Tribal Language
I made a rash observation the other day, noting in another's LJ my difficulty embracing a newish term "cis," used to describe people who are not transgendered. "Cis" is, apparently, a Latin prefix meaning "on this side of." So if you were born with an inherent desire to remain in your gender, you are "on the same side of" your birth. I honestly didn't know why it seems fadish and ethereal to me, destined, I felt, to go the way of Sunshine Unit or the improper use of education. (We're still waiting on the latter one, I know, I know.)
The weird part is, well, weird; I agree with the sentiments of using the term. I really do. What I disagree with is the extremely narrow group of society that actively uses the term to the point where many outside that group would not even recognize the term when used. We see this all the time with terms used in specialized fields, yes; but I hold that a term used in conversation should bear a definition on which all involved in the conversation can agree. Otherwise, I might literally say something that a third of the room interprets positively, a third negatively, and a third are left scratching their heads.
See what I mean?
Out of the mass who dog-piled me with accusations laced with F-bombs and references to idiots, exactly one person finally-Finally!-pointed out the source of my disquiet with an explanation I can understand. It turns out "cis" enjoys very high standing with, as I guessed, a fairly narrow subset of our English-speaking population. According to the commenter, "My argument is 'In my experience, cis is used primarily by social justice warriors who have nothing to say, but they're going say it as loud as they can. Ergo, it's likely going to be linked with that attitude.'" He or she continues:
You've never heard of social tribal behavior? It's a word, phrase, or action used to identify 'I'm not an outsider, I'm one of you.' It's human nature; we all do it, often without realizing it. You can call it community or social group or whatever, but it's all the same concept. That's why I think it's unlikely to particularly catch on, though I don't really care if it does. Maybe then that term will stop being too... something to people.
That's it. Just as "Sunshine Units" as a measure of blast radioactivity was used almost exclusively by the same military who controls the bombs, "cis" seems to be used almost exclusively by progressive-minded folks who embrace confronting, as the commenter put it, a very specific subset of social justice issues. They are, in fact, the same people who would posit that there is only one set of "social justice" issues, despite evidence to the contrary.
(And hey, this is why I don't use the term "social justice" either. Come to think of it, these are many of the same people who abuse "educate," using it to refer to interactions other than between teacher and student. Oh, dear.)
What might be driving my disquiet with a term I actually find useful? It could be my more advanced age. I'll get a pic of it before it comes off in the New Year, but my beard is now almost exclusively Shocking White. A few months more length and I'll be in Santa-Land. It's a consequence of pushing 50. Though I guess I had to experience the phenomenon before I understood it, it looks like habits acquired over such a length of life get intractably ingrained, no matter how reasonable it might be to adopt others. And so I find myself cheering the youths* who confront unreasonable behavior, all the while cringing at the tribal language they insist on using to describe these same confrontations.
As my beard attests, I'll soon be out of the conversation, no longer able to shout at those kids on my lawn without realizing until after I've yelled that they're actually mowing it. Maybe, just like science, language progresses one funeral at a time.
*Think Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny.
The weird part is, well, weird; I agree with the sentiments of using the term. I really do. What I disagree with is the extremely narrow group of society that actively uses the term to the point where many outside that group would not even recognize the term when used. We see this all the time with terms used in specialized fields, yes; but I hold that a term used in conversation should bear a definition on which all involved in the conversation can agree. Otherwise, I might literally say something that a third of the room interprets positively, a third negatively, and a third are left scratching their heads.
See what I mean?
Out of the mass who dog-piled me with accusations laced with F-bombs and references to idiots, exactly one person finally-Finally!-pointed out the source of my disquiet with an explanation I can understand. It turns out "cis" enjoys very high standing with, as I guessed, a fairly narrow subset of our English-speaking population. According to the commenter, "My argument is 'In my experience, cis is used primarily by social justice warriors who have nothing to say, but they're going say it as loud as they can. Ergo, it's likely going to be linked with that attitude.'" He or she continues:
You've never heard of social tribal behavior? It's a word, phrase, or action used to identify 'I'm not an outsider, I'm one of you.' It's human nature; we all do it, often without realizing it. You can call it community or social group or whatever, but it's all the same concept. That's why I think it's unlikely to particularly catch on, though I don't really care if it does. Maybe then that term will stop being too... something to people.
That's it. Just as "Sunshine Units" as a measure of blast radioactivity was used almost exclusively by the same military who controls the bombs, "cis" seems to be used almost exclusively by progressive-minded folks who embrace confronting, as the commenter put it, a very specific subset of social justice issues. They are, in fact, the same people who would posit that there is only one set of "social justice" issues, despite evidence to the contrary.
(And hey, this is why I don't use the term "social justice" either. Come to think of it, these are many of the same people who abuse "educate," using it to refer to interactions other than between teacher and student. Oh, dear.)
What might be driving my disquiet with a term I actually find useful? It could be my more advanced age. I'll get a pic of it before it comes off in the New Year, but my beard is now almost exclusively Shocking White. A few months more length and I'll be in Santa-Land. It's a consequence of pushing 50. Though I guess I had to experience the phenomenon before I understood it, it looks like habits acquired over such a length of life get intractably ingrained, no matter how reasonable it might be to adopt others. And so I find myself cheering the youths* who confront unreasonable behavior, all the while cringing at the tribal language they insist on using to describe these same confrontations.
As my beard attests, I'll soon be out of the conversation, no longer able to shout at those kids on my lawn without realizing until after I've yelled that they're actually mowing it. Maybe, just like science, language progresses one funeral at a time.
*Think Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny.