Editing Cisgender (section)

== Critiques ==

While intended to be a positive descriptor to distinguish between trans and non-trans identity, the term has been met with criticisms in more recent years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aultman |first=B. |date=May 1, 2014 |title=Cisgender |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article/1/1-2/61/92020/Cisgender |journal=Transgender Studies Quarterly |publisher=Duke University Press |volume=1 |issue=1–2 |pages=61–62|doi=10.1215/23289252-2399614 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 

===From feminism and gender studies ===
Krista Scott-Dixon wrote in 2009 that she preferred "the term ''non-trans'' to other options such as ''cissexual''/''cisgendered''",<ref name=scott-dixon>{{Cite journal |last = Scott-Dixon |first = Krista |author-link = Krista Scott-Dixon |title = Public health, private parts: A feminist public-health approach to trans issues |journal = Hypatia |doi = 10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01044.x |volume = 24 |issue = 3 |pages = 33–55 |year = 2009 |s2cid = 145160039 }}</ref> saying ''non-trans'' is clearer to average people.<ref name="scott-dixon" />

Women's and gender studies scholar Mimi Marinucci writes that some consider the 'cisgender–transgender' binary distinction to be as dangerous or self-defeating as the [[gender binary|masculine–feminine gender binary]] because it lumps people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) together (over-simplistically, in her view) with a [[heteronormative]] class of people in an opposition with transgender people; she says that characterizing LGB individuals together with heterosexual, non-trans people may problematically suggest that LGB individuals, unlike transgender individuals, "experience no mismatch between their own gender identity and [[gender expression]] and cultural expectations regarding gender identity and expression".<ref>{{cite book |last = Marinucci |first = Mimi |publisher = Zed Books |year = 2010 |title = Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory |url = https://archive.org/details/feminismisqueeri00mari |url-access = limited |pages = [https://archive.org/details/feminismisqueeri00mari/page/n141 125]–126 }}</ref>

Gender studies professor Chris Freeman criticizes the term, describing it as "clunky, unhelpful and maybe even regressive" and saying it "{{zwj}}creates{{snd}}or re-creates{{snd}}a gender binary".<ref name=":0" />

=== From intersex organizations ===
{{See also|Intersex|Endosex}}

[[Intersex]] people are born with atypical physical sex characteristics that can complicate initial sex assignment and lead to involuntary or coercive medical treatment.<ref name="Dreger">{{cite book |last = Domurat Dreger |first = Alice|authorlink=Alice Dreger |title = Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex |year = 2001 |publisher = Harvard University Press |location = US |isbn = 978-0-674-00189-3 }}</ref><ref name="jointun">{{cite book|url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241507325|title=Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization, An interagency statement|publisher=[[World Health Organization]]|date=May 2014|isbn=978 92 4 150732 5}}</ref> The term cisgender "can get confusing" in relation to people with intersex conditions, although some intersex people use the term according to the [[Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth]] Inter/Act project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://interactyouth.org/post/97343969730/inter-act-has-been-working-with-mtvs-faking-it-on|date=2014|url-status=usurped|title=What is Intersex: An Intersex FAQ by Inter/Act|website=Inter/Act|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916025255/http://interactyouth.org/post/97343969730/inter-act-has-been-working-with-mtvs-faking-it-on|archivedate=September 16, 2014}}</ref> [[Hida Viloria]] of [[Intersex Campaign for Equality]] notes that, as a person born with an intersex body who has a non-binary sense of gender identity that "matches" their body, they are both cisgender and gender non-conforming, presumably opposites according to ''cisgender''{{'s}} definition, and that this evidences the term's basis on a binary sex model that does not account for intersex people's existence. Viloria also critiques the fact that the term ''sex assigned at birth'' is used in one of ''cisgender''{{'s}} definitions without noting that babies are assigned male or female regardless of intersex status in most of the world, stating that doing so obfuscates the birth of intersex babies and frames gender identity within a binary male/female sex model that fails to account for both the existence of natally congruent gender non-conforming gender identities, and gender-based discrimination against intersex people based on natal sex characteristics rather than on gender identity or expression, such as "normalizing" [[Intersex medical interventions|infant genital surgeries]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Caught in the Gender Binary Blind Spot: Intersex Erasure in Cisgender Rhetoric|url=https://hidaviloria.com/caught-in-the-gender-binary-blind-spot-intersex-erasure-in-cisgender-rhetoric/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112023646/https://hidaviloria.com/caught-in-the-gender-binary-blind-spot-intersex-erasure-in-cisgender-rhetoric/ |archivedate=November 12, 2020|first=Hida|last=Viloria|authorlink=Hida Viloria|date=August 18, 2014}}</ref>

