There are many terms that come up when discussing gender and you may hear words that begin with “cis”.
Cisnormative is one such word and its meaning is simply the typical or expected behaviour from a particular gender role: at its simplest the binary of Man and Woman.
So as an example, if you’re born male, grow up and are treated as a male, it might be considered cisnormative for him to play with toy soldiers, like football or have his bedroom colour blue.
In the same way, it would be considered cisnormative for a girl to grow up liking and dressing in pink and playing with dolls.
A person living a cisnormative life is a cisgender person who dresses and acts in a way which might be described as typical for their gender and biological sex.
Many of these choices are actually impacts from parental decisions rather than a child’s actual wishes. This was proven in a recent BBC two documentary called Gender Free.
You can add your comments below if you’d like us to update the meaning we’ve used here.
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