According to a tweet posted early on Wednesday, Elon Musk has announced that the terms “cis” and “cisgender” are henceforth regarded as slurs on Twitter. The action would be unusual in the realm of social media since big companies like Facebook do not consider cisgender to be a slur. The phrases also do not appear in any of Twitter’s officially published guidelines.
The billionaire made the brazen revelation on Twitter on Wednesday in response to a user who claimed to have been attacked by pro-trans campaigners. He tweeted that he rejected both labels. The claim quickly drew a chorus of support on Twitter, and Musk later commented on a poll asking if other people shared his opinion. The majority, 78%, chose ‘yes’.
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The declaration caused the words to become popular on Twitter, and Elon Musk issued a warning that going forward, they will be considered hate speech. He said that their continuous usage to refer to a specific person would constitute harassment.
What does ‘cisgender’ mean?
People whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth are referred to as cisgender. The term “transgender” describes the contrary, i.e., a person whose gender identity differs from that which was given to them at birth.
James Esses, a prominent Irish right-wing media figure, complained that he was being called a “cissy” by comments on social media, which is where the whole controversy began. In response, Musk declared that “repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.”
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While those rules were acceptable and perhaps beneficial for the site, Musk went one step further.
He stated, “The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform,” drawing criticism from users.
Social media went into a frenzy reacting to this news, with one Twitter user posting, “Oop, cisgender is a slur. Ig transgender is also a slur. And ig obese is also a slur. And ig heterosexual is also a slur. And ig homosexual is also a slur. And ig underweight is also a slur,” while another contrarily said, “Cis and cisgender are terms invented to marginalize normal people” Norm Macdonald. Most people do not like the term who get called it. It’s an insult of sorts for many people.”
