The Problem With Cisgender People

Summary

The article discusses the challenges of cisgender people understanding and accepting transgender identities due to their innate ignorance of the distinction between sex and gender.

Abstract

The article "The Problem With Cisgender People" addresses the widespread lack of awareness among cisgender individuals regarding their gender identity. It likens their unawareness to the historical disbelief in a spherical Earth, suggesting that because cisgender people do not perceive a distinction between their sex and gender, they consider the concept of a gender spectrum non-existent. The author criticizes the societal factors contributing to this ignorance, including sensationalist media, misguided medical and psychological practices, political manipulation, and religious extremism, all of which have distorted the public's understanding of transgender experiences. Despite these challenges, the article remains hopeful, acknowledging that many cisgender people are capable of understanding and acceptance, emphasizing the need for continued advocacy and education to foster empathy and inclusivity.

Opinions

Cisgender individuals often lack awareness of their own gender identity, equating sex and gender as one and the same.
The author compares cisgender people's skepticism about gender diversity to the historical belief in a flat Earth, indicating a resistance to new knowledge that challenges their existing beliefs.
Misrepresentation in the media, exploitation for entertainment, and misguided medical practices are seen as contributing to the misunderstanding of transgender identities.
Politicians and religious groups are accused of using transgender issues to manipulate public opinion and garner support, akin to witch hunts.
The global pandemic is noted as an additional barrier to fostering empathy and understanding among cisgender people.
The article expresses optimism, noting that many cisgender individuals are open-minded and have the capacity for empathy and acceptance of transgender people.
The author advocates for persistent efforts to educate and raise awareness, likening the journey to the eventual acceptance of the Earth's roundness, to ensure transgender individuals are recognized as a natural part of human diversity.

What they can’t see isn’t “real”

The problem with cisgender people is simple: the vast majority of them have no clue that they are cisgender. They are absolutely and innocently ignorant about the relationship between their sex and gender. To them there is no difference. They are all one and the same.

Cisgender people are essentially gender “flat earthers.” They don’t know that a difference even exists, therefore it doesn’t exist.

So off we go.

How many citizens in the port of Palos, Spain scoffed at Columbus when he set sail in 1492 thinking that he would fall off the edge of the earth? The funny fact is when Columbus set sail he predicted he’d make landfall in Asia. He actually thought the Earth was a finite plane instead of a round planet.

Cisgender people are uncomfortable with any large, massive challenges to their fundamental belief system. Gender is one of them. In their mind, just like watching a ship disappear over the horizon to a flat earther, having a penis or not having one settles the question of gender in the binary world that they live in.

What they can’t see isn’t real.

And who can blame them in the world of “fake news?” Credibility for the average person has been stretched way beyond reason. The concept of being transgender has been abused in the name of sensational headlines, celebrity self-aggrandizement and abusive “reality” TV programs.

These distorted sources of information have destroyed the validity of accepted medical practices backed by compelling scientific facts. They invalidate common sense. In their minds gender dysphoria is a mental condition not a medical one. The common misunderstanding is, don’t change the body, fix the brain.

Here comes Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and conversion therapy for everyone!

The media has done a fine job. Then you have the religious zealots who are joined by desperate politicians who need to get the vote out. These people are the modern-day witch hunters looking to find easy targets to rally their flocks around. They all want to watch innocent victims burn at the stake.

Now throw in a global pandemic. You can forget about creating any empathy as people just think about surviving.

Talk about the stacked deck for creating empathy and understanding in cisgender people.

But hold on.

Fortunately, not every cisgender person is like that.

The world is filled with more cisgender people who can can understand and can accept. They can empathize and they have tremendously generous spirits. Not all of them shut their brains and hearts off. They just don’t know that transgender people are part the natural human experience, that we are not a threat.

Just like the people who saw Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain in 1492, they will learn that the earth is truly round and that transgender people are part of what makes the world go around.

We just need to keep waving the flag.