The wordcisgender (often shortened tocis; sometimescissexual) describes a person whosegender identity corresponds to theirsex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is nottransgender.[1][2][3] The prefixcis- is Latin and meanson this side of. The termcisgender was coined in 1994 as anantonym totransgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse aboutgender.[4][5]
Related concepts arecisnormativity (the presumption that cisgender identity is preferred ornormal) andcissexism (bias or prejudice favoring cisgender people).
Etymology
The termcisgender has its origin in theLatin-derived prefixcis-, meaning 'on this side of', which is the opposite oftrans-, meaning 'across from' or 'on the other side of'. This usage can be seen in thecis–trans distinction in chemistry, the cis and trans sides of theGolgi apparatus in cellular biology, the ancient Roman termCisalpine Gaul (i.e. 'Gaul on this side of theAlps'), andCisjordan (as distinguished fromTransjordan). Incisgender,cis- describes the alignment of gender identity with assigned sex.[6][7]
History and usage of the term
Coinage
German
Marquis Bey states that "proto-cisgender discourse" arose in German in 1914, whenErnst Burchard introduced the cis/trans distinction tosexology by contrasting "cisvestitismus, or a type of inclination to wear gender-conforming clothing, [...] withtransvestitismus, or cross-dressing."[8][9] GermansexologistVolkmar Sigusch used the termcissexual (zissexuell in German) in his two-part 1991 article "Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick" ("Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view"); in 1998, he said he had coined the term there.[10]
English
The termcisgender was coined in English in 1994 in aUsenet newsgroup about transgender topics[11] as Dana Defosse, then a graduate student, sought a way to refer to non-transgender people that avoided marginalizing transgender people or implying that transgender people were another.[12] John Hollister used it that same year. In 1995, Carl Buijs used it, apparently coining it independently.[13][14]
Academic use
Medical academics use the term and have recognized its importance in transgender studies since the 1990s.[15][16][17] After the termscisgender andcissexual were used in a 2006 article in theJournal of Lesbian Studies[18] and Serano's 2007 bookWhipping Girl,[19] the former gained further popularity among English-speaking activists and scholars.[20][21][22]Cisgender was added to theOxford 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)".[23]Perspectives on History states that since this inclusion, the term has increasingly become common usage.[11]
Social media
In the late 1990s,cisgender was popularized onUSENET by Laura Blake, who used it prolifically when debating with other users and emphasized the term's linguistic grounding insocial constructionism. Blake's concept of a "cisgender ideal" as foundational totransphobia was influential for other transgender Internet users.[24]
In February 2014,Facebook began offering "custom" gender options, allowing users to identify with one or more gender-related terms from a selected list, includingcis,cisgender, and others.[25][26]
Definitions
Sociologists Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook definecisgender as a label for "individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity".[2] A number of derivatives of the termscisgender andcissexual includecis male for "male assigned male at birth",cis female for "female assigned female at birth", analogouslycis man andcis woman,[27][failed verification] andcissexism andcissexual assumption[28] orcisnormativity (akin toheteronormativity).[29][30] EliR. Green wrote in 2006, "cisgendered is used [instead of the more popular gender normative] to refer to people who do not identify with a gender diverse experience, without enforcing existence of a normative gender expression".[18]
Others[which?] have similarly argued that using terms such asman orwoman to meancis man orcis woman reinforcedcisnormativity, and that instead using the prefixcis similarly totrans would counteract the cisnormative connotations within language.
