Discussing gender, Ross said that she didn’t like the term cisgender (when a person’s gender identity matches their biological sex) as it was too medical. She also said that she didn’t appreciate that it was a term bestowed on her rather than one she chose for herself. I completely understand what she’s saying. Naming is so integral to power and identity. Another panelist said that the term was created so as not to say “non-transgender” as it’s offensive to refer to people by what they are not. Issues of privilege and gender arose amongst the panel. An audience member said that she was a trans woman and that she found being transgender to be a privilege (I was intrigued!). She went on to say that while people can oppress you for it, it’s also a privilege to be able to choose your gender. Since many reproductive justice activists discuss the power of choice, I love that idea of the power of choosing your gender.First, let me say that the pronouns toward the end are confusing and potentially misleading. Is the trans woman in the audience saying you get to choose your gender? Or Loretta Ross? Or another panelist? I'm not sure. But more to the point, I've heard this discomfort with "cisgender" (and "cissexual") expressed elsewhere, and I've finally put my finger on why it irks me.
I don't like being called white. I'm Italian, I'm third generation, and my immigrant grandparents weren't welcomed into the fold of white people upon their arrival at Ellis Island. But it doesn't matter. I benefit from white privilege and white supremacy every day, in every part of my life, and so do my ancestors. Sure, I'd rather get to choose a different word, but at the end of the day, I think privileged folks get to take a backseat in defining our privilege.
Intersectionality tells me that there will be parts of my life where I have privilege and parts where I do not. I think it's important to recognize that privilege and oppression are intertwined and incalculable, and I'm not into Oppression Olympics. My race privilege doesn't undo my gender oppression; my class privilege doesn't undo sizist oppression. These are all forces that act upon me and my life, and that influence my real and perceived relationships and interactions with other people. My gender identity and expression are fluid and complex, and most of the time I'm too tired to deal with them -- and that's a privilege. Generally I'm comfortable identifying and being recognized as a woman. I don't believe I've ever been misgendered in public (or in private, for that matter), and since being misgendered would likely lead to embarrassment on the other person's part rather than danger on mine, I don't particularly care. I'm not transsexual. I was assigned female at birth, and I find that to be a mostly accurate assignation. I recognize that at some point in the future that may change for me, but my present truth is that I'm cissexual. Just like any time we try to make a clear distinction between two things, there are people who fall in the middle or outside the system entirely. I tend to straddle the line between cisgender and transgender.
Cis might not be my favorite prefix, but I appreciate and agree with the reason it's used: defining people as cisgender and transgender replaces definitions that are problematic to trans folks. For example: normal/trans, natural/created, healthy/disordered, born/chosen (or born/transitioned) Cis and trans are prefixes that, on their own, do not carry value judgments the way the above do. So I claim cis for the same reason I claim white, middle-class, and able-bodied. Nuance is important, but when we're talking about systems of race, class, and disability oppression, I need to take a backseat.
