View source for Cisgender

{{short description|Gender identity descriptor}}
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{{Wiktionary|cisgender}}
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The word '''''cisgender''''' (often shortened to '''''cis'''''; sometimes '''''cissexual''''') describes a person whose [[gender identity]] corresponds to their [[sex assigned at birth]], i.e., someone who is not ''[[transgender]]''.<ref>{{cite web |date=n.d. |title=cisgender |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cisgender |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary}}</ref><ref name="Schilt2">{{Cite journal |last1=Schilt |first1=Kristen |last2=Westbrook |first2=Laurel |date=August 2009 |title=Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: 'Gender Normals,' Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality |journal=[[Gender & Society]] |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=440–64 [461] |doi=10.1177/0891243209340034 |s2cid=145354177 | issn = 0891-2432}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Blank |first=Paula |title=Will the Word "Cisgender" Ever Go Mainstream? |language=en-US |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/09/cisgenders-linguistic-uphill-battle/380342/ |access-date=2018-05-13}}</ref> The prefix ''[[wiktionary:cis-|cis-]]'' is Latin and means ''on this side of''. The term ''cisgender'' was coined in 1994 as an [[antonym]] to ''transgender'', and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about [[gender]].<ref name="oed2">{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Katherine |title=New words notes June 2015 |url=http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2015-update/new-words-notes-june-2015/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150814051905/http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2015-update/new-words-notes-june-2015/ |archive-date=August 14, 2015 |access-date=August 2, 2015 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="aha2">{{Cite web |title=Tracing Terminology {{!}} Perspectives on History {{!}} AHA |url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2017/tracing-terminology-researching-early-uses-of-cisgender |access-date=2019-08-01 |website=www.historians.org}}</ref> 

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

== Etymology ==

The term ''cisgender'' has its origin in the [[Latin]]-derived prefix ''[[wikt:cis-|cis-]]'', meaning 'on this side of', which is the opposite of ''[[wikt:trans-|trans-]]'', meaning 'across from' or 'on the other side of'. This usage can be seen in the [[cis–trans isomerism|''cis''–''trans'' distinction]] in chemistry, the cis and trans sides of the [[Golgi apparatus]] in cellular biology, the ancient Roman term ''[[Cisalpine Gaul]]'' (i.e. '[[Gaul]] on this side of the [[Alps]]'), and [[Cisjordan]] (as distinguished from [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]]). In ''cisgender'', ''cis-'' describes the alignment of gender identity with assigned sex.<ref name=MW>{{cite dictionary |url = http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cisgender |title = Definition of cisgender |dictionary = Merriam Webster |access-date = April 20, 2016 |archive-date = April 23, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160423230713/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cisgender |url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="Spectator2">{{cite magazine |last = Wordsworth |first = Dot |date = November 7, 2015 |title = How we ended up 'cisgender':The history of a tendentious word |url = http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/how-we-ended-up-cisgender/ |magazine = [[The Spectator]] |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151112200858/http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/how-we-ended-up-cisgender/ |archive-date = November 12, 2015 }}</ref>

== History and usage of the term ==

=== Coinage ===

==== German ====
Marquis Bey states that "proto-cisgender discourse" arose in German in 1914, when [[Ernst Burchard]] introduced the cis/trans distinction to [[sexology]] by contrasting "''cisvestitismus'', or a type of inclination to wear gender-conforming clothing, [...] with ''transvestitismus'', or cross-dressing."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bey |first=Marquis |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1290721475 |title=Cistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2022 |isbn=9781478018445 |location=Durham |pages=29 |chapter=Heart of Cisness |oclc=1290721475}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Burchard |first1=Ernst |title=Lexikon des gesamten Sexuallebens |date=1914 |publisher=Adler-Verlag GmbH |location=Berlin |page=32 |url=https://portal.dnb.de/bookviewer/view/1098541251#page/32/mode/2up |access-date=22 June 2023 |language=de |quote=Cisvestitismus, die Neigung, die Kleidung einer anderen Altersstufe, Volks- oder Berufsklasse des gleichen Geschlechts zum Zwecke sexueller Entspannung anzulegen, dem Transvestitismus verwandt.}}</ref> German [[sexology|sexologist]] [[Volkmar Sigusch]] used the term ''cissexual'' ({{lang|de|zissexuell}} in German) in his two-part 1991 article "{{lang|de|Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick}}" ("Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view"); in 1998, he said he had coined the term there.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sigusch |first=Volkmar |author-link=Volkmar Sigusch |date=February 1998 |title=The Neosexual Revolution |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=331–359 |doi=10.1023/A:1018715525493 |pmid=9681118 |s2cid=25826510}}</ref>

