I had to look up the word "cisgender" today when I saw it used in an article: "No cisgendered male can express opinions about that topic."
Cisgender (which is sometimes abbreviated to "cis") is a term to describe people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth.
The Latin-derived prefix cis-, means "on this side of" and can be considered the opposite of trans-, which means "on the other side of."
For example, you can say transatlantic to mean on the other side of that ocean, as in a "transatlantic ship crossing," or say "cisatlantic" to mean on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Despite my ignorance of the word, it has been around for awhile. German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch used the neologism cissexual (zissexuell in German) in his 1991 article "Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick" ("Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view") as the origin of the term.
Cisgender is a word that applies to the vast majority of people who are not transgender. Is there a need for such a word? The best parallel in our language would be homosexual and heterosexual.
You can go deeper into the sociology of this in gender studies and I suspect the word will be in wider usage in the future. There are already derivatives of the terms cisgender and cissexual include "cis male" for "male assigned male at birth", "cis female" for "female assigned female at birth" (analogously cis man and cis woman) and also cissexism and cissexual. A related adjective is "gender-normative" because "cisgendered" is used instead of the more popular "gender normative" to refer to people who "do not identify with a gender diverse experience, without enforcing existence of a normative gender expression *."
I also didn't realize that back in 2014 Facebook began offering "custom" gender options, allowing users to identify with one or more gender-related terms from a selected list, including cis, cisgender, and others.
05 December 2018
24 November 2018
Pseudonyms: Fictional Superheroes
Pseudonyms are frequently used with fictional characters in films, on TV, in books and in comic books..
Clint Eastwood and Calvin Klein are names applied to fictional Marty McFly in Back To The Future .
As a Seinfeld fan, I know that Art Vandelay is a pseudonym used by George Costanza.
On TV's Breaking Bad, Heisenberg is the pseudonym taken by Walter White, and in the series prequel, Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman is the name taken by James "Jimmy" McGill.
On TV's long running series Doctor Who, the protagonist is known simply as The Doctor.
Do you remember The Shadow (Lamont Cranston) from the classic radio series?
TV Trivia: Who took the pseudonyms Regina Phalange and Ken Adams? It was Phoebe Buffay and Joey Tribbiani on Friends.
Do you know Lord Voldemort's "real" name? Tom Marvolo Riddle is the character's name in the Harry Potter Series.
If you read the James Bond novels or watch the films, you might know that M is Sir Miles Messervy and Q is the code name for Major Boothroyd.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is actually the character Sir Percy Blakeney.
In The Three Musketeers we meet Athos (Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle, Le Comte de La Fère) and d'Artagnan (Charles de Batz-Castelmore), Porthos (Isaac de Porthau, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds) and Aramis (Henri d'Aramitz, le Chevalier d'Herblay).
Zorro is the name taken by Don Diego de la Vega.
Mr. Underhill is a name used by Frodo Baggins) in the Lord Of The Rings series.
Comic book characters, especially superheroes, almost always have pseudonyms.
Clint Eastwood and Calvin Klein are names applied to fictional Marty McFly in Back To The Future .
As a Seinfeld fan, I know that Art Vandelay is a pseudonym used by George Costanza.
On TV's Breaking Bad, Heisenberg is the pseudonym taken by Walter White, and in the series prequel, Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman is the name taken by James "Jimmy" McGill.
On TV's long running series Doctor Who, the protagonist is known simply as The Doctor.
Do you remember The Shadow (Lamont Cranston) from the classic radio series?
TV Trivia: Who took the pseudonyms Regina Phalange and Ken Adams? It was Phoebe Buffay and Joey Tribbiani on Friends.
Do you know Lord Voldemort's "real" name? Tom Marvolo Riddle is the character's name in the Harry Potter Series.
If you read the James Bond novels or watch the films, you might know that M is Sir Miles Messervy and Q is the code name for Major Boothroyd.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is actually the character Sir Percy Blakeney.
In The Three Musketeers we meet Athos (Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle, Le Comte de La Fère) and d'Artagnan (Charles de Batz-Castelmore), Porthos (Isaac de Porthau, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds) and Aramis (Henri d'Aramitz, le Chevalier d'Herblay).
Zorro is the name taken by Don Diego de la Vega.
Mr. Underhill is a name used by Frodo Baggins) in the Lord Of The Rings series.
Comic book characters, especially superheroes, almost always have pseudonyms.
- The Hulk (Dr. Robert Bruce Banner) - Marvel Comics
- Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker) - Marvel Comics
- Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) - Marvel Comics
- Wolverine (Logan, James Howlett) - Marvel Comics
- Captain America (Steven Grant "Steve" Rogers) - Marvel Comics
- Superman (Kal-El / Clark Kent) - DC Comics
- Wonder Woman (Princess Diana of Themyscira / Diana Prince) - DC comics
- Batman (Bruce Wayne) - DC Comics
- Catwoman (Selina Kyle) - DC Comics and as Patience Phillips in the 2004 film
- Rorschach (Walter Joseph Kovacs) - Watchmen (Alan Moore graphic novel)
- Doctor Octopus (Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius) - Marvel Comics
- The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) - DC Comics
- The Riddler (Dr. Edward Nigma) - DC Comics
- Huntress (Helena Wayne) - DC Comics
- Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) - DC Comics
- Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) - DC Comics
- Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) - DC Comics
- The Flash (Jay Garrick) - DC Comics
- The Flash (Barry Allen) - DC Comics
- The Flash (Wally West) - DC Comics
- The Flash (Bart Allen) - DC Comics
15 November 2018
Obelism
Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript.
One example is the "stet." Stet is is Latin for "Let it stand," and it is used by editors or authors to mean "disregard the previous mark." Another obelism is "dele" for delete.
The word "obelus/obelos" and the symbol comes from ὀβελός, the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word "obelisk."
An obelos was placed by editors on the margins of manuscripts going all the way back to the ancient writings of Homer. They would indicate lines that were doubtfully Homer's.
One example is the "stet." Stet is is Latin for "Let it stand," and it is used by editors or authors to mean "disregard the previous mark." Another obelism is "dele" for delete.
The word "obelus/obelos" and the symbol comes from ὀβελός, the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word "obelisk."
An obelos was placed by editors on the margins of manuscripts going all the way back to the ancient writings of Homer. They would indicate lines that were doubtfully Homer's.
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| Three basic variants of dotted obelos glyphs |
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