Where oh where oh where are the adults? Where did they all go? What are they doing? Why are they hiding? When will they get a fucking grip?
First the boring obvious for the millionth time: there’s no such thing as “people’s chosen pronouns” because people don’t get to “choose” special personal meanings for public language.
Much more to the point, humoring people about “their pronouns” absolutely does not affirm human dignity, it treats people as if they were toddlers. There is no dignity in playing let’s pretend in public forever. Trying to impose one’s personal fantasies about one’s personal self is just about the most embarrassingly childish thing one can do and get praised for it.
How does it foster inclusivity? Do people want more and more friends with special pronouns they have to memorize? More and more friends insisting on playing out their fantasies in real life? More and more friends pretending they have no idea what female and male bodies are?
How does it foster respect? Isn’t it far more likely to foster anxiously concealed contempt?
Where are the adults??
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6 responses to “Waterloo Region District School Board”
I checked the feed of our local school board and they opted to tweet
“#TVDSB extends our well wishes to students, staff and families who are celebrating the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh today!”
Yes. One group gets to be King for a
DayMonthYearForever, while the other group is made to submit. Very dignity. So respect.It wouldn’t make me feel particularly charitable or kindly to our New Pronoun Overlords, no. I’m certainly going to resent the authorities enforcing conformity.
Although this obviously applies to the choice to kowtow to the demand to use cross-sex pronouns (it is not a choice) it probably refers to those making the request (it’s not a request.) In the long tradition of creeping trans-related rectifications, the common phrase “preferred pronouns” is being renounced as insufficient. It implies not just that you have a choice of whether to use them or not, but that trans folx are diverse and stalwart enough to consider whether they really need to be referred to by the pronouns applied to their targeted gender. No, they aren’t. Trans folx are, according to their supporters, a monolithic block of fragile people needing constant validation who are simultaneously pig-sure of their righteousness. This translates to an entitlement..
Whether it’s given through gritted teeth over fear of the consequences or not doesn’t seem to concern anyone. Only bigots and bullies object to acknowledging Self-Knowledge of Inborn Gender.
What “anxiously concealed” contempt? It’s proudly and openly flaunted contempt.
I hate that way of writing where the syntax is just a random structure for slotting the important words in. Using the pronouns affirms the diggity. What kind? The diggity that fosters the inclusivity and stuff and also sense of belonging. Is this a thought-out mapping of the relationship between these abstractions? Do we need this two-step process to get to the respect? I’ve already spent however many minutes I’ve spent working this out, which is clearly that many more minutes than the writer did.
I came across a neo-neo-pronoun the other day:
I’m not sure what they do if the person referring to them is also mirrorpronominal.
Fortunately, there are rules so we don’t get confused:
Thank goodness for the rules.
What happens if X is asked to introduce itself first?