==== English ====
The term ''cisgender'' was coined in English in 1994 in a [[Usenet]] newsgroup about transgender topics<ref name="aha" /> 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 an [[Other (philosophy)|other]].<ref name="Defosse2023"/> John Hollister used it that same year. In 1995, Carl Buijs used it, apparently coining it independently.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cava |first=Peter |date=2016 |title=Cisgender and Cissexual |url=http://www.petercava.com/uploads/2/3/1/9/23191072/cava_cisgender_and_cissexual.pdf |access-date=June 22, 2024 |website=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Donna Lynn |date=May 1999 |title=Definitions |url=http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/tg_def.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000524175329/http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/tg_def.html |archive-date=May 24, 2000 |access-date=2024-06-22 |website=cydathria.com}}</ref>

=== Academic use ===

Medical academics use the term and have recognized its importance in transgender studies since the 1990s.<ref name="Aultman">{{cite journal |title = Cisgender |journal = TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly |volume = 1 |issue = 1–2 |last = Aultman |first = B |year = 2014 |doi = 10.1215/23289252-2399614 |page = 61 |doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="Psychology & Psychiatry Journal">{{cite journal |date = 2015 |title = Re-assessing the Role of Gender-Related Cognitions for Self-Esteem: The Importance of Gender Typicality for Cisgender Adults |journal = Psychology & Psychiatry Journal |volume = 72 |issue = 5–6 |pages = 221–236 |doi = 10.1007/s11199-015-0458-0 |last1 = Tate |first1 = Charlotte Chucky |last2 = Bettergarcia |first2 = Jay N. |last3 = Brent |first3 = Lindsay M. |s2cid = 18437100 }}</ref><ref name="Mental Health Weekly Digest">{{cite journal |date = 2015 |title = 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) |journal = Mental Health Weekly Digest |volume = 9 |pages = 224 }}</ref> After the terms ''cisgender'' and ''cissexual'' were used in a 2006 article in the ''Journal of Lesbian Studies''<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Green |first1 = Eli R. |title = Debating Trans Inclusion in the Feminist Movement: A Trans-Positive Analysis |journal = Journal of Lesbian Studies |date = 2006 |volume = 10 |issue = 1–2 |pages = 231–248 |doi = 10.1300/J155v10n01_12 |pmid = 16873223 |s2cid = 40988200 }}</ref> and Serano's 2007 book ''[[Whipping Girl]]'',<ref name="Serano" /> the former gained further popularity among English-speaking activists and scholars.<ref>{{Cite thesis |author-link = Carla A. Pfeffer |last = Pfeffer |first = Carla |title = Trans (Formative) Relationships: What We Learn About Identities, Bodies, Work and Families from Women Partners of Trans Men |type = Ph.D |location = University of Michigan |year = 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |author-link = Rhaisa K. Williams |last = Williams |first = Rhaisa |title = Contradictory Realities, Infinite Possibilities: Language Mobilization and Self-Articulation Amongst Black Trans Women |journal = Penn McNair Research Journal |volume = 2 |issue = 1 |date = November 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last = Drescher |first = Jack |author-link = Jack Drescher |title = Queer Diagnoses: Parallels and Contrasts in the History of Homosexuality, Gender Variance, and the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual'' |journal = Archives of Sexual Behavior |doi = 10.1007/s10508-009-9531-5 |date = September 2009 |volume = 39 |issue = 2 |pages = 427–460 |pmid = 19838785 |s2cid = 13062141 }}</ref> ''Cisgender'' was 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)".<ref name=oed>{{cite web |last1 = Martin |first1 = Katherine |title = New words notes June 2015 |url = http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2015-update/new-words-notes-june-2015/ |website = Oxford English Dictionary |publisher = Oxford University Press |access-date = August 2, 2015 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150814051905/http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/june-2015-update/new-words-notes-june-2015/ |archive-date = August 14, 2015 }}</ref> ''[[Perspectives on History]]'' states that since this inclusion, the term has increasingly become common usage.<ref name="aha">{{Cite web |title=Tracing Terminology {{!}} Perspectives on History {{!}} AHA |url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2017/tracing-terminology-researching-early-uses-of-cisgender |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514144840/https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2017/tracing-terminology-researching-early-uses-of-cisgender |archive-date=May 14, 2021 |access-date=August 1, 2019 |website=[[American Historical Association]]}}</ref>

