Headline Roundup • June 23rd, 2023
Is 'Cisgender' a Slur?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The term "cisgender" is sometimes used to describe people whose gender identity aligns with their biological sex. Is it a slur in certain contexts?
What Twitter Said: "Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words “cis” or “cisgender” are considered slurs on this platform," Elon Musk said on Wednesday, in reply to a Twitter user who said they were harassed for rejecting the term "cisgender."
What the Left Said: "'Cisgender' is not a slur. It is a term used used in scientific, legal, medical, and everyday contexts. The attempt to make 'cis' a slur is a blatant attempt to erase trans identities from a supposed 'free speech absolutist'," said Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) on Twitter. "For transphobes, 'cisgender' is deeply threatening because it implicitly acknowledges the existence of 'transgender'," said one MSNBC (Left bias) writer.
What the Right Said: Author J.K. Rowling said, "'Cis' is ideological language, signifying belief in the unfalsifiable concept of gender identity. You have a perfect right to believe in unprovable essences that may or may not match the sexed body, but the rest of us have a right to disagree, and to refuse to adopt your jargon." One National Review (Right) writer warned of "a concerted effort to enforce the gender ideologues’ view of gender by imposing membership in the cis-terhood on the rest of us, through our schools and perhaps in the military and other government contexts."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Toby Melville/Reuters
Madeleine Kearns draws attention to J. K. Rowling’s objection to being called a “cisgender woman,” or “cis.” This is basically a term from gender ideology to describe non-trans people, or those whose internal sense and external performance of their gender in some ways matches their biological sex.
Under Elon Musk, Twitter apparently has a policy of limiting or disciplining accounts that use the term “cisgender” as a repeated slur. That makes some sense to me.
I’ve seen progressives argue that objecting to being termed “cisgender” is needlessly pushy. True, they say, you...
Chesnot - Getty Images
Elon Musk’s Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council in December, not long after the self-described “free-speech absolutist” bought the social media platform. But while the council is gone, it seems as if the tech tycoon himself is deciding what will be considered hate speech on the site based on his own private views.
In March, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO told his millions of followers that he found “cis” to be personally offensive, and now it appears that it will be an indexed term whose use could result in an account suspension for...
Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images
On Wednesday, anti-trans darlings Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling posted deeply troubled and misinformed tweets in which they both argued the term “cisgender” is essentially an ideologically radical and unfounded term, which, well, hurts their feelings. Therefore, according to Rowling, she shouldn’t have to use it, and Musk decreed the word would be categorized as a “slur” by Twitter and that Twitter users who use it will be penalized.
The adjective “cisgender” describes people whose gender identity matches their sex, and for transphobes — that is, people who want to deny the existence of trans people or...
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