Cis

The cis-trans distinction as it applies to sex / gender was first introduced in the early 1900s within medical and psychological disciplines deeply invested in the re-naturalization of the gender binary by pathologizing what they called “gender inversion.” Dominant narratives about gender inversion assumed that those who identified as a gender different from the one assigned at birth were born or trapped in the wrong body. Despite—or perhaps because of—cis’s growing popularity and colloquialism within Women's and Gender Studies (WGS), it has since become a topic of debate regarding its use and meaning and the forced labelling of people who otherwise deny the presence of cis privilege / trans oppression. Cis is a method that returns our attention to a critical examination of the discipline’s premises, allowing us to examine how sex and gender, and the field more broadly.