(no subject)

[gfish]

People have problems with the term cisgender? That's... I don't know what that is. Quite an impressive knapsack, I guess.

Comments

[cow.livejournal.com]

And yet, sadly common whenever trans/genderqueer stuff gets discussed on the internet. :(

It seems that people feel that defining the .. standard option? .. makes them boxed in. Which is understandable, but just as 'homo' needs 'hetero', 'trans' needs 'cis' just to construct the sentences. Not that you don't already know, but I get ranty.

or something. blurg tired brain.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

I don't have *any* problem with the concept. I don't have *any* problem with there being *a* word for it.

I have a problem with that *particular* word, just like I have a problem with a lot of very-poorly-chosen neologisms / language abuse.

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

How do you feel about neurotypical?

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

The only problem with "cisgender" is that it's a rather foisted "everyone else" term. Most people it is intended to describe don't use the word. If someone asks me, "are you cisgender", my response is likely to be "um, I guess".

It's a bit like goy actually. I'm going to have the same response is someone asks whether I'm goyishe. Being goyishe as such isn't an active part of my identity, though I suppose it might be if I moved to Israel.

But neither term bothers me, either, because I know neither are intended to be derogatory.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

The term mostly just confuses me, as I have no idea where it came from or how it was decided that it was the best term to use. So I tend to get distracted by it's use in that way.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

A discussion elsewhere yesterday uncovered the fact that a lot of people dislike terms like 'cisgender' when used in otherwise jargon-free conversation, because they feel it is somehow elitist (as would be your reference to the knapsack, because if you haven't come across the essay or references to it - and a lot of people haven't - it's effectively meaningless). I can vaguely see their point, because it isn't a word everyone is familiar with, and I read the comments above about etymology with mostly-amused interest, but there really isn't a better single word to use so... *shrug*

A lot of responses crammed together.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I've got no problem with cis-gender as a word; it seems to me the meaning is obvious to anyone who knows a little bit about human sexuality and latin prefixes, and anyone who doesn't know at least a little about those things is likely to need *any* term having to do with the subject explained. Trans-gender is "across the gender spectrum; (body one gender, self-image anoher)"-if that makes any sense at all (and I think it does) then cis-gender is "on the same side of the gender spectrum" (or "divide" if you prefer to think of it as a binary.)

English has a long history of pickpocketing other languages for spare vocabulary, so latin prefixes are perfectly appropriate for English words. Chemistry uses latin prefixes and that's fine, but it doesn't have them copyrighted.

I think gender is *far* more than reproduction--good grief; if I'm infertile, am I genderless?

I don't much care for "gender incoherent" as a term; it seems to me that it makes it sound like transgender people can't even talk. But if a majority of trans people start using it, I'm willing to reconsider my position.

I'm used to the accusation of "elitist" meaning "the previous speaker thinks she is better than other people because of some personal characteristic." I don't see how this could be applied to the term "cis-gender"--if anything it seems to me to be *less* elitist than having no term for the concept because it includes a recognition that being cis-gender is like being trans-gender: a characteristic rather than the only normal way to be. Unless the accusation means "the previous speaker thinks she is better than other people because she knows this specialized term" which is an accusation that can be directed against anyone who uses any new or unusual word. Perhaps I am misunderstanding what was meant?

[hollyqueen.livejournal.com]

What does "knapsack" mean?

[k-crow.livejournal.com]

It's not a term I have a problem with, but it was also a term I was unaware of until recently. I'd seen it here and there in things I was reading, but almost always lacked context to piece together what it meant. Personally, I think it's a very useful term when discussing gender.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I think it's a great term, myself - both made perfect intuitive sense when I first ran across it, and made me giggle. Two thumbs up.