It seems that Amherst issued a guide to woke language but had to withdraw it hastily because of the storm of derision. But it was preserved. It’s woke all right.
(Isn’t this where I came in? Writing a satirical version about 100 years ago.)
It’s in sections. There’s a section for -isms, starting with Ableism and Ageism. Then there’s…
CISSEXISM
The system of belief that cisgender individuals are the privileged class and are more natural, normal or acceptable than transgender, genderqueer, nonbinary and/or gender-nonconforming people. This belief manifests as the systematic denial of rights to trans and nonbinary people and their routine mistreatment.
Hmm yes very fair and impartial. Let’s tweak it a little:
REALITY
There are two sexes, and as many personalities as there are people. Sex does not determine personality, and it should not be allowed to limit or restrict it. Men can be gentle, women can be tough.
Simpler, easier to understand, and vastly less belligerent.
It’s interesting that “sexism” is shorter and comparatively perfunctory.
SEXISM
A system of oppression that privileges men and masculinity; subordinates women, girls and femmes (p. 12); and devalues practices associated with women, girls and femininity.
Why “men and masculinity” but “women, girls and femmes”? Why aren’t they parallel? Why not “men and masculinity” and “women and femininity”? Or “men, boys and butches” and “women, girls and femininity”? They don’t explain. Could it be because they unconsciously privilege men and masculinity themselves? Or even consciously, for all I know. It’s not as if the discrepancy is subtle.
In the gender section –
AFAB
An abbreviation for “assigned-female-at-birth,” a term frequently used, often by the transmasculine community, as a self-descriptor.“Assigned-at-birth” serves to imply that sex is without the agency of the individual.
Yes, well, it is without the agency of the individual, isn’t it. We don’t have the kind of magic “agency” that would let us overrule our own biology. We can’t will ourselves to be insects, or people of the 16th century, or 20 feet tall. What we are born is indeed without our agency, and a list of magical words can’t change that. Sorry, AFAB, you’re a weak reed.
BINDING
A method of reducing or flattening the appearance of one’s chest.
Wow, that’s evasive. It’s a method of crushing female breasts.
CISGENDER
An identity term for individuals whose gender identity matches their birth-assigned sex. Cisgender people receive benefits that trans and nonbinary people don’t have.
That’s right, we collect $10,000 a week just for being cis.
I’ll stop now. Lordy this crap is pathetic.
Comments
15 responses to “Language guide”
Coffee, meet screen.
You’re welcome!
Enumerate, please. I would like to know which benefits are wonderful. Let’s see:
-being mansplained every time I opine on my own field of expertise
-being ignored whenever I have an idea
-having to submit my plays using initials so no one will know I am a woman
-having to endure endless jeers and smirks every time I buy feminine hygiene products
-having to explain endlessly why I am qualified to do the job I am doing
-having to dodge groping, grabbing hands every time I go out in public (at least until I got old enough to just be ignored)
-being told to smile all the goddamn time
-being shouted at by nice, woke people because I allowed my ex to take custody of my son when we divorced because I was ill and not able to take care of him properly at the time
-having to endure all the compliments everyone gave my husband about what a wonderful husband and father he was because our house and son were clean (I did all the cleaning of house and almost all the cleaning of son)
-being shouted at by everyone because I had the gall to have an illness they assumed I could just “laugh and get over it” (every male I knew with the same illness, meanwhile, got intense sympathy)
-being expected to wear high heels in a job where no one saw me except the men in the office
-being expected to wear dresses in a job where no one saw me except the men in the office
-having my boss go to a male who did not know my employment history because he didn’t believe me when I told him I was capable of teaching a particular class – and privileging the male’s (wrong) answer over my (right) answer
Hell, this list could go on forever. I better stop now, or I will grow older and grayer while I’m doing this. Anyone else can jump in and join me. What “benefits” do you get from being a “cis” woman?
It’s the 10 k every week! It helps quite a bit!
Fair go, OB. It’s early days yet.
My alma mater. I think things were simpler when I was there, once upon a time.
The first sentence *should* have been sufficient. The whole rest of the entry is not definition—it’s instruction.
What the fucking fuck? Disagreement with the collective makes you guilty of collusion. Riiiiight. Okay. We’re full into Orwellian nonsense town here.
Really? Today I learned that the word “accomplice” was coined by … Indigenous Action Network? Who the fu … Starting to doubt this one. Let me check Merriam-Webster. First use: 1584 (earlier in Anglo-French). Indigenous Action: founded 2001. Um … We’ve always been at war with Eurasia?
Yep. The tragedy of the commons isn’t something you need to concern yourself with. There are infinite particles in the universe, and we’ll live forever. That’s scientific fact. And if it isn’t, that’s because the science isn’t inclusively decolonialized in centering the voices and lived experiences of those who are not eurocentric cishet transphobic white supremacists.
Who says there’s any such thing as “cisgender” people?
The “myth of scarcity” argument really doesn’t work when trans activists explicitly don’t want lockers, bathrooms, awards, crime statistics, athletic events, short lists, and so on, for transwomen; they want to take over the ones for women.
We cis men get 12k per week.
Taking over all these things that were intended for women only is doubleplus good validation and affirmation of their new identities. After all TRANSWOMEN ARE WOMEN. If you shout loudly it enough, (and write it in all caps like I just did), and click your heels together three times, it becomes true. It’s no fun at all if Women 2.0 don’t get to prove they’re better at womening than boring old natal women. They desrve all the things because they’re brave, and stunning, and overcoming cis privilege, and SHUT UP.
Trans activism is like some sort of witness protection program gone horribly wrong, where instead of getting on with their lives and blending into society at large, the witnesses hire entourages, take out TV spots, full page ads and billboards to advertise their new reality show where they are on camera 24/7.
Oooh that’s a gem. Should be a tweet or similar.
I love* this idea that we have discovered some new information, and we now know that “woman” doesn’t actually mean what we all stupidly thought it meant.
*I don’t really love this idea.
Ben, it appears that, for too many people (at least on the left), woman actually doesn’t have a meaning at all anymore. It’s like art – you know it when you see it. Only you don’t, right? Because if you see a man, you must assume it might be a woman until male-bodied human has come close enough to scream out what their correct pronoun is…the beard and musculature, along with the penis bulging in the tight pants, must then be assumed to belong to a female if male-bodied person says it is…
Next time one of these men tells me they are a woman, I shall retreat to Pewee Herman – “I know you are, but what am I?” See if I can confuse them. Then once they say I am a woman, they must explain how they can tell, and…well, they’ll have to put some definition on it, which cannot be “because you say you are a woman” because I haven’t said.
Then they’ll bash me with the cricket bat (probably baseball bat around here – make that AK-47) they are carrying, and leave me bleeding while they high five PZ Myers for beating up a TERF. And I’ll be bleeding without having solved anything.
I don’t see any reason to be an “ally” under those terms (of course I’ve long been skeptical of allyship in general)… “You must do everything I say and maybe, just maybe we’ll let you have a worthless merit badge or else fuck you.”
To which I reply: “I do what I want.”