Using "woman" in place of "female"

You do realize that your avatar is the unpronounceable symbol Prince insisted everybody call him by. We’ve already been there. That slope has already slid.

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Actually, it’s a symbol he adopted because his record company used the brand of his name to try and lock him into becoming a their serf.

I must have missed that Constitutional Amendment.

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IIRC, it was pronounced something like “Taff-cap”?

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Cultures and languages aren’t emergent. Periodically, they have rules imposed upon them, and if you don’t like them, perhaps you should have voiced your concerns during the comment period.

Where’s the RFC filed?

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Who’s refusing?

Would “Almighty” or “Alm8ty” have stretched this at all? Doubtful.

But in general, having seen precisely no one call for this kind of address, I don’t think highlighting non-issues is constructive here.

The point is where to draw the line. Can I make up a word and then demand everyone use it (or else they are a bad person) when referring to me? Can I change it after I do that to another? How often? What’s the line?

I have people who say to use “xer” and others who say “ze” and others who use different ones. Do I have to follow all of these or else I’m a big meanie?

Your local planning department in Alpha Centauri?

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I wasn’t aware we needed one at this time.

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The
Artist
Formerly
Known
As
Prince.
TAFKAP.

In other words, correct :smiley:

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Cool. So “That slope has already slid.” turned out to be not all that steep or slippery. Awesome. :slight_smile:

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It’s not the words that you use which determine whether or not you’re a big meanie. It’s the amount of effort you’re willing to put toward addressing people they way they prefer to be addressed.

Example A: if I don’t know someone’s preferred pronoun and I guess wrong then that doesn’t automatically make me a big meanie. If they tell me and I still insist on using the word I’m comfortable with rather than the word they’re comfortable with then I may very well be a big meanie.

Example B: Using the word “cripple” to refer to a person who used a wheelchair was completely socially acceptable a century ago, but anyone who does so today is probably either a time traveller or being intentionally insensitive.

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It must be such a privilege to imagine a world without boundaries.

What if their “preferred pronoun” is a word they made up last week just for themself?

Isn’t insisting others conform to your personal wishes, beyond a certain level of respect, a form of entitlement?

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A: Ah, you must be James. Nice to meet you.
B: Thank you. Please call me “Jim.”
A: Well aren’t you an entitled little prat.

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A: You must be Bob, good to meet you.
B: You will call me "Mother."
A: No, I won’t.

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You seem to think I’m making fake examples.

I’ve witnessed people making up their own special pronouns, all on their own, and then insist that people must refer to them that way or else they are resting in their privilege / insulting them / disrespecting their live choices.

In society, we must all compromise and there must be some social norms. My questions here are, largely, about what those norms should be and how should we determine them. I’m not willing to accept “Refer to anyone however they want, no matter how outside of norms it is” as the way to do it.

I just don’t see the point in inventing ludicrous hypotheticals to address issues that don’t exist.

“Nice zoo, what keeps the wildebeests from goring visitors?”
“Well, there’s that moat over there and a waist high fence.”
“So what’s to keep an adult from climbing over the fence, running through the moat, and frantically sucking on wildebeest dicks? Bet you didn’t prepare for that eventuality! Gotcha. Give me money.”

Just because people can invent problems, it doesn’t mean that there needs to exist a solution before it becomes a problem.

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Well, except you were responding to me and the issues I’ve highlighted, outside of some hyperbole for example, actually do exist. I do have people acting like precious snowflakes in certain circles and wanting everyone to treat them like a special flower or on a pedestal. It’s very self-involved.

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