Shaneel Lal: What’s so offensive about the prefix ‘cis’?

X Corp and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo / AP

OPINION

The real horror of Halloween wasn’t the ghosts. It was Elon Musk tweeting that the prefix cis “is a heterosexual slur”.

This is the second time the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has said this. In June, he tweeted that the repeated use of cis or cisgender would be considered harassment and would lead to a temporary suspension, at a minimum, of the accounts who used them.

The word “cis” is a heterosexual slur. Shame on anyone who uses it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2023

It is astounding how the tables have turned - conservatives who have a history of calling anyone advocating for change “snowflakes” are now the people who are offended by a completely normal and devoid of offence prefix. Cis or cisgender have nothing to do with sexuality. Trick or treat? Musk is trying to trick us all!

The prefix cis is short for cisgender and means on the same side. In the context of gender, cis is used as a prefix ahead of terms like women and men, for example, cisgender men or cis men. In practice, the word cis men refers to men who were assigned the gender boy at birth and identify as men as adults.

The word trans is more commonly used. It is short for transgender and means on the other side of. For example, transgender men or trans men are people who were assigned girls at birth but identify as men as adults.

What’s offensive about this? Nothing. Perhaps people consider cis a slur because they are using the term trans as a slur.

Cis women and trans women are women. Cis men and trans men are men. The words women and men are not exclusive to cisgender people. They are umbrella terms that are capable of and do capture both cisgender people and transgender people without losing their meaning.

When I think of slurs, three things come to mind. Slurs have always been created by oppressors and used against people they have oppressed. Slurs have always been derogatory and have sought to dehumanise, humiliate and demonise oppressed peoples. Slurs are usually the last thing oppressed people hear when they are attacked in hate crimes.

I cannot think of a period in history (or in this day) when trans people have oppressed cis people or had the power to do so, have sought to dehumanise, humiliate or demonise cis people because they are cis, or engaged in hate crimes against cis people. Conservatives want to be oppressed so badly they create hypothetical scenarios in their heads that’ll never eventuate and want us to play along with their delusions. I am tired of society mollycoddling conservatives. They need to grow up.

When I think of the prefix cis, I think of my chemistry classes where, at the most basic level, I was taught the prefixes cis and trans in the context of molecular formulae. Cis meant that the functional groups of a molecule were on the same side of the plane; for example, cis-but-2-ene and trans meant the functional groups of a molecule were on opposing sides, for example, trans-but-2-ene.

Before we understood the nuances of gender, all my peers were using the prefix cis. I was not thinking of walking up to my bullies and calling them cis as an insult in high school. No one was clutching their pearls at the sound of the prefix cis. Ask an academic who has studied science. But I fear if anti-trans groups accepted scientific evidence, I wouldn’t be writing this column.