=== From Elon Musk ===

In June 2023, [[Elon Musk]], owner of social network [[Twitter]] (now X), stated that use of the words "cis" and "cisgender" on the platform as "targeted harassment" would constitute violations of its hateful content policy, as he considered them to be [[Pejorative|slurs]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ray |first=Siladitya |date=June 21, 2023 |title=Musk Says 'Cisgender' And 'Cis' Are Now 'Slurs' On Twitter |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/06/21/musk-says-cisgender-and-cis-are-now-slurs-on-twitter/ |access-date=October 16, 2024 |work=Forbes}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Elon Musk Dials Up Transphobia on Twitter, Says 'Cis' Is a Slur |url=https://www.advocate.com/business/elon-musk-bans-cisgender-twitter |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=The Advocate |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Andrade |first=Sofia |date=2023-07-03 |title=Elon Musk says 'cis' is a slur. It's basic Latin. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/06/30/cisgender-twitter-musk-suspension/ |access-date=2024-05-21 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> The changes came following an interaction between Musk and a gender-critical commentator, who alleged that pro-trans advocates were using forms of the word (such as "cissy", a variant of the pejorative ''[[sissy]]'') to insult him following a post in which he rejected the term. Musk has since described cisgender as being "[[heterophobic]]" and a "heterosexual slur".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=McHardy |first=Martha |date=2023-10-31 |title=Elon Musk sparks backlash by claiming the word 'cis' is a 'heterosexual slur' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-twitter-cisgender-slur-b2438972.html |access-date=2024-05-21 |work=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Abraham |first=Ellie |date=January 11, 2024 |title=Elon Musk is now claiming that it is 'heterophobic' to call someone cisgender |url=https://www.indy100.com/news/elon-musk-heterophobic-cisgender-term |access-date=October 16, 2024 |work=[[indy100]]}}</ref> The change came amid the loosening of other rules protecting LGBT users [[Twitter under Elon Musk|under his ownership]], including removing rules prohibiting [[deadnaming]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hansford |first=Amelia |date=2024-01-11 |title=Elon Musk thinks cis is a 'heterosexual slur'. He's entirely incorrect |url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/01/11/elon-musk-cisgender-slur/ |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=PinkNews |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Responses to critiques ===

After the Oxford Dictionary added ''cisgender'' as a word in 2015, ''[[The Advocate (magazine)|The Advocate]]'' wrote that "even among LGBT people, the word is hotly debated";<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Brydum |first=Sunnivie |date=July 31, 2015 |title=The True Meaning of the Word 'Cisgender' |url=http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150803014730/http://www.advocate.com:80/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender? |archive-date=August 3, 2015 |access-date=November 26, 2021 |website=[[The Advocate (magazine)|The Advocate]] |language=en |quote=}}</ref> transgender veteran Brynn Tannehill argued that it was "often used in a negative way" by trans people to express "a certain level of contempt" for people they think should not partake in discussions on trans issues.<ref name=":0" /> Transgender scholar K.J. Rawson, by contrast, stated that "cis" was "not meant to be dismissive, but rather descriptive", and was no different than using the word "straight" to describe people who are [[Heterosexuality|heterosexual]]. Rawson explained that people who are straight "don't typically experience their heterosexuality as an identity, many don't identify as heterosexual—they don't need to, because culture has already done that for them", and that "similarly, cisgender people don't generally identify as cisgender because societal expectations already presume that they are."<ref name=":0" />

In a 2023 essay, Defosse said she did not intend the word as an insult. She says she does not believe the word ''cisgender'' caused problems, and that "it only revealed them."<ref name="Defosse2023">{{Cite web |last = Defosse |first = Dana |date = February 18, 2023 |title = I Coined The Term 'Cisgender' 29 Years Ago. Here's What This Controversial Word Really Means. |url = https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cisgender-means-transgender_n_63e13ee0e4b01e9288730415 |access-date = February 18, 2023 |website = HuffPost |language = en |archive-date = February 18, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230218144856/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-cisgender-means-transgender_n_63e13ee0e4b01e9288730415 |url-status = live }}</ref>