=== Social media ===

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.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/social-media/facebook-gender-custom/index.html |title = Facebook goes beyond 'male' and 'female' with new gender options |access-date = February 13, 2014 |author = Brandon Griggs |website = [[CNN]] |date = February 13, 2014 |archive-date = March 8, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210308155048/https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/social-media/facebook-gender-custom/index.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://bigstory.ap.org/article/facebooks-new-gender-identity-options |title = Facebook's New Gender Identity Options |author = The Associated Press |access-date = February 14, 2014 |archive-date = February 22, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140222220022/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/facebooks-new-gender-identity-options |url-status = dead }}</ref>

== Definitions ==

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".<ref name="Schilt2" /> 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'',<ref name="advo">{{cite web |url = http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender |title = The true meaning of the word 'cisgender' |first = Sunnivie |last = Brydum |date = July 31, 2015 |work = [[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]] |access-date = March 15, 2017 |archive-date = August 3, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150803014730/http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender |url-status = live }}</ref>{{failed verification|date=January 2024}} and ''[[cissexism]]'' and ''[[cissexual assumption]]''<ref>{{Cite book |title = Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity |url = https://archive.org/details/whippinggirltran0000sera |url-access = registration |last = Serano |first = Julia |publisher = Seal Press |year = 2007 |isbn = 978-1580051545 |location = Berkeley |pages = [https://archive.org/details/whippinggirltran0000sera/page/164 164]–165 }}</ref> or ''cisnormativity'' (akin to ''[[heteronormativity]]'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Logie |first1 = Carmen |last2 = James |first2 = Lana |last3 = Tharao |first3 = Wangari |author4 = [[Mona Loutfy]] |year = 2012 |title = ''We don't exist'': a qualitative study of marginalization experienced by HIV-positive lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgender women in Toronto, Canada |journal = Journal of the International AIDS Society |volume = 15 |issue = 2 |pages = 17392 |url = http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/17392 |access-date = January 17, 2013 |doi = 10.7448/ias.15.2.17392 |pmid = 22989529 |pmc = 3494165 |archive-date = October 6, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171006084849/http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/17392 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Ou Jin Lee |first1 = Edward |last2 = Brotman |first2 = Shari |year = 2011 |title = Identity, Refugeeness, Belonging: Experiences of Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada |journal = Canadian Review of Sociology |volume = 48 |issue = 3 |pages = 241–274 |doi = 10.1111/j.1755-618X.2011.01265.x |pmid = 22214042 }}</ref> Eli{{nbsp}}R. Green wrote in 2006, "cisgendered is used [instead 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".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1 = Green |first1 = Eli R. |title = Debating Trans Inclusion in the Feminist Movement: A Trans-Positive Analysis |journal = Journal of Lesbian Studies |volume = 10 |issue = 1/2 |pages = 231–248 [247] |year = 2006 |doi = 10.1300/j155v10n01_12 |pmid = 16873223 |s2cid = 40988200 }}</ref>

Others{{Which|date=June 2024}} have similarly argued that using terms such as ''man'' or ''woman'' to mean ''cis man'' or ''cis woman'' reinforced [[cisnormativity]], and that instead using the prefix ''cis'' similarly to ''trans'' would counteract the cisnormative connotations within language.

[[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'').<ref name="Serano">{{cite book |title = Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity |url = https://archive.org/details/whippinggirltran0000sera |url-access = registration |last = Serano |first = Julia |year = 2007 |publisher = Seal Press |isbn = 978-1-58005-154-5 |page = [https://archive.org/details/whippinggirltran0000sera/page/12 12] }}</ref> For Jessica Cadwallader, ''cissexual'' is "a way of drawing attention to the [[unmarked]] norm, against which [[transgender|trans]] is identified, in which a person feels that their [[gender identity]] matches their body/sex".<ref>{{Cite book |last1 = Sullivan |last2 = Murray |first1 = Nikki |first2 = Samantha |title = Somatechnics: queering the technologisation of bodies |url = https://archive.org/details/somatechnicsquee00murr |url-access = limited |publisher = [[Ashgate Publishing]] |location = Surrey, England |year = 2009 |page = [https://archive.org/details/somatechnicsquee00murr/page/n31 17] |isbn = 978-0-7546-7530-3 }}</ref> 

