Lillia, you are just a brilliant writer full of well researched information and a little bit of whit. Your braveness to inform with logic is a rarity. I feel bolstered in my own arguments after reading your essays. Ive always felt the term “cisgender” was a creepy phrase. Now I know why. Thank you for your probing and sharing the truth.
This is your main thrust, I think, that words have meanings, but labeling someone _cisgender_ is as dumb as saying "I'd like a Non- Diet Coke."
I don't understand all this going around your butt to get to your elbow crap. Just call it Coke.
--
Treading lightly... if you decide that someone calling you the N-word is a slur (despite the fact that others _like you_ can address you thusly without the least bit of offense...) then it's a slur. This is part of The Agreement.
I've not been so addressed or labelled as Cis but expect to register my offense immediately and issue a warning that a second offense automatically receive a harsh rebuke.
Honestly, in general, I think so many of these arguments are silly, and the word "cis" did not bother me until I got to thinking about it.
If we can decide there are innumerable genders, then why can't we decide that there are simply four "classifications": men, women, trans men, and trans women? And why can't we accept that women are not comfortable with anyone with male genitalia? And therefore, we can make special accommodations for trans women, but they need to respect women's spaces and women's historically based discomfort with being around naked males, even if they take the title of trans women.
This seems so very simple to me. Everyone gets acceptance, and everyone gets their spaces, and we're all good, right? Except, no. We've had to turn it into this zero-sum game where women have to give up so much so that trans women can feel "included" and "seen" (as if not only do we see them, but they are always in our faces). Why is that?
That answer is that it's not really about acceptance. In fact, I would suggest it's not even really about trans people, not at the core. It's about stirring the pot. And people who go along with it tick me off, and so now I consider "cis" a slur against normalcy and sanity if not women and men themselves.
And your point about the n-word is well taken. The niece is of a mixed background and we've had conversations about how that word degrades people, no matter who is saying it. I know people like Dave Chappelle use it and I find him funny, but even for him, if it is bad it is bad all the around, and there are so many in the next generation coming up who are of two or more ethnicities that we need to just blanket stop using that word and words like it or we need to stop making their use relative. If we continue our focus on race we will always be stuck in this spiral.
"and there are so many in the next generation coming up who are of two or more ethnicities that we need to just blanket stop using that word and words like it"
I know it wasn't intended to be a freestyle ode to coffee, but it reads that way, nonetheless - thank you, for that!
"'Helmut Kentler, sexologist Volkmar Sigusch, and other sociologists and psychologists, who declared that children would not suffer from sexual relations with adults and that those relations should not be punished, because they are a "crime without a victim."'"
Allow me to respond to Herrs Kentler, Sigusch, et al.:
BULLSHIT!!
TRANS-lation: Blödsinn!!
These two, along with their ilk are more than sufficient justification for the US to have manufactured one more atomic bomb to drop on Germany to put an exclamation point on the Allied victory in Europe. We should have done it - but hindsight is 20/20.
While I may not be completely down with dropping a bomb on Germany then or now because the rats always go underground while the citizens take the brunt, I did find myself wondering, "What the hell is it with the Germans? They're an efficient and inventive people, yes, but it's like every bad idea for the last hundred years is from there." (Me being partially descended from that particular tribe myself, that's kind of a genuine question.)
Highly industrious, and intelligent. No one said it out loud at the time, but the world was very wary of a re-unified Germany - of course, we now know that we needn't have been fearful in the least - every one of its leaders after Helmut Köhl has been a disaster.
Yet, I admire their reputation as engineers (my late father had a Voightlander SLR camera for as long as I could remember). My car is a 2015 BMW 5 Series, and I'm eyeing a vintage BMW sport/cruiser motorcycle - one with the boxer engine with two horizontally opposed cylinders.
Another excellent essay that is insightful and compelling in conclusions and call for action. Well done in timeliness and at the fore of addressing before the terminology solidifies into concrete. Outstanding analysis on the evolution of the thinking and morphing of the words. For a cis woman, you are really in touch with your biological being. For a cis woman, you really look like a natural female. For a cis woman, it’s amazing you didn’t previously have biological male sex parts!
Enough crazy me. I think a substantial driver for most of the trans sexuals is simply that they are desperate to not be near the top of the Oppressor Scale (tm!); to whit and in order - straight white men, straight white women, gay white men, gay white women, Asians, blacks, trans. They are hoping for perpetual most oppressed status so that they can denigrate and oppress anyone else with the sanctimonious confidence that comes from being the mostest victim ever. Even though it’s abysmally pathetic, it does make me and my family and friends laugh quite a bit.
