About speech acts
More on the Justin Webb issue.
Also it’s about what we’re allowed to say, and according to whom.
It’s not a trivial matter, when and if we’re allowed to tell the truth about who is a woman and who is not. It’s extremely important and extremely basic. It’s shocking and dangerous that a news organization, especially one with the clout of the BBC, is telling its personnel that they are required to lie about it.
Regarding speech acts, in the philosophy of language there’s a type of speech act referred to as a performative act. A performative act is an utterance that becomes true merely by uttering it. Think of a minister saying “I now pronounce you man and wife”; the utterance itself changes the legal relationship between the man and woman. Of course in order for that to work, a host of criteria need to be met: the minister has to be ordained, the state has to give ministers authority to conduct weddings, the people getting married have to meet the legal requirements for marriage, and so on. Above all, the society in which the act is performed has to accept it as legitimate.
I bring this up because it seems that the goal of the TRA movement is to turn gender identity into a performative act: the statement “I am a woman” is enough to make it so. They’re working to change laws that would support the performative act, but also change the way society thinks about gender. They’ve already captured Western liberals: in certain circles it’s taken for granted that if a man says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman.
Notice also the “man and wife” bit, which always enrages me. A separate issue but not all that separate.
Indeed. (Interestingly, it’s reversed in Spanish, where it’s “marido y mujér”, or “husband and woman”. In Spain, though, “mujér” is generally used for “wife”; in other Spanish speaking countries, “esposa” is more common.)
Also, Mr. and Mrs. My dad always addressed things to us as Mr. and Dr.; another friend saw no reason for that and used Dr. and Mr. My alma mater uses Dr. and Mr.
Some of us are trying to subvert the dominant paradigm; I wish more were.