Why do so many people have a problem with being called cisgender?

Question

It makes me sad, because we need a word to describe people who aren't like us. And words like "normal" and "natural" when describing you makes us feel bad.. All I've ever wanted my whole life was to be cisgender I would be so unbelievably happy to be able to call myself cisgender :(

meowcow · Accepted Answer

The term cisgender is something that the transgender community made up to describe normal people. Why does one need a made-up term to describe normal people?

Does the community of people who have only 1 leg refer to everyone else as bipedals? Nobody needs fake terms to describe normal human beings.

In past posts, you mentioned you were trans. Believe it or not, but changing a term isn't going to make you feel better about yourself.

All people, even yourself, knows what the spectrum of normalcy is in the human population. 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 1 head. EVERYONE considers that normal. Heterosexual, "cisgender"... EVERYONE considers that normal.

The reason why people consider something abnormal is because it occurs very rarely in the population. When a child is born with a missing limb, people immediately know that it is not normal. When a child is born with Down's syndrome, people immediately know it is not normal. Eventually, even that child will know he/she is not normal because very few people share their characteristics.

That's not sad. That's just human nature, and the nature of most animals. If you take a bunch of white sheep and paint one black, all of the white sheep freak the shit out.

Even if everyone told you that you were normal (with respect to your gender identity), you would never believe it yourself. Because you are able to identify what is normal in the human population, and in your heart, you know that most other people identify as cisgender, while you do not.

When I say all this, that's not me being an asshole to you. I'm just telling you what you need to hear, but don't want to acknowledge.

As far as we know, there is no way to reverse transgender people into cisgender people. That means you're stuck with it. In the business world, people call something like this a "sunk cost", meaning the event has happened and cannot been reversed.

You basically have 2 choices now:
1. Accept the sunk cost... meaning accept yourself as a transgender and live your life to the fullest.
2. Wallow in depression and self-pity over something that nobody can change.

Trying to alter people's natural instinct to avoid things that are perceived as abnormal is never going to work because most people will reject your concept. With each new generation of people, you'd need to teach them all over again to ignore their natural instinct. And people just don't care about an issue that doesn't affect them

chris1984 · Accepted Answer

i have only ever seen cisgender used pugoratively to dismiss straight white males feelings and opinions. hate the term.

that said i'm not sure normal really applies either.

straight seems sufficient since a male interested in a female is functionally acting straight. a female who identifies as male doing the same is basically straight too, just currently a different physical gender to what they identify as.

not sure we need a word to describe people who are born as the gender they identify as.

watercolor_lions · Accepted Answer

Hey ElizaPam. I empathize with what you are saying.

I don't think the issue with using the term "cisgender" is so much related to personal offense, so much as concern that it actually exists.

You say you'd like to be cisgender... and I think a lot of us cisgender people are concerned that transgenderism is no longer considered a mental disorder (despite high suicide rates), and the use of the term cisgender only validates that transgenderism is becoming a socially accepted thing.

I understand that nobody wants to be called "not normal", but it should also be acknowledged more so as a problem. And using "cisgender" as a term indicates that it is just a different lifestyle, not an issue.

mermaidrocketship · Accepted Answer

It isn’t intended to hurt your feelings. I don’t want to be called cis because I don’t understand having a special term to describe identifying as your biological gender. So few people are transgender that it makes more sense to have a label for that rather than having a superfluous label for the vast majority of the population. I get why a transgender person might use the term cis describing their own experience, but the push for making the term more mainstream, to me, is unnecessary.

klyuh · Accepted Answer

Cisgender is the exact same thing as saying that you're a natural born woman. You identify as a woman. I don't understand why you think you need a special label for that. Cisgender actually started as a derogatory term used by trans people to describe someone who identifies as they're natural born gender. Why would anyone want that label? I really am baffled by it in all honesty.

LittleC3273 · Accepted Answer

Your gender is determined when the sperm meets the egg with which chromosomes are in your DNA, XX is female and XY is male. Everything else is all psychological and hormonal. Which neither determine your gender they only change your prefrence. If you're confused, you need a DNA test. 23 and me is a good one.

ADFSDF1996 · Answer

Because it’s usually meant as a insult, since the phrase “CIS-Scum” is used. Instead of using “CIS” use “default” if “normal” is too offensive to you. Just be considerate and don’t call people names they don’t want to be called. I’m default because I was born male and I will always be male.

