this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Let me try to untangle this.

You said:

It’s as much a descriptor as “obese”. Some people are calling for that to be slur, but it’s not, it’s a medical term.

Implying that if something is a medical term, it cannot be a slur. This is patently untrue, as evidenced by the medical terms I mentioned that very much became slurs after being widely used as insults.

That's it. I wasn't intending to touch on "cis" in this context, just the idea that something being a medical term meant it could not be a slur. Apparently I shouldn't have muddied the waters by talking about "cis" afterwards. I was attempting to explain why it wasn't the same as a term like "obese."

Cis is fine. I've said this three times now, so please stop acting like I've said otherwise.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Implying that if something is a medical term, it cannot be a slur. This is patently untrue, as evidenced by the medical terms I mentioned that very much became slurs after being widely used as insults.

First off, no, I didn't imply that just because something is a medical term, it can't be used as an insult. If I said I assume you've had a lobotomy, it'd be offensive. However... we don't really do lobotomies anymore, do we? you mean that a lot of things that used to be medical terms are nowadays used as slurs. We also don't call people the r-word. Of course you can insult someone by asking condescendingly if they have a learning disability, but again, that implies a disability, just like "obese" implies an unhealthy medical condition. Who and in what kind of situation would consider "cisgender" offensive?

When we are using accurate, up-to-date medical terms, they aren't in an of themselves offensive. Most things can be made offensive through context, and it's easy to see how mocking someone's intelligence or implying they've "chosen" to be unhealthy (by having a bad diet or not exercising or something that is usually implied with fat insults), but I personally can't see a context in which "cisgender" could be offensive to anyone. As I've said, perhaps it's just my imagination. Perhaps you know some situations or contexts in which it could be offensive? I've asked this a few times now, and this isn't the first time I'm asking it on Lemmy. Seems to me that the people who are saying that "cis can be used as an insult" don't seem to be able to give an example of how.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Oh yeah, reply to me demanding I've implied something I haven't and then tell me I'm sealioning, yes, sure.

So you've missed the point of my original comment and then went on to post several comments where you literally even contradict yourself. It's okay if you missed the meaning of my point, no need to reply.

I can't imagine any scenario in which someone would be offended over the term "cisgendered". Can you? Or are you still on about how you think I implied medical terms can't be insults, which I never did? "Obese" is a current, up to date medical term. It can be offensive to people, because of the reasons I've explained several times, but there's no alternative word for the medical term. Doctor's won't go around calling someone "a bit big-boned". You can use those euphemisms in real life, as there's no need to call someone obese when there are euphemisms available. I could easily list out dozens of euphemisms for obese, although those also usually apply to all sort of overweight. I can't even think up a euphemism for "cisgender".

So EVEN IF there were a context in which someone finds "cisgender" to be offensive (which I think there isn't), because there's no folksy alternative to it, unlike with "obese", which again, sometimes has to be used as a medical term to specify a specific thing, for which euphemisms just don't do.