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Mikaela Suomalainen 2014-12-30 10:57:53 +02:00
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---
layout: post
title: 'RE: "The New ''C'' Word"'
date: '2014-07-27T08:00:00+03:00'
tags:
- trans
- gatekeeping
- lgbt
tumblr_url: http://tumblr.mikaela.info/post/92985095734/re-the-new-c-word
category: [english]
---
This post became a little weird and I jumped from one thing to another, but the only comment I got from revieweres (one person) was that “gender identity research” might not be a correct word, but no one can think any better word, so I will add this to queue now.
This is my opinion of HUFFPOST GAYVOICES article “The New ‘C’ Word” by Brynn Tannehill
The article is about words “cis” and “cisgender” and those people who really dislike the term.
I don’t see anything else agreeable in it than that “ed” doesn’t belong to “transgender” nor “cisgender” and not being stereotypical doesn’t mean being trans.
What I don’t understand is the problem with the word “cis”. We have no choice than to have the prefix “trans” added to our gender.
When I changed my name and wasn’t passable, I would have been asked questions about my gender identity, because everyone saw a boy.
When I met new people, they always asked if I said that my name was Mikael, when I said that I am Mikaela. That hasn’t happened recently, but I have been on hormones for seven months, so maybe I am more “passable” now. No cis person probably has had this issue.
Trans people must say that they are trans, cis don’t have to and by refusing to acknowledge the fact that they are cis, they make themselves normal and what everyone should be.
In the article it’s said that organizations are against using the words cis and cisgender (I will use cis and trans after this on this post, typing them and the -gender form both is useless more work).
I will now start quoting the article so this hopefully becomes more easy to read, I am not used to typing long posts, so this article probably looks difficult to read anyway.
Even inside the LGBT community the words have a very negative connotation. When someone is referred to as a “cisgender lesbian” or “cis gay man” by a transgender person, it is often in a negative way.
I haven’t ever heard “cis” to be used in negative way by trans people.
The addition of “cis” or “cisgender” is used to imply a certain level of contempt and a desire that they leave discussions on transgender issues. It also implies that they don’t, can’t, or won’t ever understand transgender issues.
I cannot comment this from any other point of view than what I see in Finland. We have LGBT organization Seta which has suborganiation Transtukipiste.
At Transtukipiste they know about trans issues and I can understand them talking about those issues, but Seta doesn’t seem to know anything about trans issues and when I talked with them at Twitter last time, I don’t remember why, but I rememer that they say that “trans fetish is normal sexual orientation and asexuality doesn’t exist”. This should give enough clear picture that maybe cis people shouldn’t comment on trans issues.
There is also the gender identity research in Finland which you must go through to get diagnose and treatment. I haven’t ever met any cis person who actually knows what it is like, people seem to think that you go there and then you immediately get all treatment that you need. Wrong.
My progress from last summer to now:
I had self-castration attempt (I have had around ten of those and suicide attempts) last summer and finally came out with my gender issue and got doctor’s referral to gender identity research.
Around three months and I got my first appointment there. I met doctor and nurse and I had difficulties understanding the doctor, because their accent was somehow strange and this wouldn’t have went well if my mother wasn’t there.
Some time passed and I met the nurse once in two weeks for some weeks.
I had to wait three months to see another doctor.
I started hormones by myself on 30th of December without any kind of blood tests nor anything. Why? It’s better than suicide or self-harm and I have been happier since then and now I am really alive.
Three months after 4. which was last month I met the previous doctor and another doctor who “knew about Asperger’s syndrome”. This was required appointment, because gatekeepers apparently aren’t aware that autism spectrum people have more often variety of gender and sexuality…
Almost two months later I am typing this and I am awaiting appointment with psycholog and I have no idea when that appointment will be. Only appointments with nurse had set date, everything else needed long time (or the 6. some phone calls) before I heard when the appointment would be.
So I can surely say that cis people should stay away from trans issues or they should at least check what they are going to say with multiple trans people. What else did that article have?
many LGB people have never been called “cis” or “cisgender” in a way that wasn’t accusatory.
LGB people seem to be getting more attention though, so it might not be a wonder for the to be accused with being cis. Have you followed Pride parades and news about it?
In Finland YLE (our “BBC”) had Pride week with shows on “divercity of gender and sexuality”. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Then when reading the programme, there were 8 shows about gays, 2 about lesbians and everyone else was forgotten (where did the gender go?). There were of course drag shows, but as far as I am aware no one was trans in them.
The Pride parade this year was the first one where I had attended and my mother was with me. First we weren’t able to find Transtukipiste’s block anywhere, but finally we found it. After the parade, no media had photos of Transtukipiste’s block nor any other trans people and still we were mentioned in all news without even showing that we actually were there.
Oh, that paragraph continued.
Therefore we find common ground in disliking a word because its context has always been nasty and demeaning when applied to us personally.
I think that I already said this, but I see trans often in nasty and demeaning context unless I am in group of trans people. And as I said, we cannot opt-out from being trans, cis people are always “men or women”, we are always “trans men or women” (I am not sure do cis people recognize existense of non binary genders as I hear “he/she” being used as gender neutral more than “they”).
It isn’t logically or ethically consistent to tell one group of people that they need to get over a word they dislike being used to describe them while strenuously objecting to a word being applied to you, even if both words can be used in a contextually neutral way. The logic cuts both directions.
Do you mean that everyone should use slurs about everyone? (Are there even slurs of cis straight people?) If we are going to get to the T-word, it should be mentioned that the word originally didn’t even mean trans people and as far as I am aware, cross-dressers don’t even use the word by themselves anymore.
There are perfectly good substitutes as well. In public discussions I frequently use the term “non-transgender” instead of “cisgender.”
This is not a perfectly good substitute, as majority of people are cis, this makes being not-transgender normal while it’s not any less abnormal than being cis.
Often the words don’t need to be used at all. When describing someone’s sexual orientation, do you really need to use “transgender” or “cisgender” as a prefix to it?
Please name trans people who aren’t referred as trans in media or anywhere. Can you get many?
As a result, “cis” and “cisgender” should be used sparingly in public discourse. There are a limited number of circumstances in which they are necessary, appropriate, and ultimately beneficial to the community as a whole.
In my opinion as long as trans people must say trans or be talked about as trans, so do cis.
Gender identity research might be better known as gatekeeping to trans people, but it’s that place where you must be researched for over year before you are given transsexual (“opposite” gender) or transgender (non binary) diagnose.