Pardon me for being such an idiot. But I've been away for a couple years and I come back and now this new vernacular. I looked it up and sort of get the definition but just what does cis stand for? Is it an acronym? I call my sister 'sis' all the time. Am I insulting her? We used to us GG or GM. I suppose that's not PC anymore? Or is that on the QT. Perhaps BS? I just don't know.

Cindi

Well when someone thought of the definition of being trans they thought there has to be a term for people being not trans.
That term is cis. It simply means not trans*.

Cis is latin and means "on the same side". Meaning for example cisgender people identify with the gender assigned at birth.


hugs to you and your sis

So is GG gauche these days? You know, back in the days of CompuServe we'd use xx or xy to identify non trans people. I suppose everything changes. You know what I'm thinking? In the next decade, we'll have a new word for trans and it will be 'cool.'

I hope
Cindi

Being polite I'd say GG is a bit "old-school"

It used to be used a lot back in the very early 1980's when I was in transition by people who, to my naive young eyes, were probably more into crossdressing than people who were going "all the way." (yes I was very naive back then and a lot more judgemental as youth often is).

However on slightly more serious note, even back then those of us who were young and transsexual used to wince when people said it, because it was like "ok thanks for reminding me I'm not genuine then pal!"

It is also made slightly more complex by the fact that in subsequent years the existence of complex genetic and hormonal disorders of sexual development is now far more widely understood (I even have one myself) and hence the rather simplistic xx/xy divide is not now supportable as any sort of absolute yardstick.

Terminology changes all the time. People are constantly seeking to redefine groupings and labels. Personally I don't buy into any of it. I have a trans history and a minor intersex condition, I underwent GCS over 30 years ago, but as to the present I prefer not to sail under any label, but simply to be me.

I don't like both "genetic" and "genuine" as I'm both, thank you. And I have no idea what my chromosomes are; never been karyotyped.

So yes, "cis" is just Latin, and it's like coming up with "heterosexual" so that there's not "normal" and then "gay." (I'm not abnormal either, just unusual.)

I got SO confused with the CIS stuff too.  I had no idea what it meant, and it seemed to come out of left field one day with no explanation!  I am used to GG too!

I called a (male) friend of mine cisgender and he said he was insulted until he looked it up.

For me personally I guess the differentiation between cis and genetic comes down to context. When I'm discussing biological things I usually refer to genetic women and genetic men, there's no getting away from the fact that, unless we're intersex or multichromosonal, then most of us will fall down very much on one side or the other. Like when discussing the breast growth process of transwomen I will compare it to the puberty of genetic girls (rather than cis girls) . But when comparing lived gender experiences I'll refer to cis vs trans. Just keeps it straight in my head that talking about gender is not always the same as talking about genetics and biology. If someone is comfortable in their assigned gender role and it tends to match their body then they are usually cisgender.

It is surprising to have been gone just a couple of years and the world has nearly turned around on this whole issue. I see all these attractive young trans women documenting their lives on youtube. I think they are incredibly brave to do so. It gets this really in front of people where it needs to be. And I'm truly grateful to see this finally come in my lifetime.

Cindi

As to the origin - those who are familiar with stereoisomers beloved of organic chemistry will easily recognise the terms as they have been in use in chemical circles for a long while to describe isomers in which two radicals are on the same side of a molecule and those where they are across the molecule.

This is important because although the two molecules have EXACTLY the same formula the position of the reactive groups will have a huge effect on the reactivity of the molecule. Variations also exist for molecules which are potentially "left handed" and "right handed" the classic example being Thalidomide where one form of the drug is harmless but the other caused major problems.

Here are two pictorials showing cis and trans versions of the same molecule. Note the positions of the two CH3 methyl groups with respect to each other and you'll get the point....

A cis-but-2-ene

trans-but-2-ene

I don't know if this helps but this is something I asked for and got that helps with abbreviations and acryonyms. Hope it helps a little bit. https://www.susans.org/wiki/Abbreviations

Quote from: CaptFido87 on March 22, 2015, 12:24:04 PM
I don't know if this helps but this is something I asked for and got that helps with abbreviations and acryonyms. Hope it helps a little bit. https://www.susans.org/wiki/Abbreviations

Thank you very much!

Cindi