Until this post, I had not heard anybody publicly object to the term "cis". So the whole problem is a surprise to me. But then, I hadn't seen the term used outside of some fairly specifically trans-oriented literature, so I suspect many anti-trans bigots haven't even seen it. Of course I guessed what it meant the first time I saw it; that much Latin I've got.
But I'm rather uncomfortable with this post. We've had drilled into us for so long that minority groups get to be called whatever the consensus among them is to call them - for this reason, there have been four successive polite terms for Americans of African ancestry during my lifetime alone, and I still tiptoe around the question of what to call Americans whose ancestors were here before 1492, because the consensus among them isn't clear - that it bothers me to see an argument that the situation isn't commutative and the majority has to accept whatever names the minority decides to label them with. Whites used to be called "honkies." And then to have their motives for disliking it psychoanalyzed into the bargain - that's a bit much.
no subject
But I'm rather uncomfortable with this post. We've had drilled into us for so long that minority groups get to be called whatever the consensus among them is to call them - for this reason, there have been four successive polite terms for Americans of African ancestry during my lifetime alone, and I still tiptoe around the question of what to call Americans whose ancestors were here before 1492, because the consensus among them isn't clear - that it bothers me to see an argument that the situation isn't commutative and the majority has to accept whatever names the minority decides to label them with. Whites used to be called "honkies." And then to have their motives for disliking it psychoanalyzed into the bargain - that's a bit much.