Update 10/30/2023: Elon is tweeting about this again, so we’re re-running this post to explain why he’s wrong.
Elon Musk is a lot of things. A Tesla not-founder, a Hyperloop not-builder, and most recently the guy making Twitter worse in nearly every possible way. He’s had a lot of fun with that last role, using his ownership of the site to drive away advertisers and boost hateful “documentaries,” but now it seems he’s realized a greater calling: Arbitrarily deciding what counts as hate speech or harassment on the platform.
Previously, this meant removing the company’s policies against misgendering, declaring it open season to attack trans people on the site. Now, he’s gone one step further, declaring the antithetical term “cisgender” to be “harassment,” a “slur,” and worthy of suspension.
So, what’s the story behind “cis” and “cisgender” as words? Well, it starts with its opposite. The word “transgender” dates back to a medical journal from the mid-1960s, replacing earlier, less-accurate terms, and was quickly adopted by both the trans and medical communities. But by the mid-’90s, when trans folks were hanging out in Usenet forums, they realized there wasn’t really a term to differentiate non-trans people from everyone else.
So, they went back to Latin. The prefix “trans-” means “on the other side of,” and it has an antonym in “cis-” meaning “on this side.” Chemists have long used “cis” and “trans” as antonyms when describing certain molecular bonds, and in 1994 those Usenet users carried the dichotomy over to gender: Transgender and cisgender.
Both terms are commonly used in medical circles when discussing the topic of gender, and see similar usage in general writing and conversation. Neither, when used as an adjective, is a slur — they’re just medical descriptors. Musk’s banning of the term begs the question: What would he rather be called? Elon Musk, not-trans man? That would truly be an “esthetic nightmare.”
The answer, of course, is that Musk would prefer to never think of the distinction at all. By placing the “trans-” and “cis-” prefixes on equal footing, neither one gets to say they’re the “normal” side of things — both are just adjectives. Musk, who has announced his intent to lobby for the criminalization gender-affirming care, doesn’t seem to want to share his standing with people he clearly deems as beneath him.
Musk’s move has been popular with the worst corners of Twitter, people who continually engage in bigoted speech and behaviors, which is a market Musk seems to be targeting with increasing frequency. That, and the deeply alone robot-fucker market.