"They are hoping for perpetual most oppressed status so that they can denigrate and oppress anyone else with the sanctimonious confidence that comes from being the mostest victim ever." You have lit upon one of the great illnesses of our age.
Well thought out lass! The totalitarians began their march to dominance in the 1960's, when they somehow convinced the rest of us to use their language, and ONLY their language to discuss the fabricated "issues" of the day.
Perhaps we have reached the bottom. Or at least we're getting close. The language we are permitted to use changes. Often daily. And the groups allowed to use that language seem rather fluid. Depends which wing of the asylum is antecedent that day.
We live in a world of lies, inundated, 24/7, with marketing speak and political propaganda - the concerted efforts of thousands of players to persuade us to buy shit we don't need, with money we don't have, or believe that which is unbelievable, or accept that which is unacceptable. The distortion of language may be reaching it's zenith. Perhaps we have to find a new way to come to agreements on how to communicate. While we still can!
I had the unfortunate experience today of having to call a federal government office. In the process, the person mistakenly called me “ma’am” although most of the time he called me “sir”. Then it dawned on me I could complain to the Democratic Party by making an issue out of being “mid-gendered”; and I did. Perhaps whenever we’re dealing with a woke institution or company, and want to play their game too, we should do the same and claim “you misgendered me!” Maybe then will get the message.
Lillia, you are just a brilliant writer full of well researched information and a little bit of whit. Your braveness to inform with logic is a rarity. I feel bolstered in my own arguments after reading your essays. Ive always felt the term “cisgender” was a creepy phrase. Now I know why. Thank you for your probing and sharing the truth.
You're welcome. I actually found the originator of the term "cis" to be more disturbing than I expected, to be honest.
"Lillia, you are just a brilliant writer"
*nods vigorously*
And I'd say you're more than a little witty but it's sure good to see you getting noticed!
She may have a little bit of whit but I am glad she is not full of whit.
This is your main thrust, I think, that words have meanings, but labeling someone _cisgender_ is as dumb as saying "I'd like a Non- Diet Coke."
I don't understand all this going around your butt to get to your elbow crap. Just call it Coke.
--
Treading lightly... if you decide that someone calling you the N-word is a slur (despite the fact that others _like you_ can address you thusly without the least bit of offense...) then it's a slur. This is part of The Agreement.
I've not been so addressed or labelled as Cis but expect to register my offense immediately and issue a warning that a second offense automatically receive a harsh rebuke.
I might even be offended.
Honestly, in general, I think so many of these arguments are silly, and the word "cis" did not bother me until I got to thinking about it.
If we can decide there are innumerable genders, then why can't we decide that there are simply four "classifications": men, women, trans men, and trans women? And why can't we accept that women are not comfortable with anyone with male genitalia? And therefore, we can make special accommodations for trans women, but they need to respect women's spaces and women's historically based discomfort with being around naked males, even if they take the title of trans women.
This seems so very simple to me. Everyone gets acceptance, and everyone gets their spaces, and we're all good, right? Except, no. We've had to turn it into this zero-sum game where women have to give up so much so that trans women can feel "included" and "seen" (as if not only do we see them, but they are always in our faces). Why is that?
That answer is that it's not really about acceptance. In fact, I would suggest it's not even really about trans people, not at the core. It's about stirring the pot. And people who go along with it tick me off, and so now I consider "cis" a slur against normalcy and sanity if not women and men themselves.
And your point about the n-word is well taken. The niece is of a mixed background and we've had conversations about how that word degrades people, no matter who is saying it. I know people like Dave Chappelle use it and I find him funny, but even for him, if it is bad it is bad all the around, and there are so many in the next generation coming up who are of two or more ethnicities that we need to just blanket stop using that word and words like it or we need to stop making their use relative. If we continue our focus on race we will always be stuck in this spiral.
Whew, what a rant.
Because it isn't about respect, or acceptance, or compassion - these are trojan horses - it is all about power and control.
Yup Yup
"if it is bad it is bad all the around"
Absolutely.
"and there are so many in the next generation coming up who are of two or more ethnicities that we need to just blanket stop using that word and words like it"
We are all members of multiple tribes.
"Whew, what a rant."
I loved it.
