diff --git a/locale/en/blog/those-scary-pronouns.md b/locale/en/blog/those-scary-pronouns.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3cf39f867 --- /dev/null +++ b/locale/en/blog/those-scary-pronouns.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +# Those scary pronouns + +2021-08-22 | [@andrea](/@andrea) + +![Sylvia Dziuba on Medium: Demanding Pronouns. No, I don’t want to give you mine, and I don’t want to know yours.](/img/demanding-pronouns.png) + +So I stumbled upon an article on Medium called [“Demanding Pronouns”](https://medium.com/the-venting-machine/demanding-pronouns-b819ab23f5df). +And while I normally wouldn't even bother to dignify such blatantly enbyphobic bullshit with a reply, +this one is just so over the top asinine that I just have to pick my “favourite” parts and share them with a comment, even a brief one. + +And the first awful fragment is literally the first paragraph: + +> It seems everywhere I turn; I’m being asked about my pronouns. My answer? +> Just refer to me in any way that makes you feel comfortable, +> but don’t make me go through the torture of giving you my ‘she, her, hers’ during every interaction. +> I’m a girl; I look like a girl — I’m a biological female. What else do you want from me? + +I could rant on and on about how important for trans people it is to normalise sharing pronouns, +how it's just basic empathy to listen to their needs, how not everyone who “looks like a girl” +is necessarily “a biological female”, or how pronouns are grammar, not biology, +so her genitals are none of my business when I'm simply wondering how to refer to her. +But that would just take the attention away from the most important word of this paragraph: + +> torture + +Yup, she calls it “torture” when someone… asks her a question. And not a deeply personal one, nor a complicated one. +She's not being asked what her genitals are. She's not being asked her gender identity. +Someone's literally just trying to establish the basis for the conversation by knowing how to talk to / about her. +And the answer is literally two syllables! +Yes, that question _might_ be tricky sometimes, +but she's not a closeted trans person who could feel anxious trying to decide if the situation is safe enough +to give someone their real pronouns. No. She's just a brat. A snowflake. + +And she's not even trying to keep her bigotry mild. She's starting her article off +with probably the strongest possible word one could use to describe the situation: “torture”. +You know, that thing that's forbidden by multiple international conventions and deemed a human rights abuse. + +And as for my other “favourite” part, it's this one: + +> Now that I’ve had my rant, I want to talk about the bigger picture here. I’m not just angry. +> I’m writing this to fight for simplicity. This world is complicated enough. +> Why are you trying to introduce even more confusion? One person wants to be +> they/his, another they/them, another he/they, another xir/them— should I go on? +> +> There is no way in hell I’m going to remember all that for every single person I meet. +> You can forget it. Call me old school, tell me that I’m stuck in my ways. I don’t care! +> Just stop demanding something that I don’t want to do, or otherwise face your wrath. +> Fine, be angry with me, but just leave me be! + +Oh no! That image of the world indeed sounds horrible indeed! How are we supposed to survive any social interaction, +if we're being forced to remember tiny bits of information about the people we talk to?! + +Well, other than names, of course. Asking someone their name (and trying not to forget it) is just basic politeness. +And it's very handy, it lets you know how to call a person. +But names are very different from pronouns! +For example, you need to know someone's _name_ to form a sentence like “_Sylvia_ wrote a transphobic rant…”, +but you need to know someone's _pronouns_ to form a sentence like “…and I absolutely hated _her_ transphobic rant”. +See? Completely different. + +Can you imagine such a horrible world, a world where you meet people, and they _torture_ you with questions like +“What's your name?”, and they even tell you theirs, and they even expect you to remember it? +I know! Totally unbearable! + +Well, Sylvia is living in a world like that. One where people have the _audacity_ to ask her what she wants to be called. + +And when I see her _terrible struggle_, I can only say one thing: + +

via GIPHY

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