With Apologies to Sena Bryer

[FlowerMilk]

I don't get why people struggle so much with this concept. I'm not even defending Sena. I don't like her. But she doesn't want to BE like you. She IS like you, she is like me. She is every bit as much of a woman, regardless of the circumstances of her birth. Just because she isn't a good person doesn't make it okay to deny a person's humanity like that.

It's genuinely just because they hate trans people. If it was just what they say, that they dislike her work as a VA in Dawntrail or think she's a bad person, then they would just say that (and for the record I also dislike her work and don't like her as a person, either). But they like to say wildly transphobic stuff like this and then excuse it away with "whoa how dare you I was just criticizing her job in Dawntrail and I think she's an awful person".

I suggest just reporting them for transphobia and putting them on ignore. People in this thread have already been banned for it.

No honey, she's a transwoman and you're a ciswoman. Get it right. That's her definition of us, we're not equal in her eyes.
The person you responded to, who was responding to me, didn't deny her any 'humanity' but pointed out her behavior, which should be called out and criticized. There's no need to sympathy bait for this.

I know you probably don't care, but for anyone wondering what the origin of cis/trans is and why it's used for gender identity, here you go:

Where does cis come from?

Cis has traditionally been used as a prefix, the same as trans has, and comes from the latin meaning “on the same side as”, which sits opposite trans, from the latin “on the opposite side as”.

These terms have been used in the scientific disciplines for centuries, such as in chemistry, geography, and genetics.

Chemistry has used the terms trans and cis to talk about the arrangement of isomers, which are molecules or ions that have the same formula but different structures. They are used to describe the structure of a molecule, and whether an atom is on the same side as a similar atom, or a different side.

Language is full of these borrowed words, taken from different disciplines or subjects to describe new experiences and understandings of the world. The use of the word cis to talk about gender is just one more way we can make sense of and describe the world around us.

It's also important to use space between cis, trans, and the word they’re attached to, eg. Cis woman and trans woman. You wouldn’t say someone is a smartwoman or a tallwoman.

Why do we need a word for this?

The word cis exists to fill a gap that would otherwise exist in language, and that has previously been filled with words like ‘normal’ or ‘regular’, which position trans people as ‘abnormal’ or ‘irregular’ as a result. While cis people are more common, normal can have a connotation of denigrating trans people. Having a specific word means that our language is not only specific, but value neutral, and doesn’t paint cis or trans people as better or worse as a result.

By being able to differentiate between trans and cis people, we can talk about the experiences we have that differ, and the many more experiences we have that are similar.