I know it wasn't intended to be a freestyle ode to coffee, but it reads that way, nonetheless - thank you, for that!
"'Helmut Kentler, sexologist Volkmar Sigusch, and other sociologists and psychologists, who declared that children would not suffer from sexual relations with adults and that those relations should not be punished, because they are a "crime without a victim."'"
Allow me to respond to Herrs Kentler, Sigusch, et al.:
BULLSHIT!!
TRANS-lation: Blödsinn!!
These two, along with their ilk are more than sufficient justification for the US to have manufactured one more atomic bomb to drop on Germany to put an exclamation point on the Allied victory in Europe. We should have done it - but hindsight is 20/20.
While I may not be completely down with dropping a bomb on Germany then or now because the rats always go underground while the citizens take the brunt, I did find myself wondering, "What the hell is it with the Germans? They're an efficient and inventive people, yes, but it's like every bad idea for the last hundred years is from there." (Me being partially descended from that particular tribe myself, that's kind of a genuine question.)
Highly industrious, and intelligent. No one said it out loud at the time, but the world was very wary of a re-unified Germany - of course, we now know that we needn't have been fearful in the least - every one of its leaders after Helmut Köhl has been a disaster.
Yet, I admire their reputation as engineers (my late father had a Voightlander SLR camera for as long as I could remember). My car is a 2015 BMW 5 Series, and I'm eyeing a vintage BMW sport/cruiser motorcycle - one with the boxer engine with two horizontally opposed cylinders.
"What the hell is it with the Germans?"
I'd say Laderhosen.
"Decaf rights are coffee rights."
All rights are individual.
Starbuck's Verona blend has rights. Donut Shoppe K-Cups have rights. Yes, even Postum and Sanka have rights.
But Cofveve, as a group, has no special rights. Turns out The Constitution agrees.
No, Cofveve do not.
No. I draw the line at Sanka. NO rights!
I find this sensible.
Endorsed.
"or whether you can roll your tongue"
And just that quickly, I tested my ability again.
I'm a Roller!
That opens up a line of questioning that we may not wish to pursue. Just sayin'.
I have to admit that I had several variations of that comment queued up before simplifying.
I'm just glad I didn't say anything about tacos.
Another excellent essay that is insightful and compelling in conclusions and call for action. Well done in timeliness and at the fore of addressing before the terminology solidifies into concrete. Outstanding analysis on the evolution of the thinking and morphing of the words. For a cis woman, you are really in touch with your biological being. For a cis woman, you really look like a natural female. For a cis woman, it’s amazing you didn’t previously have biological male sex parts!
Enough crazy me. I think a substantial driver for most of the trans sexuals is simply that they are desperate to not be near the top of the Oppressor Scale (tm!); to whit and in order - straight white men, straight white women, gay white men, gay white women, Asians, blacks, trans. They are hoping for perpetual most oppressed status so that they can denigrate and oppress anyone else with the sanctimonious confidence that comes from being the mostest victim ever. Even though it’s abysmally pathetic, it does make me and my family and friends laugh quite a bit.
"They are hoping for perpetual most oppressed status so that they can denigrate and oppress anyone else with the sanctimonious confidence that comes from being the mostest victim ever." You have lit upon one of the great illnesses of our age.
Well thought out lass! The totalitarians began their march to dominance in the 1960's, when they somehow convinced the rest of us to use their language, and ONLY their language to discuss the fabricated "issues" of the day.
Perhaps we have reached the bottom. Or at least we're getting close. The language we are permitted to use changes. Often daily. And the groups allowed to use that language seem rather fluid. Depends which wing of the asylum is antecedent that day.
We live in a world of lies, inundated, 24/7, with marketing speak and political propaganda - the concerted efforts of thousands of players to persuade us to buy shit we don't need, with money we don't have, or believe that which is unbelievable, or accept that which is unacceptable. The distortion of language may be reaching it's zenith. Perhaps we have to find a new way to come to agreements on how to communicate. While we still can!
I had the unfortunate experience today of having to call a federal government office. In the process, the person mistakenly called me “ma’am” although most of the time he called me “sir”. Then it dawned on me I could complain to the Democratic Party by making an issue out of being “mid-gendered”; and I did. Perhaps whenever we’re dealing with a woke institution or company, and want to play their game too, we should do the same and claim “you misgendered me!” Maybe then will get the message.
Make their lives hell by making them live by the same rules. I'm all for that.