AngieBourne · Answer

Cisgender is a word coined by a doctor in the 1980's as a way to differentiate between what were then call transsexuals, and birth gender people, for a medical paper. It escapes me why the "transgender" community (we can no longer say transsexual because that is an affront) have in the last 5-10 years appropriated that word to describe people who are aligned with their birth gender. What is so hard about saying "birth gender" or doing no labeling at all? My challenge is I do not wish another "community" to label me. I do not wish to be labeled at all but it seems to be what we all do these days. I, nor my community, chose that label to describe ourselves. The transsexual community, now the transgender community, was given a pass to re-label themselves and reject the label transsexual. I reject the label cisgender. It's my community and my community has the right to call ourselves what works for us. Just as the transgender community does. So if you MUST call me something to separate me from you, call me birth gender. I would prefer you not separate me from you at all but today everyone appears to need to be put in their own little box to further separate us from simply being humans of all colors, races, sexualities, sizes, shapes, and communities. Does it make us feel more like we are a member of a "tribe" and belong or does it further divide us? We don't get more and more inclusive we get less and less. It's pretty sad.

MCheetah · Answer

Cause it's not a real thing and transpeople are projecting their bullsh*t made up terminology onto us, and we don't like it. The same way transpeople complain about the whole pronouns nonsense.

You can't have it both ways. You either accept we live in a free society and you're not always going to get your way. Or you believe that everyone should always capitulate to others, just because they want them to. But you can't complain that normal people should kiss your ass and call you what you want, while you also call them something annoying and made-up that they don't want to be called. It makes you a hypocrite.

The site just now recommended this question to me. I see it is very old.

Intraluminal · Answer

A lot of people feel that transgender-ism is simply a delusion, like the guy who thought he was a cat. I personally believe it exists, but I disagree with surgical hormonal treatment. I've been a guy ally life, and never felt that I was or could be anything else, but if I awoke tomorrow in the body of a girl, and was told that whatever magic had made me a girl couldn't be undone, after doing my due diligence to assure myself that they were right, the last thing I'd do would be to cut myself up and drug myself up. I would undoubtedly be a lesbian, but I wouldn't be transgendered. The number of people who try to, very unconvincingly turn themselves into the other gender is really a sad testimony to the false belief that medicine can fix everything. It can't.

Heterosketero · Answer

Ok, put it this way, what if Heterosexuals had just labelled all Transexuals "ABNORMALS?" Think that would fly? Remember when colonists defined slaves as the N word, to normalize themselves and their slavery practices at their slaves' expense? How about every non-Jew being a goy? You think that is proper? Well, now women and Lesbians, men and gays are transphobic. Do you think that nature is oppressive? Should we call it a cis-biome? Go survive on a different planet then, we have 7 in our solar system. Is oxyfen elsezist? Are babies evil?

Where the fuck do you get off commanding a pronoun at all when you will not respect mine? Your ideology is eugenics and certainly not original, nor will the defeat of said ideaology be anything to write home about. 50 years from now, we will be teaching children to never forget, again.

Drop dead.

otternk15 · Answer

Look not everything needs a label and humanity has too many dividing us already adding more for genders only needlessly complicate things and create more shit for people to get sensitive about I'm not against your sexuallity but stop bringing so in people face about it

estoydorado1 · Answer

It's not necessary and it's a waste of time lmao. It's amazing how "gender is fluid" and "there are no genders" but at the same time y'all have a different label for all these orientations.
It's also obnoxious because aren't you sjw's the ones who jump down our throats when we even accidentally call a person the wrong pronoun? But you're forcibly assigning random titles to the rest of us? I honestly don't care. If anybody called me a cis in the real world, my scorn would be withering.

Sashmom88 · Answer

I do not call myself cisgender. It’s a made-up word that I had nothing to do with and find offensive. I’m an organic female, born female, raised female, thinking female, living female and never having a thought to be anything but female. Being female is as organic to me as the thyroid cancer was-nobody put it there, it grew on its own. Just as folks are justifiably upset and even offended by being referred to as the wrong gender or pronoun, I am offended by being labelled by some stranger’s made-up word. Call me SHE, HER, MRS or MA’AM. Even Miss if you don’t have your glasses on 🤭😁. But I am not anybody’s Cis.

LeeKenz · Answer

Why the fuck do we need another term? We have terms to describe the people who are different. And if you're born a girl you're a girl, if you're a boy you're boy. That is your GENDER thats what it is called. It is called gender. If you are anything other than what you were given at birth.

