In the latest episode of “Wealthy White Dudes Get Their Tender Feelings Hurt By An Adjective” self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist Elon Musk has decided the word “cisgender” is a slur.
The owner of one of the largest social media megaphones on the planet issued the following edict via tweet this week: “The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”
This came as news to most people, as the word “cisgender,” according to Merriam-Webster, simply means: “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.”
That’s doesn’t sound particularly slur-ish, but apparently if you’re rich and childish enough, you get to call the shots, so who am I to argue?
Elon Musk loves free speech as long as it’s speech he approves of
Well, actually, I’ll tell you who I am. I’m a straight, white, cisgender man (I don’t consider any of those words slurs) who thinks Twitter advertisers and Tesla stock owners might want to check in on the increasingly weird man-boy helming both companies, the one crying “Free Speech!” while threatening to suspend people who use a neutral, broadly accepted and necessary word.
Musk’s mucking about with “cisgender” is a painfully transparent dig at the transgender community – if you treat “cisgender” as negative, you’re implying the word “transgender” or other words that express gender identity are also bad.
Elanor Broker, a writer and civil rights attorney, responded to the “cisgender is a slur” nonsense in a tweet: “Not only is cis not a slur, it’s a necessary corollary to the recognition of trans people as a distinct subset of people. It is necessary to identifying and describing us. The intent and desire here is our full erasure.”
Musk is offering schoolyard-level nonsense and hoping it passes as a righteous argument
Musk’s latest attempt to stomp his feet and whine is a perfect example of someone who has never been marginalized creating a phony sense of marginalization so he can feel free to continue marginalizing others.
The sub-schoolyard-level argument would be: “Well, if you say you’re offended by me using the wrong pronoun to identify you, I’m going to say I’m offended by you identifying me as ‘cisgender.’ ” The difference, however, is that identifying a person by something other than their preferred pronouns is willfully disregarding that person’s actual identity, while calling someone who is cisgender “cisgender” is just a statement of fact using an anodyne word that correctly describes that person.
Transphobes might want to take a moment to reflect on their life decisions
I can already hear the chorus of Musk fanboys and transphobes sputtering, “BUT, BUT, BUT, BUT …”
But nothing. Your faux outrage is pathetic, the kind of “sensitive snowflake” behavior the right has long tried to pin on the left.
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There’s a broad spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations, and everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect. If you can’t handle that and have to gin up your own sense of feeling put-upon, maybe get over yourself or go sit in the corner and think about the mistakes that led you to this ludicrous point in your life.
Musk is fast developing a record of anti-transgender policies and statements
Of course, Musk has not been shy lately about showing his disdain for transgender people.
In April, Twitter did away with its rule against the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
And Musk recently tweeted that gender-affirming care for minors, supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, is “pure evil.”
He also helped promote an anti-transgender video called “What is a Woman?” by virulent transphobe Matt Walsh, prompting Twitter’s head of trust and safety division to step down.
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Musk has latched on to anti-LGBTQ fearmongers and given them voice
So it seems one of the richest men in the world has joined the right-wing crusade against transgender rights, and rather than actually caring about free speech or focusing on managing his big companies, he’s looking for ways to attack the transgender community at large.
Maybe next he’ll decide “fragile” is a slur. Or perhaps “incompetent.”
Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll eventually suspend anyone who tweets the words “toxic to advertisers.”