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".<ref>Serano (2007) also defines ''cisgender'' as synonymous with "non-transgender" and ''cissexual'' with "non-transsexual" (p. 33).</ref> In 2010, the term ''cisgender [[social privilege|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".<ref>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. Middleton ''Explorations in diversity: Examining privilege and oppression in a multicultural society, 2nd ed.'' (pp. 81−93). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.  Quote appears on p.83.</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aultman |first=B. |date=May 1, 2014 |title=Cisgender |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article/1/1-2/61/92020/Cisgender |journal=Transgender Studies Quarterly |publisher=Duke University Press |volume=1 |issue=1–2 |pages=61–62|doi=10.1215/23289252-2399614 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 

===From feminism and gender studies ===
Krista Scott-Dixon wrote in 2009 that she preferred "the term ''non-trans'' to other options such as ''cissexual''/''cisgendered''",<ref name=scott-dixon>{{Cite journal |last = Scott-Dixon |first = Krista |author-link = Krista Scott-Dixon |title = Public health, private parts: A feminist public-health approach to trans issues |journal = Hypatia |doi = 10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01044.x |volume = 24 |issue = 3 |pages = 33–55 |year = 2009 |s2cid = 145160039 }}</ref> saying ''non-trans'' is clearer to average people.<ref name="scott-dixon" />

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 the [[gender binary|masculine–feminine gender binary]] because it lumps people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) together (over-simplistically, in her view) with a [[heteronormative]] 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 and [[gender expression]] and cultural expectations regarding gender identity and expression".<ref>{{cite book |last = Marinucci |first = Mimi |publisher = Zed Books |year = 2010 |title = Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory |url = https://archive.org/details/feminismisqueeri00mari |url-access = limited |pages = [https://archive.org/details/feminismisqueeri00mari/page/n141 125]–126 }}</ref>

Gender studies professor Chris Freeman criticizes the term, describing it as "clunky, unhelpful and maybe even regressive" and saying it "{{zwj}}creates{{snd}}or re-creates{{snd}}a gender binary".<ref name=":0" />

=== From intersex organizations ===
{{See also|Intersex|Endosex}}

[[Intersex]] people are born with atypical physical sex characteristics that can complicate initial sex assignment and lead to involuntary or coercive medical treatment.<ref name="Dreger">{{cite book |last = Domurat Dreger |first = Alice|authorlink=Alice Dreger |title = Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex |year = 2001 |publisher = Harvard University Press |location = US |isbn = 978-0-674-00189-3 }}</ref><ref name="jointun">{{cite book|url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241507325|title=Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization, An interagency statement|publisher=[[World Health Organization]]|date=May 2014|isbn=978 92 4 150732 5}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://interactyouth.org/post/97343969730/inter-act-has-been-working-with-mtvs-faking-it-on|date=2014|url-status=usurped|title=What is Intersex: An Intersex FAQ by Inter/Act|website=Inter/Act|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916025255/http://interactyouth.org/post/97343969730/inter-act-has-been-working-with-mtvs-faking-it-on|archivedate=September 16, 2014}}</ref> [[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" [[Intersex medical interventions|infant genital surgeries]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Caught in the Gender Binary Blind Spot: Intersex Erasure in Cisgender Rhetoric|url=https://hidaviloria.com/caught-in-the-gender-binary-blind-spot-intersex-erasure-in-cisgender-rhetoric/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112023646/https://hidaviloria.com/caught-in-the-gender-binary-blind-spot-intersex-erasure-in-cisgender-rhetoric/ |archivedate=November 12, 2020|first=Hida|last=Viloria|authorlink=Hida Viloria|date=August 18, 2014}}</ref>

