# White Cis Male
White Cis Male is a sociological label and online catchphrase pointing to white, cisgender, heterosexual men as a demographic associated with unearned privilege. It spread through Tumblr-era social justice discourse in the early 2010s, got picked up by critics as a shorthand for perceived overreach, and became one of the defining identity-politics flashpoints of mid-2010s internet culture.
## Origin
The root word "cisgender" was coined by German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch in a 1991 article titled "Transsexuals and Our Nosomorphic View," describing people whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth[4]. The term then showed up in academic gender studies through the 1990s and 2000s, with Peggy McIntosh's widely circulated essay "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" providing the privilege-checklist framework that later writers adapted for cis identity[3].
Stacking "white," "cis," and "male" into a single label gained traction on blogs around 2011. An Advocate.com commentary that January was headlined "I'm a White, Cisgender Gay Man," explicitly listing the privileges attached to that identity[2], and in November, the site It's Pronounced METROsexual published a full list of cisgender privileges modeled on McIntosh's knapsack essay[1]. The exact first poster of the three-word phrase is not documented.
- **Platform:** Academic writing / Tumblr (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2011
## Overview
White Cis Male is an identity label stacking three descriptors: white (race), cis (gender identity matching sex assigned at birth), and male. On Tumblr blogs, LGBTQ forums, and essay sites, it got used to flag the demographic group considered to hold the most stacked social privilege, often paired with explainers about what cis privilege actually looks like day to day[1][2].
The phrase operates two ways online. In earnest usage, writers deploy it as neutral shorthand when discussing privilege, with Advocate.com running a 2011 column from a self-identified white cisgender gay man thinking through his own position[2]. In sarcastic and hostile usage, both sides use it as a weapon: social justice bloggers wielding it to dismiss a commenter, and critics flipping it to mock what they see as reflexive identity-based dismissal[4]. Urban Dictionary entries from the period swing between both readings[7].
The label grew out of the slightly older rallying cry "die cis scum," which radical trans activists had already pushed into online discourse before 'white cis male' hardened into its own three-word unit[4]. By the mid-2010s it was a recognizable signpost of Tumblr-era social justice vocabulary, mocked and defended in roughly equal measure.
## How It Spread
Through 2011, the label spread as discussion fodder on Q&A sites and advice blogs. A Yahoo! Answers thread that February asked bluntly what a cis guy even was[5], while the Advocate and It's Pronounced METROsexual pieces made the privilege framing available for anyone who wanted to link out[1][2]. From there Tumblr took over, with social justice bloggers using the phrase both as a serious analytical category and as a dismissive comeback[4].
By 2013 the catchphrase had hit full saturation and begun eating itself. On September 24, 2013, a Kongregate forums user opened a serious-discussion thread titled "is my being a white, cisgender, heterosexual male a bad thing?"[6], a reaction that was already common enough to generate its own subgenre of posts. On December 25, 2013, the Tumblr parody blog Social Justice Wario ran a Q&A post in which the character jokingly vowed to outlaw white male cissexuality, a satirical peak that captured how exhausted the discourse had already become[4].
The label stuck around as a recognizable piece of mid-2010s culture-war vocabulary and still shows up in both earnest and sarcastic usage online. Urban Dictionary entries added over the following years track the split, with some defining it as a serious category and others as an insult SJWs use to end an argument[7].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is White Cis Male?
It's an identity label combining race (white), gender identity (cisgender), and sex (male), used in online discourse to flag what writers describe as a stacked set of social privileges[1][2].
### Where did White Cis Male come from?
The 'cis' root was coined by German sexologist Volkmar Sigusch in 1991, and stacking it with 'white' and 'male' took off through 2011 blog posts on Advocate.com and It's Pronounced METROsexual before spreading on Tumblr[2][4].
### What does White Cis Male mean?
In earnest usage it describes a person who is white, cisgender, and male and is used in discussions of privilege; in sarcastic usage it functions as a dismissive label or an ironic self-identifier[1][7].
### How do you use White Cis Male?
Social justice writers typically used it as analytical shorthand when talking about intersecting privileges, while critics often flipped it into a punchline to mock what they saw as reflexive identity-based dismissal, as seen in posts like Social Justice Wario's 2013 parody[4].
### Is White Cis Male still popular?
The phrase is a classic piece of early-2010s Tumblr-era vocabulary that still shows up in culture-war arguments and Urban Dictionary entries, though its peak was mid-decade[4][7].
## References
1. [https://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2011/11/list-of-cisgender-privileges/]()
2. [https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2011/01/20/im-white-cisgender-gay-man]()
3. [https://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/white-cis-male]()
5. [https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110202145909AAiBQNP]()
6. [https://www.kongregate.com/forums/9-serious-discussion/topics/359270-is-my-being-a-white-cisgender-heterosexual-male-a-bad-thing]()
7. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=White%20Cis%20Male]()
8. [http://social-justice-wario.tumblr.com/post/71227606459/im-being-a-straight-white-male-and-you-cant-stop]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/white-cis-male
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