to the truth, rather than a full acceptance of their different set of beliefs.

Try exclaiming cis without it being a reference to something else that a lot of people simply don't believe in (gender).

Calling someone who doesn't accept the term 'cis' is misgendering. Its assigning them a belief in the system of gender that they don't have and don't want to have. Why is that ok but its not OK to say a trans woman is a man? If one isn't OK then the other isn't OK either - unless of course you're arguing that trans people should have more rights than boring old cunty type women- and I'm sure you wouldn't argue that. Would you?

The lack of congruence and logic is upsetting.

Oh ffs that should read " try defining cis..."

To put it another way, the terms 'cis' and 'trans' create a binary, wrt gender.

You either confirm to the gender stereotypes of your own sex, or if the opposite sex.

Some of us want to step outside of this binary altogether (because we think it's nonsense) and live our own life, free of stereotypes .

Regarding your analogy with neurotypical vs neurodiverse, I think most if not all people would agree that those are 2 useful descriptors that create a binary. One is either one, or the other.

It's not controversial, as far as I know, to say that someone is NT or ND.

It's a generally accepted truth.

Gender identity is far from a universally accepted or even generally accepted truth.

Insisting that everyone must be either cis or trans attempts to elevate this belief in gender identity to a generally accepted truth. Which it isn't.

It is offensive to me because I am my sex and I do not identify as the stereotypes that make up gender.

If someone were to mis gender a trans person it would be offensive, so it is also offensive to apply a gender term to someone that does not identify as a gender.

Alternatively, its offensive to label people when they do not wish to be labelled.

To be cis you need to "identify" as a woman, I don't.

Yes, this!

I told my HR dept at work that I didn't like being labelled with a term that I don't choose to accept for myself.

How dare they. How dare anyone.

We reject 'cis' because it's a weaselly attempt to use language to say that transwomen are just another equally valid category of woman rather than being a category of male. It's a false back-construction from 'trans', which seems to have originated more from its meaning of change - 'transform' - rather than its specialised use in chemistry and a few other technical uses.

Oh what's the mantra again? "No one else gets to define me." I think that's the right one here.

I’m not “cis” (thanks anyway, gender woo-mongers), I am a woman.

I am not a “non-man” (thanks anyway, Johns Hopkins), I am a woman.

I am not a “non-trans female” (thanks anyway, Cincinnati university), I am a woman.

I don’t need a prefix, I”m the real deal, “assigned female” at conception, born a girl, went through female puberty and became a woman. “Girl” and “woman” are the only words I’ve needed for 60 years. Please wait until I'm dead before you call me cis.

I would like this if I could 👍

Cis is an in joke with the men who got into whatever this is, by watching cissy porn. So calling people are do not say they are the opposite sex 'cis' is seen as a way they can also 'own people who do not say they are the opposite sex.

Cis woman might possibly make some sense if - as some logically-minded people think - 'trans woman' meant a gender nonconforming female

"Bent" is a homophobic slur, but straight is a neutral informal term AFAIK.

In some contexts, it might be necessary to clarify whether someone is trans or not.

It should be trans women and women.
Women is the category that means all of the adult female sex including transmen in certain instances such as medical care.