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In a general sense I get your concept of treatment towards others. Where I differ is..."their preferences". SO do tell...If a Priest has a preference for young "boys", please respect him for that? Or the Guy who has a preference for slamming his wife into a wall...Because..IT's HIS preference. Or the racist who "prefers" to demean someone of a faith....Yes, do tell at what point do you draw the line?
I draw the line at recognizing an adult and yes (shutter to say it) their biological gender. If that person says...But I am a giraffe! I am still going to address them as my education determined....as a He or she.
ANd fyi Your niece has "sense" to realize their is a gender difference..and websters dictionary can clarify pronoun usage.
No. It's more like how we've all decided, as a society, to call Paul Hewson "Bono." If someone asks you to call them something, it's not that difficult of a request to fulfill.
Last edited by fleetiebelle; 09-19-2017 at 01:53 PM..
Yes. I'll choose to taunt them anonymously. Because I refuse to indulge in a weird fantasy wherein someone thinks they're something that they're not, and insists that I play along. I might "identify" as rich and handsome, but that doesn't make it so. Likewise, a guy with male plumbing may "identify" as female, and sincerely wish that he were, but that doesn't make it so. And I'm not going to enable him in his delusion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ro2113
Well that's quite cowardly of you. Why not have the guts to taunt them to their face if you insist on mocking someone?
The latest thing on forms and applications is to specify your preferred personal pronoun. For example:
__ He/his/him
__ She/her/her
__ They/their/them
__ Zi/zir (or similar made-up words)
And so forth.
Took the kid to first meeting of Sunday school, they lined up the teachers in front, and each teacher gave their name and preferred pronoun.
Out of the ten teachers, all gave their traditional pronoun except for one short woman with crew-cut hair who specified "they/them" for her preferred pronoun.
Some organizations now are offering "Hello, my name is..." name tags that have a space for "preferred pronoun" at the bottom.
In Chinese, the universal pronoun is "ta" (他). When spoken, it means "he, she, or it" as well as "him, her, it". In the late 19th century someone created a female "ta" (她) but traditionally the male "ta" was universal.
China has never been noted for its egalitarian treatment of women. Traditional families sometimes had multiple wives. Female footbinding and the buying and selling of wives was common. Women were never free. Men were pretty much in charge of government, military, and business -- except for footbinding, much of this is still true even today.
Baby girls are routinely despised in rural China and are sometimes abandoned outside hospitals or orphanages, so that the parents can go back and try for a boy.
Japanese language doesn't even use personal pronouns -- they exist but generally are not part of sentence structure, except for first person (e.g., watakushi = I, me). Again, Japan is a country not noted for the emancipation of its females.
Language supposedly has a great influence on psychology, and I suppose these forward thinking people with their evolving use of pronouns are trying to change the way we look at ourselves and others. Personally I think it's a lot of hooey, but perhaps I'm just a stuck-in-the-past fuddy-duddy.
Sure, I suppose fixed gender pronouns somewhat lock people in, but so what? If society calls you "she" and deep down you'd rather be a "he", is it really all about language, or is there something different about your brain or your psychology that has nothing to do at all with superficial linguistic constructs?
Opinions?
I have kids in college. They are both "he" and "she" - which is the gender that they were born with.
However, they have friends who want to be referred to as "they".
And I find it strange to call one person "they" - what are their six of them???
It is rampant on college campuses - everywhere. My Alma Mater has a "Gender Fluid Dorm" where male and female (or I should say people who were born male and female) may share a room in a platonic way.
I am very liberal and open minded. But, I am having a hard time understanding this.
I understand Gay. Bi-Sexual. Transgender. But this strange use of pronouns eludes me.
You really want to compare sexually molesting little boys to gender pronoun preferences? You really want to go down that rabbit hole?
These are human beings who are asking that you address them a certain way. You can either respect their wishes, as most would expect from a grown adult. Or you can not respect them, and instead, lash out at them and taunt them anonymously on a forum like the brave soul that such a person must be. I know which choice I'll be opting for. Do you?
I don't equate it with perversion at all, but it can be annoying. When my kid brings home what appears to me a heterosexual couple and the "girl" is wearing a skirt and the boy looks...like a male, and they are dating, I fail to understand why each of them needs to be called "they".
Also, I am just tired of being corrected all of the time.
I don't equate it with perversion at all, but it can be annoying. When my kid brings home what appears to me a heterosexual couple and the "girl" is wearing a skirt and the boy looks...like a male, and they are dating, I fail to understand why each of them needs to be called "they".
Also, I am just tired of being corrected all of the time.
You know, in spite of all this ranting and raving in this thread, I've never once, in my entire life, encountered an individual who had this type of preference or request. I find it interesting that some of you seem to be surrounded by these types of people, to the extent, that you are being overwhelmed by having to correct yourself so much. Where do some of you live where this is more prevalent? I thought we had a bunch of strange weirdos here in Denver. Guess it's not that bad.
You clearly live in a bubble. These phenomena are quite widespread.
I'm a Millennial (you remember us; the "entitled", "whiny", "SJW" generation) and I live in progressive Denver. Where are you encountering this kind of stuff so frequently? Because I have not seen this as a "widespread" phenomena. Yes, I've heard about it, mostly in the news. But I seldom encounter anything like this where someone corrects me on which pronoun they prefer to be called. My fiance is a HS teacher and has only told me about one of her students, going through some sort of gender transformation, to be referenced as the opposite sex. One student, out of hundreds. That's it!
Last edited by Left-handed; 09-19-2017 at 03:37 PM..
Preface to state: I do not taunt or degrade a person based on a request "they/he/she/it" may impose. I do what is natural..I decide if it's a hill I wish to die on....Most times it's not. But I have found taking a stand on that hill is equally viable. So until the terminology "he/she" is banned I'll continue to use it in its proper form. sorry duckies...You are still a duck..And I'll respect ya just the same.
I draw the line at being accommodating to a person's conflict.
You know, in spite of all this ranting and raving in this thread, I've never once, in my entire life, encountered an individual who had this type of preference or request. I find it interesting that some of you seem to be surrounded by these types of people, to the extent, that you are being overwhelmed by having to correct yourself so much. Where do some of you live where this is more prevalent? I thought we had a bunch of strange weirdos here in Denver. Guess it's not that bad.
Same here. I know exactly one person who identifies as non-binary (a college acquaintance who is now a Facebook friend), and this person has openly stated they don't care what pro-noun you use as long as you're not deliberately using it to be spiteful or demeaning or otherwise being an a$$hole about it.
I can go with they/them, not with made-up words like "zey".
Every word was made up until it wasn't.
And there have always been weird rules about how to address people in society.
And dumb things about how you congratulate the groom but you offer the bride best wishes or however that goes.
They used to be weirder than this... geez... all the royal people in England have like different titles like who is highness and who is majesty and blah blah blah.
How is this personal pronoun thing any more or less stupid than what's been going on for thousands of years already?
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