CIS by TRANS

• Autor(a) principal: Rodovalho, Amara Moira
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: Revista Estudos Feministas
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/article/view/48521

Cis, trans: above all, metaphors. Cisjordan, regionskirting the Jordan River. Cisplatin, Uruguay’s ancient name,region occupying one of the banks of the Prata River. Trans-Amazonian, that which crosses the Amazon; transatlantic,that which crosses the Atlantic. Cisalpine, transalpine. Thegeometric isomerism of Organic Chemistry, where “cis” areatoms that, when molecules are divided in half, remain onthe same side, and “trans” those remaining on opposite sides.Even the Houaiss dictionary, presenting the cis etymology as“from the Latin preposition cis ‘below, on this side’ (inopposition to trans)”. And many other examples. Metaphors,always metaphors. Something that crosses, trespasses, goesthrough and something that remains always on the sameside, skirting, not crossing, that avoids crossing, all in relationto a given line. Can we imagine the use of one of these termswithout, immediately, referring to the other? From this rhetoricalquestion, I dare to claim that medical discourse, by namingas “trans” our peculiar way of living, of claiming existence,has automatically named the other way, its way, non-trans,as “cis”, leaving to us only the task of thinking ways of makingthe two images proposed, something-that-crosses andsomething-that-avoids-crossing, translate themselves intomore tangible meanings.