User:Mathglot/sandbox/Drafts/Cisgender

A cisgender (sometimes shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) person has a gender identity that matches their sex assigned at birth. A person whose sex was assigned male at birth and identifies as a boy or a man, or someone whose sex was assigned female at birth and identifies as a girl or a woman, is considered cisgender.^[1] This is the case for the majority of human beings.

Cisgender people may or may not conform to gender norms and stereotypes associated with their gender identity. Cisgender men and women may not necessarily exhibit all stereotypical masculine or feminine traits, respectively. Cisgender people's identity development is often viewed as normative, in contrast to transgender people's. According to some academic literature, cisgender people are afforded cisgender privilege, defined as "a set of unearned advantages".^[2]

Gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation,^[3] and cisgender people may be of any sexual orientation. The opposite of cisgender is transgender, which describes people whose gender identity does not match their assigned sex.^[4]

Terminology

The word cisgender is the antonym of transgender^[5]^[6] (which refers to someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth). The prefix cis- is Latin and means 'on this side of'. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender.^[7]^[8]

Gender identity

Gender expression

Cisgender people are diverse in their preferred gender expressions. They can be gender-conforming or gender-nonconforming.^[9]

Prevalence

The majority of people are cisgender.^[10]

Privilege

Cisgender people are afforded cisgender privilege, a set of unearned advantages and rights such as easier access to gender-specific healthcare, unchallenged use of their preferred gendered pronouns and names, lower exposure to gender-based violence, access to gender-segregated spaces and teams,^[11] and access to government-issued identification that correctly records their gender.^[12]

Normativity

Cisgender people's identity development is often viewed as normative, in contrast to transgender people's.^[13] In many cultures, because cisgender people are more numerous, gender categorization is cisnormative: people are expected to be cisgender, with a self-identification that is binary (male or female) and conveys information about their anatomy.^[14] Extreme cisnormativity leads to cisgenderism, which denies or denigrates noncisgender experiences.^[14]

References

^ "cisgender". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. n.d. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
^ Walls, N. E., & Costello, K. (2010). "Head ladies center for teacup chain": Exploring cisgender privilege in a (predominantly) gay male context. In S. Anderson and V. Middleton Explorations in diversity: Examining privilege and oppression in a multicultural society, 2nd ed. (pp. 81−93). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Quote appears on p.83.
^ "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health: Transgender Persons". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. September 29, 2020. Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
^ Blank, Paula (2014-09-24). "Will the Word "Cisgender" Ever Go Mainstream?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2018-05-13. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
^ Schilt, Kristen; Westbrook, Laurel (August 2009). "Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: 'Gender Normals,' Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality". Gender & Society. 23 (4): 440–64 [461]. doi:10.1177/0891243209340034. S2CID 145354177.
^ Blank, Paula. "Will the Word "Cisgender" Ever Go Mainstream?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 13, 2018. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
^ Martin, Katherine. "New words notes June 2015". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
^ "Tracing Terminology | Perspectives on History | AHA". www.historians.org. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
^ Sergio Domínguez Jr. and Stephanie L. Budge. Gender nonconformity // The SAGE encyclopedia of trans studies. — Sage Publications, 2021.
^ Wayne Bullock and Nicholas Wood, Psychological assessment with trans people [DOI: 10.4324/9781315769387-20], in the Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Psychological Assessment, edited by Virginia Brabender ‎and Joni L Mihura (2026): "the vast majority of people are cisgender"
^ Kevin L. Nadal, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender (2017), page 667
^ Julia R. Johnson, Cisgender Privilege, Intersectionality, and the Criminalization of CeCe McDonald: Why Intercultural Communication Needs Transgender Studies, in Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, volume 6, 2013, issue 2: "Some forms of cisgender privilege include: Having a government-issued identification that accurately represents one's identity; [...]"
^ Kevin L. Nadal, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender (2017), pages 329 and 667
^ ^a ^b Kevin L. Nadal, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender (2017), page 329