So my friend, and ever vigilant TransCat warrior Cody decided to try and help spread the word by posting TransCat on imgur.com. It was basically a short advertisement saying the comic was on sale, and showing off the front cover of the first issue.
If he had asked me first... it mighta been a hard thing to say yes to. You know, dat imgur snark n' all.
I'm kinda glad he just did it though, because if I had thought too hard about it, I wouldn't have had this gem of a conversation with a young cis-male while shall remain nameless ;-)
So I read a thing like this, and I'm think to myself "okay, you appreciate it. WHAT do you appreciate though? What could you possibly appreciate about a trans narrative if you're so easily put off by the fact that it's NOT a cis-male narrative".
So I asked him that. I couldn't ask him exactly like that, though, because of imgur's 140 character limit on comments (sigh).
I wasn't really expecting a reply, as most of the comments were centered sarcastic guesses at what TransCat's powers where, if she uses the men's or women's litter box and if Marvel and DC has a copyright on the term "superhero".
But I DID get a reply!
It's a little bit more well thought out than I expected, even if it is a tad predictable.
I do not understand why the term "cis" or "cisgender" offends so many cis-guys, and it's mostly cis guys! I've never heard a cis-woman complain about the term. I guess cis-guys prefer terms like "straight" and "normal", or maybe they just don't like us weirdo trans peeps assigning them names!
I mean, that's cool, I get where you're coming from, man. I didn't pick the term transgender either. That term was invented in 1965 by John F. Oliven, a cis-male, I might add! i'm not offended by the term though, even though i didn't choose it for myself, it's... merely a descriptor. A newly invented compound word used to give a name to an identity that there simply wasn't a name for before. Cisgender (and cissexual) on the other hand was coined by Carl Buijs, a transexual man from the Netherlands.
So when cis-men are offended by use of the term "cis" to describe them, what they're saying is that it's okay from them to name us, but not okay for us to name them.
EITHER THAT.. or they just don't get what cis even means, they're defensive so they assume it's an insult, and that just generates it own host of dumb ass problems.
So I responded to the guy again, letting him know what cis means, letting him know it's not an insult and blah blah blah, because it's a fair bet he just has no idea what it means. It's also a fair bet that he's heard it used as an insult before and just attached that meaning to it in his head.
Cis CAN be used as an insult, like if I were to say something on my site "Order Issue #1 of TransCat now! It's so easy even a cis-guy can do it!" But by that same token , I could say "It's so easy even a white guy can do it" but that doesn't necessarily make "white" an insulting term, does it?
But I digress, I just thought this was an interesting experience to share, and more than likely it is an experience I'll be having more of as word of TransCat spreads far and wide :3
But hey! As long as we're talking aobut TransCat in the media, my friend Roxanna Meta found this awesome shot of me at Big Wow on Metroactive! :D
Lookit dat comic book pimp! ^__^
Fanime Day 0 starts tonight! I have a feeling I'll be in line for a very long time, or maybe not, considering I'm an artist again this year. Those lines are long, but not as long as the regular attendees line. I really with registration could get their shit together :P
Oh well~
Reports coming soon!
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