So, there seems to be a lot of wilful misunderstanding about what the word “cis” means, with a complete lack of will to listen to what trans women are saying, so I figured now is the time for me to come out as cis.
When I’m downing pints in the pub, watching the football and making whoooargh football noises, I’m a cis woman.
When I’m climbing trees and skinning knees, I’m a cis woman.
When I’m wearing a gigantic strap-on dildo and feeling the thing like a phantom limb, I’m a cis woman.
When I’m shoving the boys aside to explain to them how badly they’ve fucked up the barbecue and how to do it right, I’m a cis woman.
When I’m wiping out space armies on the tabletop or computer screen, guess what, I’m a fucking cis woman.
But wait! Those who deliberately refuse to understand the word “cis” cry. Surely I cannot be cis if I do these things, because I’m subverting gender roles.
Nope.
See, when I was born, the doctors looked at my junk and went, “it’s a girl”. I grew up a cis girl, and I blossomed into a cis woman. I have never in my life been a trans woman, or a trans man. I have never experienced transphobia or transmisogyny. I have never transitioned. I’m also not non-binary.
And that’s all “cis” means.
That is all it means.
Cis is not trans.
Got it? Good.
Another angry woman 
THANK you! Maybe my clueless cis friends who think it’s a stealth insult and whine about being “labelled” will finally get it if it’s a cis woman SAYING it. Sadly the same way men won’t believe sexism statistics from women unless a man says it to them. Infuriating yes, but I’ll take what I can get if it gets through to someone.
ha nice ty 🙂
Thanks for the clarification!
As a cis man with long hair, lots of piercings, a history of wearing lots of make-up and looking like I might have different junk under the trunk (at least according to the drunken guys who used to hit on the tall blonde bird with no tits), solidarity. Gender roles bedamned, cis is just being happy with your bits. Solidarity also to those who aren’t so happy and would rather change them. Your body, your choice.
It’s not even “happy with your bits”.
Right now, I couldn’t be more furious at my cunt for getting wounded, getting thrush and desperately trying to have a period pretty much all at once. Doesn’t make me not cis :p
OK, happy in principle. Sticky bollix on the tube isn’t fun either 😉
Ok. So if cis means you’re not trans, what does trans mean?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=transgender
Your awesomeness just keeps growing – thank you, Stavvers
The way I make sense of it is that I have cis privilege because I was assigned “girl” at birth and feel no resistance being seen by the world as one. I think the problem comes when explanations are frased as “identify as a woman” or such as I dont think identification is needed to have cis privilige. Only to not have a strong identification with what you were not assigned as or as non binary if that makes sense. Only to not need to make life choices that makes the world discriminate against you by failing to be what they assigned you to be. As long as you pass for what you were assigned as without feeling pain/wrong about it there is a privilege and I dont think it matters if we feel we fit in as woman or sure what woman means or all those questions. It doesnt matter because I think we can all agree that we have a privilege in the way the world treats us and that is why we need those words, to describe that.
I have heard cis used in relation to sexual orientation as well. Same theory, you are cissexual (which I do think is a rather unpleasant sounding word, too many sibilants) if your sexual preference matches the socially expected preference. Is that correct usage too, or was it snaffled from gender theory circles?
um, there’s a word for that and it’s “heterosexual”. idk where you heard that, but either you’re misunderstanding, or they are.
Maybe you’re getting confused with “cissexism” (i.e. transphobia) when someone say they aren’t attracted to trans people?
They used it in the context of social constructs – I have privilege because I am cissexual (orientation as society expects) rather than any other options. It was a in person discussion though, so it could have been a usage of convenience.
Cissexual is to transsexual as cisgender is to transgender. Sometimes people who are transgender may also be cissexual because they need to socially transition (pronoun change, sometimes a name change, things of that nature) but not medically (e.g., hormones, surgery(ies), and so on). In my experience, this word is pretty infrequently used; I don’t know anyone who uses it, not even any people, self included, who are seeking/wish to seek medical transition (not even those who seek medical transition and ID as transsexual).
TL;DR: Cissexual has nothing to do with sexual orientation. It’s a word that sometimes complements “transsexual”.
I was looking for this certain info for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck