I largely agree with the piece but I would because I have minimal regard for politics that relies on respectability for impact since my personal interpretation of past events suggests it doesn't actually work for the vast majority of the disadvantaged. In my mind, the only gains are for the 'respectable' minority that are thrown table scraps by the oppressor for being seen as collaborators.
My personal attitude to 'cisgender' is this: Show me an argument against it that cannot be transferred to heterosexual, gay, straight, or almost any term since no word is utterly perfect. I've seen a few people think they've achieved that but it's been pretty obvious to me that their biases have rendered them oblivious to massive inconsistencies in their application of thinking.
My attitude wouldn't automatically change if a legitimate difference was shown since it depends on the validity of the difference as a criticism but the rule has been useful since the people opposing 'cisgender' are almost always hypocrites, whether it's a person that is happy to identify as 'straight' or a LGB person happy to label others 'straight'.
I tend to think there's so much opposition to the term from certain groups since they're throwing a petulant tantrum because they can't just be 'normal,' because some of those opposed have a nasty habit of assuming they can't be advantaged in any domain because they're disadvantaged in one area, and because people don't seem to like being made to face the idea that their inexperienced opinion
is actually totally uninformed dross that isn't needed in some cases. I've encountered quite a few people that simply lack awareness of their limits and think that because they
can interject or express a view on something then they
should. Flowing from that, I'm absolutely fine with people telling cisgender people to shut up and think people that are advantaged or uneducated in a given area need to learn how to overcome the defensiveness of pride and entitlement, irrespective of whether it's trans politics or something like vaccine effects or anthropogenic climate change.
I find the suggestion it's a slur utterly absurd, it's descriptive in nature. I think it's used in a negative context so often because trans people often have negative experiences with cis people. Moreover, the people that view it as a slur are typically those that only see it used on very open forms of social media, I regard those as places which are more prone to venting of frustration. Cis people don't see it used by our community in other spaces. For instance, on this forum usage seems overwhelming neutral from what I've seen so far. Further, I'd argue many of them reach the conclusion that they dislike the term first because they think it imposes on them in some way and then try to find proof to justify it after-the-fact or are oblivious to something like confirmation bias.
I also don't see 'die cis scum' as a problem. I wouldn't personally resort to that because I'm lucky to have the energy to not feel the need but I tend to view the 'scum' as an important qualification. For me, it suggests the people are referring to the cis people that have harmed them and the cis people that do nothing to stop it or change things. I see it as an expression of pain and self-motivation by people that have been under a metaphorical, or literal, boot.
Further, trans people have no power to oppress cis people in almost all contexts so 'die cis scum' yields no actual harm to cis people from my perspective. If a cis person sees a minority use something like that and decides to generalise that to all trans people or ceases to support us then I'd say that person never really understood us, was never really motivated by true empathy in the first place, and was quite likely to have been an ally for the sense of righteousness rather than due to a sense of duty to fellow humans. The problem is with the cis person, for me.
Quote from: Xenguy on July 27, 2014, 04:05:07 PMI honestly don't get how things went from "Let us live our lives" to "die cis scum"......
I actually think I can see a vague process that led to it and expect it was similar to the process that has led lots of activists in history to shift from appealing to humanity or petitioning to increasingly militant campaigning. Many of these people say 'let us live our lives' and get ignored, declined, or told to wait repeatedly before they realise nothing is going to change without different tactics.
