Harry Potter author JK Rowling has created another huge talking point on social media after explaining why so many people object to the use of the term ‘cis’, when it comes to people who describe themselves or others as cisgender.
And her eloquently phrased elucidation has been given the seal of approval by Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has described cisgender as a “slur” and said using the term could result in a ban from the platform.
Rowling wrote: “‘Cis’ is ideological language, signifying belief in the unfalsifiable concept of gender identity. You have a perfect right to believe in unprovable essences that may or may not match the sexed body, but the rest of us have a right to disagree, and to refuse to adopt your jargon.”
At the last count, her tweet had been viewed by over 17 million people and had received nearly 193,000 likes, as well as 11,000 replies. One of those replies came from billionaire Musk himself, who just wrote: “Exactly.”
Later he just tweeted: “Expelliarmus!”, in reference to Harry Potter’s signature spell.
The woke word simply means somebody who still ‘identifies’ as the same biological gender they were born in ie, the vast majority of the world’s population. As a result, most people believe it is redundant and unnecessary and many find it insulting.
Ruwayda Mustafah, a mum and social media influencer from Kurdistan, pointed out: “It’s so strange that outside of the ‘West’ no one is talking about cis, he/she, they/them, it/bit.”
And Rowling responded: “Very strange, isn’t it?”
She also hit back at somebody who told her: “Yes, you as a cis woman have every right to disagree with me, a cis man, and other cis women, as well as trans men and trans women.”
The Harry Potter author said: “Just type ‘repent, heretic’. Fewer characters and it’ll have exactly the same effect on me.”
Fellow author John Boyne responded to the original post by saying: “I couldn’t agree more. If someone described me as ‘cis’ to my face I would immediately correct them, although thankfully it’s an invented word that is, for the most part, only used by people online. I’ve actually never heard anyone use it in the real world.”
However, fellow author and gender critical campaigner Louise Mensch said: “I agree with you, and I take it that you would agree with me that @elonmusk should not censor the term, as idiotic and fake as it is.”
Earlier on Wednesday (June 21), Musk responded to another user who claimed he had been bullied because he rejected the word cis.
The Tesla tycoon then declared: “Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.
“The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”
