What does cisgender mean?

Cisgender means that a person’s gender identity corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth. A cisgender person is therefore someone who is not transgender. The term is often shortened to cis.

Cisgender meaning: an example

Someone who was born male and sees himself as a man is, according to this definition, a cisgender man. Someone who was born female and sees herself as a woman is a cisgender woman. The word is an adjective and says only something about the relationship between birth sex and gender identity. The description applies to the vast majority of people. In this context, the abbreviations AMAB and AFAB are also used for birth sex.

What is cisgender and what does cis mean?

Cis is the short form of cisgender. The prefix comes from Latin and means “on this side of.” It is the opposite of trans, which means “on the other side of.” In chemistry, cis and trans have long been used to describe the structure of molecules. In everyday language, you will mainly come across the word in combinations such as cis man and cis woman.

Where does the word cisgender come from?

In 1991, German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch used the word zissexuell as a counterpart to transsexual. The English word cisgender was used in 1994 by Dana Defosse in an online discussion group about transgender topics. She was looking for a word for people who are not transgender. The term subsequently became common in gender studies and activist circles. The Oxford English Dictionary added the word in 2015.

What is the difference between cisgender and transgender?

For a cisgender person, birth sex and gender identity correspond. This is not the case for a transgender person: someone may, for example, have been born male and see herself as a woman. Cisgender is therefore the counterpart of transgender. People who do not identify as either a man or a woman often use the term non-binary. If the difference between the body and a person’s experience causes persistent distress, doctors refer to gender dysphoria.

Is cisgender the same as straight?

No. Cisgender concerns gender identity. Straight concerns sexual orientation, or who someone is attracted to. The two are separate from each other. A cisgender person can be heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual. You can read more about this distinction under gender and sexuality.

Criticism of the term cisgender

The term is controversial. It is based on the idea that every person has an inner gender identity that may or may not correspond to their body. People who do not share that premise—for example, because they use man and woman as words for the two biological sexes—consider cisgender an unnecessary and misleading addition. From that perspective, someone is simply a man or a woman.

In Material Girls (2021), British philosopher Kathleen Stock points out that the cis label links people, without their consent, to a controversial theoretical framework. Many women do not want to be called cis women. According to them, the addition creates the impression that woman is no longer a physical category, but one of several genders. This has implications for rights and services based on sex. There is also criticism within gender studies. Researcher Krista Scott-Dixon, for example, preferred the term non-trans because it is clearer. The origins of the concept and criticism from Stock, Joyce, and others are also discussed on transwijzer.nl.

Activist circles also use the term cis privilege: the advantage someone is said to have because they are not transgender. Critics point out that the correspondence between body and self-image is the normal state for most people and is not a privilege. They also note that people who are not transgender can still be affected by strict gender norms.

Do you have to call yourself cisgender?

No. People who agree with the concept of gender identity can use cisgender as a descriptive term. Those who do not share that view do not have to adopt the label and can continue to call themselves a man or a woman. No one is required to accept a term coined by others. You can find more background on the concept of gender under what is gender.