Examples of Cis Privilege

Here are some examples....

4) I am not excluded from events which are either explicitly or de facto* men-born-men or women-born-women only. (*basically anything involving nudity)

5) My politics are not questioned based on the choices I make with regard to my body.

6) I don’t have to hear “so have you had THE surgery?” or “oh, so you’re REALLY a [incorrect sex or gender]?” each time I come out to someone.

# I am not denied entrance to appropriate services or events that are segregated by sex.

# My childhood innocence was not interrupted with desperate prayers to a divinity begging to wake up the opposite sex. (Maybe I was hoping God would turn me into a boy so I wouldn't have to worry about getting my period).

# I never grieve about my lost childhood and adolescence because I was born the opposite sex. (and how do you know that I wasn't grieving about my own lost childhood because I started menstruating years before my peers) :/

# I never worry about potential lovers shifting instantly from amorous to distain and even violence because of my genitals

While these issues may or may not affect cis-gender people, it sounds like trans-gender people experience more - cis-gender people still experience disdain and even violence from their 'potential' lovers because of things that the other person doesn't expect eg. a woman having hairy legs or being too fat, or a man whose penis is not big enough etc.  For instance, I experienced abuse from my ex-boyfriend because I was 'too short', 'too fat', clumsy etc and he had seen 'better legs on a pool table'. But hey, at least he's never had to look at my 'vadge'.  However, at least I can say I've never been abused by him for having a penis!!

And yes, cis-gendered women are questioned too if they decide not to have babies, or if they decide to have abortions, or have children out of wedlock.  There was a case with Amnesty International of a South American woman who gave birth to a stillborn, was accused of murdering her baby and jailed for a long time.  This happened regardless of what brought it on - for instance, was it poor nutrition, was there something wrong with her womb that she couldn't give birth to a living baby, there could have been all kinds of things that could have compromised the health of the baby during gestation, and yet, the mother gets the blame.

Or in the case of a Somlian refugee who was raped by an inmate and needed an abortion, and was denied that and the medical care she so desperately needed?  Or even in Ireland (where there is a higher proportion of white people to those of colour), abortion was pretty much illegal then, even when women get raped.

So yes, cis-gendered people still have to worry about somethings that transgendered people do, and sometimes don't; and cis-gendered women's bodies, in particular, have less sovreignty that a corpse.  And now, male-to-female transgendered people are starting to find out what it is like to be female, and now they also have to live with their decisions as well, like many cis-gendered women (and some cis-gendered men) have to live with theirs.

Night Owl