The coiner of the word "cisgender" speaks out.

[ShazzieB]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cisgender-means-transgender_n_63e13ee0e4b01e9288730415

I Coined The Term 'Cisgender' 29 Years Ago. Here's What This Controversial Word Really Means.

By Dana Dafosse

I coined the term “cisgender” in 1994. Nearly three decades later, the word has had ramifications I never dreamed of.

It began innocently enough. I was in graduate school and writing a paper on the health of trans adolescents. I put a post on alt.transgender to ask for views on transphobia and inclusion on the campus of the University of Minnesota. I was struggling because there did not seem to be a way to describe people who were not transgender without inescapably couching them in normalcy and making transgender identity automatically the “other.”

I knew that in chemistry, molecules with atoms grouped on the same side are labeled with the Latin prefix “cis–,” while molecules with atoms grouped on opposite sides are referred to as “trans–.” So, cisgender. It seemed like a no-brainer. I had no idea that hitting “enter” on that post would start an etymological time bomb ticking.

*snip*

I call on all communities to voice intolerance of anti-trans hate speech and the transparent incitement of violence by those who feign innocence and moral supremacy. Because it diminishes all of us. And it’s not about words. You don’t need to be a student of gender identity terms to know that living in a just society means respecting human dignity and autonomy and opposing the victimization of children.

[delisen]

1. Good article but I still dislike "cis-"

I think people being categorized into racial and gender groups by other people in society should generally get to self-determine what they are called, named, or labeled.

The cis term to me has many negative connotations. It is pronounced like the hissing sound, which in our society and many others is the signal of mass hatred and derision. It is sounded the same as “sis”, the short form of sister which has been used as “sissy” as a term widely used to denigrate all females and many males. There are also associations in plumbing I won’t go into.

If I were charged with dreaming up or finding a name to call people whose gender at birth continued as their self-identification gender in later years, I would definitely not nominate anyththing with the prefix cis.

Academics seem sometimes to be somewhat insular in these matters. There was surprise and shock among many academics when so many people they were blanket-labeling as Latinx let it be known that they considered themselves Hispanic, for one, and definitely not Latinx.

Maybe we should just follow the basic rule of good manners: ask people what they want to be called and don’t make up or attribute names to them based upon your own convenience.

This person who minted the cisgender term certainly had no idea that it would be picked up by so many years later and I don’t think he has any personal responsibility in the matter.

[LostOne4Ever]

3. If only trans people would have been given that option

Because I am pretty sure it wasn’t a trans person who decided on the label trans and I am pretty sure many would have picked a different term.

And it is funny that you mention the term “sissy” as that is often a disparaging term for a trans person. In fact, I would say more so than for anyone who isn’t trans.

That said, I completely agree with you on your proposal for good manners:

“ask people what they want to be called and don’t make up or attribute names to them based upon your own convenience. ”

[riversedge]

2. Thanks for post.

[Hekate]

4. Oh, so it DOES come from chemistry/definition of molecules! Sorry to butt in & be excited...

…but it was driving me crazy to not have the faintest clue how the term came to be.

I’m saving the article by Dana Dafosse.

[soldierant]

5. That's always roughly how I've understood the term,

except that my knowledge was from my knowledge of classical Latin rather than chemistry. Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul - the first being on the Italian side and the second on the other side of the Alps. "Cis" is just the opposite of "Trans," and has been probably since 753 BCE.

If you're interested in history and want some vocabulary that's even older, in fact so old it's probably new to most of us (it certainly was to me), check this:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2023/02/the-6-genders-according-to-the-talmud-and-biological-science/