Gregory's ServerWe're going to post something that isn't allowed on Twitter: a brief history of the term "cisgender"...
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The first use of the "cis" prefix referring to gender comes from a 1914 text by German physician and sexologist Ernst Burchard. He used "Cisvestitismus" to describe the inclination to wear clothing which conforms with a person's gender - the opposite of "Transvestitismus" (transvestism), the inclination to wear gender non-conforming clothes. Burchard was a colleague of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexology). Hirschfeld and Burchard, as well as researching sexology and gender, worked together in activism for gay rights in Germany. Both men sought to repeal Paragraph 175, a homophobic law which made sex between men a crime. They also co-authored research on sexology. Burchard died in 1920, and therefore did not see the backlash against sexology and LGBT+ rights driven by the Nazis. Hirschfeld left Germany in 1930, fearing persecution. Their research was suppressed by the Nazis, and Paragraph 175 became even harsher under the far-right. "Cis" wasn't used again for many years after this, until it was revived in scholarship by German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch in 1991. Sigusch used the term "Zissexuell" (cissexual) to describe people who were not trans. "Cis" was first used in the English language in 1994, when student Dana Defosse proposed its use in a Usenet group around trans topics. She argued that without an antonym to "trans", language implied trans people as Other. The adjective "cis" helped position cis as not the "norm". The term started to catch on in scholarship around gender, and by the mid 2000s, it began to gain popularity. By 2014, "cisgender" became one of the gender options on Facebook. In 2015, it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. A similar term to "cis" is "heterosexual". This adjective was also coined in the early 20th century, although its original use was far less neutral than "cis". In 1901, "heterosexual" first appeared in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, meaning “abnormal or perverted appetite toward the opposite sex". In other words, hererosexuality was considered pathological when it was first coined! In 1934, the definition of "heterosexual" was revised to its current definition, and no longer considered a pathology. Yesterday, Twitter - or at least Twitter's owner - declared "cisgender" to be a slur. At no point in the adjective's century-old history of coinage and revival has it ever been coined as a slur.   @derickr "woke" kind of proves the point, though, because it's AAVE that was stolen from and twisted around to target Black people and people who are insufficiently antiblack and fashy. The attempt to distort the meaning of "cis" is likely a ransacking by the dominant culture of trans culture and thought. @vagina_museum @vagina_museum it makes sense for "cisgender" to be a slur, since mass shootings are disproportionately caused by cis men. /s https://twitter.com/ButNotTheCity/status/1640772651470790661 @beto @vagina_museum you cannot have a slur for the dominant oppressor group  @beto that's not how slurs work...at all... Should "man" be a slur too then, by that logic?? @beto @inherentlee just butting in to point out this, which is there to indicate that Beto was being sarcastic. Tbh, I think that’s fairly obvious, but they still took the trouble to make sure there would be no doubt, and yet here we are. This isn’t twitter. Let’s not turn this place into an arguing machine too. It’s okay to give people the benefit of a doubt, and take a minute to be sure someone is saying what you think they’re saying.  @vagina_museum In some contexts everything can be used as a slur. If Elon were consistent he'd extend his policy to cover the entire content of the OED and ban everyone from his free speech town square.  @vagina_museum Just wanted to chip in and say that this has been a very interesting and informative thread, at least to me. Good work. @vagina_museum Do you also have data and context about lesbians not defining as women but a third sex? I am defining as such and have my own ideas but would love to know more <3 @anders_von_hadern @vagina_museum The idea of lesbians being considered a “third sex” or as falling intermediately on a gender scale between men and women, or as partaking of both male and female traits (all slightly different concepts, but related) is fairly old. As in, maybe as old as classical philosophy. I’d have to go through my research notes for specifics but it might make an interesting topic for my podcast. (The #LesbianHistoricMotifProject podcast.) 1/+ @anders_von_hadern @vagina_museum The concept is often rooted in the idea that one’s gender is defined in relation to the object of one’s desire, so it can sometimes give the appearance of erasing the category of “lesbian” in that it classifies lesbians as “not-women” and therefore negates the concept of “woman-loving-woman”. But there have been a number of variants on the idea of “lesbians (or homosexuals in general) as third sex” across the ages, with different nuances. 2/2 @tbehrens @vagina_museum ok sure but I'm unsure how that connects to the German gender studies stuff in this thread @furby @vagina_museum „In 1901, "heterosexual" first appeared in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, meaning “abnormal or perverted appetite toward the opposite sex". In other words, hererosexuality was considered pathological when it was first coined!“ @tbehrens @furby @vagina_museum I also find it in the 1900 edition: see https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ien.35558005329269&view=1up&seq=318 The OED also notes an 1898 usage in this sense in another work, as well as an 1895 usage in an English translation of a German work that appears to use it with the usual present-day sense.  @vagina_museum I am now wondering about the somewhat odd usage of "hetereosexualty" in the /Bill The Galactic Hero/ books (1961 for the main one, 1989–1991 for the cash-in sequels) which would certainly make a bit more sense if it's considered pathological rather than the modern meaning. @vagina_museum That kinda begs the question: what was considered the normal, healthy option back then? A healthy appetite towards both sexes? Having no appetite at all and just marrying and having just enough sex to Fulfill Your Godly Duty To Go Forth And Multiply?  @vagina_museum cliffhanger: the opposite of norm... @vagina_museum Thanks for this. Wasn't aware of it. Shouldn't the norm just be "human", with everything else being an operating parameter? @WanderingBeekeeper @vagina_museum why do you consider cis people the default tho @synthgal @vagina_museum I don't. I consider humans the default, and cis and trans as operating parameters. This is a bit shallow logic. It is statistically necessary that heterosexuality is normal. This is is that abnormality is considered "bad". It is isn't, only different.
@vagina_museum I once wrote a poem beginning, 'I used to be such a cisvestite / Now I shop on both sides of the aisle'. LB (parent): "The existence of transvestism implies the existence of cisvestism" except unironically. I know it's a bit unusual and perhaps even crass, but I feel the need to come out today as an occasional cisvestite. It's not all of who I am, but it is indeed part of who I am, and I feel it's important for me to publicly acknowledge that about myself and to explicitly welcome it from others. While our regular community genderfuck clothing presentation is certainly (obviously) acceptable, I believe we should also make room for the cisvestites among us.   @vagina_museum Way too many ckever words and too much reason for a manchild like Musk to comprehend 😊  @vagina_museum thanks for this history. It's done much to flesh out my understanding. My encounter with 'cis' on the interwebs was confusing. It took me some time to figure out what people were talking about. After understanding the topic (in general terms) I'm confused differently; there seem to be few ways to participate in the conversation that doesn't quickly devolve into name calling and casting dark aspersions on peoples' motivation. @vagina_museum thank you. Once again M*sk came on the side of the Nazis. I posted the link to your thread on the bird site. 😂 |
"Cis" or "cisgender" is a term which means that someone has the same gender identity as the gender they were assigned at birth - it means that the person is not transgender.
The word comes from a Latin prefix meaning "on the side of", while the prefix "trans" means "on the other side of". These prefixes also used in biology, geography, chemistry and genetics.