=== From Elon Musk ===

In June 2023, [[Elon Musk]], owner of social network [[Twitter]] (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 be [[Pejorative|slurs]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ray |first=Siladitya |date=June 21, 2023 |title=Musk Says 'Cisgender' And 'Cis' Are Now 'Slurs' On Twitter |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/06/21/musk-says-cisgender-and-cis-are-now-slurs-on-twitter/ |access-date=October 16, 2024 |work=Forbes}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Elon Musk Dials Up Transphobia on Twitter, Says 'Cis' Is a Slur |url=https://www.advocate.com/business/elon-musk-bans-cisgender-twitter |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=The Advocate |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Andrade |first=Sofia |date=2023-07-03 |title=Elon Musk says 'cis' is a slur. It's basic Latin. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/06/30/cisgender-twitter-musk-suspension/ |access-date=2024-05-21 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> 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 pejorative ''[[sissy]]'') to insult him following a post in which he rejected the term. Musk has since described cisgender as being "[[heterophobic]]" and a "heterosexual slur".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=McHardy |first=Martha |date=2023-10-31 |title=Elon Musk sparks backlash by claiming the word 'cis' is a 'heterosexual slur' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-twitter-cisgender-slur-b2438972.html |access-date=2024-05-21 |work=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Abraham |first=Ellie |date=January 11, 2024 |title=Elon Musk is now claiming that it is 'heterophobic' to call someone cisgender |url=https://www.indy100.com/news/elon-musk-heterophobic-cisgender-term |access-date=October 16, 2024 |work=[[indy100]]}}</ref> The change came amid the loosening of other rules protecting LGBT users [[Twitter under Elon Musk|under his ownership]], including removing rules prohibiting [[deadnaming]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hansford |first=Amelia |date=2024-01-11 |title=Elon Musk thinks cis is a 'heterosexual slur'. He's entirely incorrect |url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/01/11/elon-musk-cisgender-slur/ |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=PinkNews |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Responses to critiques ===

After the Oxford Dictionary added ''cisgender'' as a word in 2015, ''[[The Advocate (magazine)|The Advocate]]'' wrote that "even among LGBT people, the word is hotly debated";<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Brydum |first=Sunnivie |date=July 31, 2015 |title=The True Meaning of the Word 'Cisgender' |url=http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150803014730/http://www.advocate.com:80/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender? |archive-date=August 3, 2015 |access-date=November 26, 2021 |website=[[The Advocate (magazine)|The Advocate]] |language=en |quote=}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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 are [[Heterosexuality|heterosexual]]. 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."<ref name=":0" />

In a 2023 essay, Defosse said she did not intend the word as an insult. She says she does not believe the word ''cisgender'' caused problems, and that "it only revealed them."<ref name="Defosse2023">{{Cite web |last = Defosse |first = Dana |date = February 18, 2023 |title = I Coined The Term 'Cisgender' 29 Years Ago. Here's What This Controversial Word Really Means. |url = https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cisgender-means-transgender_n_63e13ee0e4b01e9288730415 |access-date = February 18, 2023 |website = HuffPost |language = en |archive-date = February 18, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230218144856/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cisgender-means-transgender_n_63e13ee0e4b01e9288730415 |url-status = live }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Endosex]]
* [[Feminist views on transgender topics]]
* [[Gender taxonomy]]
* [[List of transgender-related topics]]
* [[Womyn-born womyn]]

== References ==

{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* Gorton R., Buth J., and Spade D. ''[http://www.nickgorton.org/Medical%20Therapy%20and%20HM%20for%20Transgender%20Men_2005.pdf Medical Therapy and Health Maintenance for Transgender Men: A Guide for Health Care Providers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130005122/http://www.nickgorton.org/Medical%20Therapy%20and%20HM%20for%20Transgender%20Men_2005.pdf |date=November 30, 2016 }}''. Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services. San Francisco, CA. 2005. {{ISBN|0-9773250-0-8}}
* {{cite book |author = Fausto-Sterling, Anne |title = Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality |url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780465077137 |url-access = registration |publisher = Basic Books |location = New York |year = 2000 |isbn = 978-0-465-07714-4 }}

== External links ==

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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130319051227/http://ddce.utexas.edu/genderandsexuality/frequently-asked-questions/ Gender and Sexuality Center FAQ], [[University of Texas at Austin]] Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-clayton/queer-community-transphobic_b_2727064.html The Queer Community Has to Stop Being Transphobic: Realizing My Cisgender Privilege], Todd Clayton, ''[[The Huffington Post]]'', February 27, 2013
* [https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2017/tracing-terminology-researching-early-uses-of-cisgender Researching Early Uses of “Cisgender”], Avery Dame, [[American Historical Association]] Today, May 22, 2017
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