Julia Serano has definedcissexual as "people who are nottranssexual and who have only ever experienced their mental and physical sexes as being aligned", whilecisgender is a slightly narrower term for those who do not identify as transgender (a larger cultural category than the more clinicaltranssexual).[19] For Jessica Cadwallader,cissexual is "a way of drawing attention to theunmarked norm, against whichtrans is identified, in which a person feels that theirgender identity matches their body/sex".[31]
Serano also uses the related termcissexism, "which is the belief that transsexuals' identified genders are inferior to, or less authentic than, those of cissexuals".[32] In 2010, the termcisgenderprivilege 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".[33]
Critiques
While intended to be a positive descriptor to distinguish between trans and non-trans identity, the term has been met with criticisms in more recent years.[34]
From feminism and gender studies
Krista Scott-Dixon wrote in 2009 that she preferred "the termnon-trans to other options such ascissexual/cisgendered",[35] sayingnon-trans is clearer to average people.[35]
Women's and gender studies scholar Mimi Marinucci writes that some consider the 'cisgender–transgender' binary distinction to be as dangerous or self-defeating as themasculine–feminine gender binary because it lumps people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) together (over-simplistically, in her view) with aheteronormative class of people in an opposition with transgender people; she says that 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 andgender expression and cultural expectations regarding gender identity and expression".[36]
Gender studies professor Chris Freeman criticizes the term, describing it as "clunky, unhelpful and maybe even regressive" and saying it "creates – or re-creates – a gender binary".[37]
Intersex people are born with atypical physical sex characteristics that can complicate initial sex assignment and lead to involuntary or coercive medical treatment.[38][39] The term cisgender "can get confusing" in relation to people with intersex conditions, although some intersex people use the term according to theInteract Advocates for Intersex Youth Inter/Act project.[40]Hida Viloria ofIntersex 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 tocisgender'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 termsex assigned at birth is used in one ofcisgender'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.[41]
From Elon Musk
In June 2023,Elon Musk, owner of social networkTwitter (now X), stated that use of the words "cis" and "cisgender" on the platform as "targeted harassment" would constitute violations of its hateful content policy, as he considered them to beslurs.[42][43][44] The changes came following an interaction between Musk and a gender-critical commentator, who alleged that pro-trans advocates were using forms of the word (such as "cissy", a variant of the pejorativesissy) to insult him following a post in which he rejected the term. Musk has since described cisgender as being "heterophobic" and a "heterosexual slur".[44][45][46] The change came amid the loosening of other rules protecting LGBT usersunder his ownership, including removing rules prohibitingdeadnaming.[43][47]
Responses to critiques
After the Oxford Dictionary addedcisgender as a word in 2015,The Advocate wrote that "even among LGBT people, the word is hotly debated";[37] transgender veteran Brynn Tannehill argued that it was "often used in a negative way" by trans people to express "a certain level of contempt" for people they think should not partake in discussions on trans issues.[37] Transgender scholar K.J. Rawson, by contrast, stated that "cis" was "not meant to be dismissive, but rather descriptive", and was no different than using the word "straight" to describe people who areheterosexual. Rawson explained that people who are straight "don't typically experience their heterosexuality as an identity, many don't identify as heterosexual—they don't need to, because culture has already done that for them", and that "similarly, cisgender people don't generally identify as cisgender because societal expectations already presume that they are."[37]
In a 2023 essay, Defosse said she did not intend the word as an insult. She says she does not believe the wordcisgender caused problems, and that "it only revealed them."[12]
^Bey, Marquis (2022). "Heart of Cisness".Cistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 29.ISBN978-1-4780-1844-5.OCLC1290721475.
^Burchard, Ernst (1914).Lexikon des gesamten Sexuallebens (in German). Berlin: Adler-Verlag GmbH. p. 32. RetrievedJune 22, 2023.Cisvestitismus, die Neigung, die Kleidung einer anderen Altersstufe, Volks- oder Berufsklasse des gleichen Geschlechts zum Zwecke sexueller Entspannung anzulegen, dem Transvestitismus verwandt.
^Tate, Charlotte Chucky; Bettergarcia, Jay N.; Brent, Lindsay M. (2015). "Re-assessing the Role of Gender-Related Cognitions for Self-Esteem: The Importance of Gender Typicality for Cisgender Adults".Psychology & Psychiatry Journal.72 (5–6):221–236.doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0458-0.S2CID18437100.
^"New Mental Health Study Findings Have Been Reported by Investigators at Brown University (Gender Minority Stress, Mental Health, and Relationship Quality: A Dyadic Investigation of Transgender Women and Their Cisgender Male Partners)".Mental Health Weekly Digest.9: 224. 2015.
^Pfeffer, Carla (2009).Trans (Formative) Relationships: What We Learn About Identities, Bodies, Work and Families from Women Partners of Trans Men (Ph.D).University of Michigan.
^Williams, Rhaisa (November 2010). "Contradictory Realities, Infinite Possibilities: Language Mobilization and Self-Articulation Amongst Black Trans Women".Penn McNair Research Journal.2 (1).
^Dame-Griff, Avery (2023).The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet. New York: New York University Press. pp. 101–107.ISBN9781479818327.
^Serano (2007) also definescisgender as synonymous with "non-transgender" andcissexual with "non-transsexual" (p. 33).
^Walls, N. E., & Costello, K. (2010). "Head ladies center for teacup chain": Exploring cisgender privilege in a (predominantly) gay male context. In S. Anderson and V. MiddletonExplorations in diversity: Examining privilege and oppression in a multicultural society, 2nd ed. (pp. 81−93). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Quote appears on p.83.
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