Cisgender
Written by TPOK Archivist on August 12, 2017
Having a gender identity that matches one’s genetalia.
Contrast: transgender
Cisgender is a gender studies term used to refer to people whose gender identity aligns with the gender assigned to them at birth. It is used to describe people who are not transgender.
Cisgender is a relatively new term in gender studies, as scholars and activists tried to find a way to speak about non-transgender individuals without resorting to terms such as “normal” or “gender normative,” both of which imply that transgender is either abnormal or non-normative.
Cisgender (often abbreviated to simply cis) is a term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cisgender may also be defined as those who have “a gender identity or perform a gender role society considers appropriate for one’s sex”. It is the opposite of the term transgender.
Related terms include cissexism and cisnormativity.