(Untitled)

[ysabel]

To anyone who is somewhat concerned about the politics of the term "cisgendered"...does it make any difference to know that it was coined by a cisgendered person to describe herself in a discussion with bigendered and transgendered folks

Comments

[rfrancis]

Wikipedia, dubious as I acknowledge it is, says otherwise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender

[ysabel]

I'm actually about 90% certain that Dana was on the same mailing list I was on, and the event I'm thinking about predated that Usenet post.

Unfortunately, it was a private list, and my archives are no longer on accessible-to-me media, so I can't verify it.

That said, I did say I wasn't sure who's officially credited with coining it. I did learn the term exactly as I described, from a cisgendered individual who claimed she made it up to describe herself.

[rfrancis]

Note that I make no claims as to the rightness of any version of events. I certainly don't know. Just offering the data point.

[ysabel]

Which distinction?

[ysabel]

Um.

Cisgendered just means "having a gender identity and a biological gender that match". It can apply to men and women. It is a very useful term when talking about gender, much like bigendered and transgendered can be useful descriptives.

The original author bitching about the term is allegedly a known trans-hater, for context, and has allegedly actively campaigned against transgendered folks' rights. It seems likely that she's bitching about anything that makes transgendered folks more acceptable to discuss, anything that makes transgendered folks appear to be anything but evil aberrations. Having a word other than "normal" for people who are not transgendered, and thus making it possible to talk about gender identity as a concept rather than as a sickness, would have that effect.

[firni]

Your earlier post was the first time I'd even *seen* that term.

I'm not sure if I'm sheltered, ignorant or just have my head up my ass (although I suppose the latter two are about the same thing).

[ysabel]

I don't think it's a term in terribly wide use. So I wouldn't feel bad. (Not that I would expect you to actually feel bad. *grin*)

[firni]

It feels good to feel bad.

Wait, I meant it feels good to BE bad.

Or something.