Friday, August 22, 2008

Word of the Gay: "Cissexism"

"Cissexism" is the belief and treatment of transgender and/or transsexual people as inferior to cissexual (non-trans) people.

7 comments:

Laurie said...

Man, did you ever think of being a teacher?
I'm gonna have to find ways you use all these
in a sentence so I can at least seem smart.


HUGS!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

DANG! Just when I think I have heard it all... well, if I ever think that, I just pop in for the "word of the gay"... I agree with Laurie!
:-D

libhom said...

The word I've read before is "transphobia." The two words offer different insights into the phenomenon.

shrink on the couch said...

so cissexual = transgender, huh? what is the root of this word?

Lea said...

It's based on the chemical designations, which come from the Latin: "trans" means "on opposite sides" and "cis" means "on the same side." Chemically, that refers to the positions of atoms in a molecule (see cis-trans isomers on Wikipedia). In identity politics, it refers to the alignment of gender identity and birth sex.

I think the relationship between transphobia and cissexism is similar to the relationship between homophobia and heterosexism. One is overt, one is covert. One preaches hatred, while the other contends itself with a subtle and insidious combination of patronizing pseudo-tolerance with de-normalization. Alternatively, I may be rambling out of my mind. Sometimes I can't tell the difference.

Anonymous said...

Something I still don't understand. There is transgender bias in the gay community, but it doesn't make much sense to me. I've heard other lesbians calling transgender men who want to be lesbians post-op "perverts", while many of them are transgender as well and expecting their girlfriends to go straight for them.

I think that honestly expecting someone to /change/ their sexuality for you is no better.

Anonymous said...

Does transsexism, then, exist?

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