Redstang88 · Answer

its a made up word that isn't really necessary. Considering what a minute percentage of the population is trans, its safe to its a default that doesn't need another label

TNMILFHUNTR · Answer

The same reason we don't call people a non drunk. I wasn't "assigned" anything at birth. It is amazing to me how everyone who is something different acts like their situation is natural, but then claims the overwhelming majority of people are "trained" to be what they are. Can't have it both ways- either what you are is natural and what I am is natural, or we both are what we are because we choose it.

Phoenix98 · Answer

You'll have to remind me what cisgender is, there's so many genders and crap now I can't keep up with all the bullshit it's like everyday someone is making up a new gender

AxlEsquivel · Answer

Because the minority doesn't get the right to classify. Normal is another word for common. You are not common, ergo you are not normal.

myth0sfreak · Answer

I think it has to do with the media and how cisgender people are seen by the stereotypical tumblr user. It seems to have very negative connotations to us due to uninformed stereotypes of the word and the people that use it.

MrsVanity · Answer

Many women feel that calling us "cis" minimizes who we are as women. A lot feel that transgenders feel that all there is to being a woman is having long hair, boobs, woman clothing, pounds of make-up and a vagina. We calling ourselves "natural born women" should not offend you because that's what we are. We were BORN women.

Bunny122 · Answer

I feel like a lot of people are misinformed about it. So many people think it was just a new word that the lgbtq+ community made up, but the word was created in the 1990's by a literal sexologist. People need to do more research on things before they just decide to get mad at it🙄

thund3r · Answer

I don't need a term to describe my gender I am a male it is as simple as that

Müsli · Answer

I was born human, but I'm an alien. You don't know who I am and can't disprove what I am. I'm an alien. Don't discriminate. I'm fucking special

AllThatSweetJazz · Answer

It's not an officially recognized term, it's just something people made up that caught on from tumblr. And honestly I don't think it was defined very well anyway.

April10 · Answer

Why do we need so many labels? Why can't people just be who they are and not be put in a box?

Aguamarina · Answer

I don't understand either because it just means someone who isn't transgender. Today, a lot of people have a problem with trans people more than they have an issue with gays. I bet so many people, back then, had a problem with being called straight.

Other_Tommy_Wiseau · Answer

not so much of a problem, but it sounds fucking stupid and it makes me think of an actual cyst :/

0112358 · Answer

If you take a fully expanded few of gender, cisgender almost has no meaning. If you think there are only two genders, cisgender has meaning.

Rissyanne · Answer

Because someone just made it up. It really doesn't mean anything.

vjedi · Answer

Because the correct term for both genders is male or female. Everything else is simply a delusional fantasy.

Mekara · Answer

... Because it's fucking pointless? Why do I need a label or a category to feel special?

JenSCDC · Answer

And why don't those same people object to being called heterosexual? Or do they?

DeeperMeaning · Answer

Because it implies there's such a thing as more than just male and female.

SVUCE · Answer

Why aren't you normal? What made u think u were something else all the sudden? Can u just be li mgonna be a normal person?

OlderAndWiser · Answer

What do you call yourself?

thatoddguy · Answer

because there are 2 genders and believe it or not gender dysphoria is not a gender

demonics · Answer

Sounds like AIDS which is different from cancer. You don't want either.

IamUta · Answer

All of the times I've heard someone use cisgender it was used in a negative way that insults me or other "cisgender white males"

anametouse · Answer

cisgender is a made up term, I'd prefer to be called fabulous bitch or sexy bitch, those are my proper pronouns

cupidkisses · Answer

I think most people even don't know what does it mean

Kaiservadin · Answer

There are two terms i hate. CIS Gender, why can't we be called male and female? binary / non-binary make the person sound like a robot.

JimmyX88 · Answer

We reject cisgender lie it's just tool you trans use to normalize your sickness and I reject your cisgender lie

JustblockRebecca · Answer

We don't need to live life with a million labels.

WalterBlack · Answer

It sounds like an insult.

DonkeyRick69 · Answer

Because it's wrong to label

QueenofCups · Answer

I am a cis female, and proud of it.

thisguy24 · Answer

What the heck is cisgender?

itwasmelaniasfault · Answer

Because it sounds like cist which isn't nice.

Gayview_Mahat · Answer

I prefer someone call me by my Government name

DesiBeautyLover · Answer

What the hell is a cisgender?

NerdInDenial · Answer

It's a made up word.

BCRanger10 · Answer

Because I'M A MAN!

medicguy · Answer

What is cisgender?

Shiba1490 · Answer

Lmfao

SuccessfulHornDog · Answer

No thanks

Loganville · Answer

There no cisgender

Why do so many people have a problem with being called cisgender?

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Why do so many people have a problem with being called cisgender?

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