the hashtag #CisIsNotASlur reminds me of an older relative asking me what "cis" meant. he assumed it was a slur because the only time he'd heard it it was his kid angrily calling him that he didn't know the meaning, but he knew it was an attempt to invalidate his experience
"Cis" as slur, context, and ontological normativity
14 tweets · June 2023 · 509 likes · 10 retweets · read on Twitter
idk the context of when his kid said "you don't understand, you're just a cis white man" but I know he's a kind man, who has been a peace activist and run workshops to stop bullying, so I'm sure he was trying his best to listen
the memetic environment had clearly convinced the kid though that anybody who wasn't on board with this particular ontology could be dismissed by labelling them othering people and shaming them until they adopt your worldview! ....will make you more enemies than you can count
meanwhile, no matter where the power comes from, if you have the power to silence somebody by calling them names—That. Is. A. Form. Of. Privilege. obviously that doesn't mean they don't also have other forms of privilege
we need to be able to say the obvious or we go crazy "cis" is OBVIOUSLY sometimes a slur "cis" is OBVIOUSLY sometimes not a slur ("slur" is a bad concept; it's about how the word is used) #CisIsNotASlur #CisIsASlur — both true
anybody on team "cis is never a slur", how do you account for this and the comments to it?
anybody on team "cis is always a slur"... ...many people use it about themselves and their friends with zero charge plus here's a self-identified anti-woke person using it in a medical/technical context because it's a simple way to say what she means:
allowing everybody to say the obvious is hard. part of why this is is that that what's obvious to one person is absurd to another
people are going to see you how they see you, and try to call it how they see it and if the only alternative you can offer them obscures the obvious, they won't take it!
I have mixed feelings about "cis". I've used it a bit but on balance it feels to me kind of othering, so I mostly don't use it, and I certainly don't "identify as cis" (if you think this means I must be trans....... you are OBVIOUSLY committing ontological normativity)
ontological normativity is not going to work here guys nobody is going to win we need to find ways to work with a variety of fluid contextual ontologies and iterate towards better default/common/shared ontologies not impose our own on people who don't want that
somehow we've gotta live in this paradox
while writing this thread, some searches led me to this post on a site trying to abolish gender altogether, written by a transwoman she quotes Simone De Beauvoir in great depth describing how power & normativity & othering interplay genderapostates.com/cissexism-and-…
I want to hoist this reply, which added: > So the question to ask is really: does it seem like a lot of people to whom the term applies *consider it* demeaning prima facie? > For “cis” the answer is yes.