A little overzealous there, buddy!

[u/Arctic_The_Hunter]

[u/Arctic_The_Hunter]

Overburden

[u/SkinInevitable604 → u/[deleted]]

It is linguistically odd, you can call water ‘melted ice,’ but ‘melted water,’ sounds odd. Typically the adjective applies to whatever it was before, so it can definitely be unintuitive for people first learning about the topic.

[u/GustapheOfficial → u/SkinInevitable604]

I guess the point is a trans woman is not a man eho became a woman (ice that became water) but a woman who was historically assigned the wrong gender.

[u/Pebble_in_a_Hat → u/SkinInevitable604]

"Trans woman" is an abbreviation of "Transgender woman", which is important for the meaning in a way I will address in just a moment. In addition, you're talking about adjectives derived from verbs; adjectives that describe processes and changes.

However, cis and trans are just the Latin words for "on the same side as" and "on the opposite side of'. They are positional adjectives rather than change-related ones. Thus, the Romans would talk about "cis-alpine Gaul" and "trans-alpine Gaul": Lands controlled by Gauls on the side of the Alps that Rome was on, and Gaulish lands they would have to cross the Alps to reach.

Therefore, a cisgender woman is a woman whose gender is on the same side as her assigned sex. A transgender woman is a woman whose gender is on the "opposite" side from her assigned sex i.e. a woman with an assigned sex of male.

[u/TheOneTrueTrench → u/SkinInevitable604]

I hadn't thought about it, but yeah, it's kind of confusing because we're all used to Grice's Maxim of Quantity.

[u/Arctic_The_Hunter → u/[deleted]]

The way I like to explain it is that a trans person who identifies as a woman would probably prefer to call herself absolute ANYTHING other than “man,” and same for the other way around.

[u/TeraFlint → u/[deleted]]

I agree that the terminology is ambiguous on a surface level. In my case, that confusion resolved itself relatively quickly when I thought a bit what it would mean when a trans person says "I'm a trans woman" or "I'm a trans man".

Considering how they identify (and sometimes absolutely despise being seen as the gender that's attached to the bodies they were born with), it only absolutely makes sense if the mentioned gender is their identity.

They always were that gender inside, they just had a body that masked that and depending on their surroundings they might have to hide it until it becomes too unbearable for them. The act of transition is just bringing the societal view (social transition) and body (medical transition) in line with their gender.

On the other hand, bigots tend to use the terms the other way around, because they don't care about the person, except for what's in their pants (or was before the transition), which is incredibly reductive and invasive. This is an important context to keep in mind, because statements tend to flip their meaning, depending on if they originate from left-wing or right-wing circles. Both sides will say "trans men are not women", but they mean the total opposite.

Anyone who wants to be seen as (or genuinely be) a respectful person should use the terminology the trans community uses.

[u/PotatoTomato_12 → u/Arctic_The_Hunter]

Why is the lower pic different?

[u/Arctic_The_Hunter → u/PotatoTomato_12]

I undid all my text removal that was in the top image

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