Cisgender

Cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. The word ''cisgender'' is the antonym of ''transgender''. The prefix '' cis-'' is Latin and means 'on this side of'. The term ''cisgender'' was coined in 1994 and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of societal changes in the way gender is conceived and discussed. The term has at times been controversial and subject to critique.

Related concepts are cisnormativity (the presumption that cisgender identity is preferred or normal) and cissexism (bias or prejudice favoring cisgender people).

Etymology and usage

''Cisgender'' has its origin in the Latin-derived prefix , meaning 'on this side of', which is the opposite of , meaning 'across from' or 'on the other side of'. This usage can be seen in the cis–trans distinction in chemistry, the cis and trans sides of the Golgi apparatus in cellular biology, the cis–trans or complementation test in genetics, in Ciscaucasia (from the Russian perspective), in the ancient Roman term Cisalpine Gaul (i.e., 'Gaul on this side of the Alps'), Ciskei and Transkei (separated by the Kei River), and more recently, Cisjordan, as distinguished from Transjordan. In the case of gender, ''cis-'' describes the alignment of gender identity with assigned sex.

Sociologists Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook define ''cisgender'' as a label for "individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity". A number of derivatives of the terms ''cisgender'' and ''cissexual'' include ''cis male'' for "male assigned male at birth", ''cis female'' for "female assigned female at birth", analogously ''cis man'' and ''cis woman'', and ''cissexism'' and ''cissexual assumption''. In addition, one study published in the ''Journal of the International AIDS Society'' used the term ''cisnormativity'', akin to ''heteronormativity''. Eli R. Green wrote in 2006, "'cisgendered' is used nstead of the more popular 'gender normative'!--PLEASE PRESERVE this bracketed text – this is an exact quotation--> to refer to people who do not identify with a gender diverse experience, without enforcing existence of a normative gender expression".

Julia Serano has defined ''cissexual'' as "people who are not transsexual and who have only ever experienced their mental and physical sexes as being aligned", while ''cisgender'' is a slightly narrower term for those who do not identify as transgender (a larger cultural category than the more clinical ''transsexual''). For Jessica Cadwallader, ''cissexual'' is "a way of drawing attention to the unmarked norm, against which trans is identified, in which a person feels that their gender identity matches their body/sex". Jillana Enteen wrote in 2009 that ''cissexual'' is "meant to show that there are embedded assumptions encoded in expecting this seamless conformity".

Serano also uses the related term ''cissexism'', "which is the belief that transsexuals' identified genders are inferior to, or less authentic than, those of cissexuals". In 2010, the term ''cisgender privilege'' appeared in academic literature, defined as the "set of unearned advantages that individuals who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth accrue solely due to having a cisgender identity".

Medical academics use the term and have recognized its importance in transgender studies since the 1990s.

History

The term ''cisgender'' was coined in 1994 in a Usenet newsgroup about transgender topics.

German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch used the neologism ''cissexual'' ( in German) in his 1998 essay "The Neosexual Revolution". He cites his two-part 1991 article "" ("Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view") as the origin of that term.

The terms ''cisgender'' and ''cissexual'' were used in a 2006 article in the ''Journal of Lesbian Studies'' and Serano's 2007 book ''Whipping Girl'', after which the term gained some popularity among English-speaking activists and scholars.

In February 2014, Facebook began offering "custom" gender options, allowing users to identify with one or more gender-related terms from a selected list, including cis, cisgender, and others. ''Cisgender'' was also added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2015, defined as "designating a person whose sense of personal identity corresponds to the sex and gender assigned to him or her at birth (in contrast with transgender)". '' Perspectives on History'' has stated that since this inclusion, the term ''cisgender'' has increasingly become common usage.

Critiques

Use of the term ''cisgender'' has at times been controversial. Novelist John Boyne rejected the use of the term ''cisgender'' in an article in ''The'' ''Irish Times''. He considers himself not as a cis man, but as just a man. He argues that one person should not "force an unwanted term onto another".

From feminism and gender studies

Krista Scott-Dixon wrote in 2009: "I prefer the term non-trans to other options such as cissexual/cisgendered." She believes the term "non-trans" is clearer to average people and will help normalize transgender individuals.

Women's and gender studies scholar Mimi Marinucci writes that some consider the ''cisgender–transgender'' binary distinction to be just as dangerous or self-defeating as the masculine–feminine gender binary because it lumps together people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) arbitrarily and over-simplistically with a heteronormative class of people as opposed to with transgender people. Characterizing LGB individuals together with heterosexual, non-trans people may problematically suggest that LGB individuals, unlike transgender individuals, "experience no mismatch between their own gender identity and gender expression and cultural expectations regarding gender identity and expression".

Gender studies professor Chris Freeman criticises the term, describing it as "clunky, unhelpful and maybe even regressive" for " reating- or re- reating- a gender binary".

From intersex organizations

Intersex people are born with atypical physical sex characteristics that can complicate initial sex assignment and lead to involuntary or coercive medical treatment.Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization, An interagency statement
World Health Organization, May 2014. The term cisgender "can get confusing" in relation to people with intersex conditions, although some intersex people use the term according to the Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth Inter/Act project. Hida Viloria of Intersex Campaign for Equality notes that, as a person born with an intersex body who has a non-binary sense of gender identity that "matches" their body, they are both cisgender and gender non-conforming, presumably opposites according to cisgender's definition, and that this evidences the term's basis on a binary sex model that does not account for intersex people's existence. Viloria also critiques the fact that the term "sex assigned at birth" is used in one of cisgender's definitions without noting that babies are assigned male or female regardless of intersex status in most of the world, stating that doing so obfuscates the birth of intersex babies and frames gender identity within a binary male/female sex model that fails to account for both the existence of natally congruent gender non-conforming gender identities, and gender-based discrimination against intersex people based on natal sex characteristics rather than on gender identity or expression, such as "normalizing" infant genital surgeries.Caught in the Gender Binary Blind Spot: Intersex Erasure in Cisgender Rhetoric
Hida Viloria, August 18, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2014.

See also

* Feminist views on transgender topics
* Gender taxonomy
* List of transgender-related topics
* Womyn-born womyn
* Endosex

References

Further reading

* Gorton R., Buth J., and Spade D.
Medical Therapy and Health Maintenance for Transgender Men: A Guide for Health Care Providers
''. Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services. San Francisco, CA. 2005.
*

External links

Gender and Sexuality Center FAQ
University of Texas at Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement

The Queer Community Has to Stop Being Transphobic: Realizing My Cisgender Privilege
Todd Clayton, ''The Huffington Post'', February 27, 2013

Researching Early Uses of “Cisgender”
Avery Dame, American Historical Association Today, May 22, 2017

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Gender identity
Linguistic controversies
Transgender
1990s neologisms
1994 neologisms