Suppose you suddenly create a new victim group, with very special privileges and entitlements. Suppose you give the members the right to have a fellow employee fired, simply by saying that the employee didn’t use your “right” pronoun. Suppose that the members have priority in college admissions and job applications. Suppose that the government willingly pays for the psychiatric help and surgery.
Lo and behold you will have hordes of people entering the group! Especially when all it takes is to declare that you are in “transition.” You don’t need to actually change anything.
The benefits are enormous, and there are no drawbacks, in a society where nothing is right and nothing is wrong, and there is no shame, and you suddenly become “someone.”
17 comments
And the motive for creating it would be...?
Projecting your own lack of conscience and morality, mitigated only by conformity, onto everyone else, #Infinity+1
I`m pretty certain I wasn`t born 2 years ago, acknowledging people`s existence and their rights is not "suddenly creating" anything and as for the "benefits", yeah you go ahead and do just that if it`s so fuckin simple. The reality of these things would kick you right in your malicious ass.
Suppose you're full of shit - because you totally fucking are.
And why do you care, at all, even a tiny little bit, about which pronoun a person prefers? Some people don't mind nicknames, for example, whereas others hate them. Some people don't care if strangers call them by their first names; others prefer greater formality in the form of Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss. (You'll notice, on that last point, that there are at least three possible formal modes of address for women - and total strangers should, in my own opinion, be using 'madam' (or miss) to address an unknown woman or 'sir' for an unknown man.)
I'll let you in on a little secret: Etiquette, at bottom, is about service to others. Manners are a subset of etiquette. If someone, regardless of why, asks to be called by a specific pronoun, do it. It isn't hurting you to be courteous. It is, however, hurting someone else if you're not.
"...(a) victim group, with very special privileges and entitlements."
You mean like Christians? OK, that was snarky and I'm so ashamed.
"Especially when all it takes is to declare that you are in 'transition.'"
Actually no, it also requires a psychiatric certification. Would you want to have to live, dress and act like the opposite sex for a few years?
Besides, I'm not aware of any priority in "college admissions and job applications." Considering there are no rules about discriminating against transfolks in hiring I suspect that such an attempt would seriously backfire.
Victims don't have privileges and entitlement. The privileged and entitled do.
image
We don't have to suppose, we have seen white men having most of those privileges.
Yup, being abused, beaten up, raped and killed is a cheap price to get a bit of subsidized surgery, right?
To my knowledge, you have to actually live as your designated gender for an extended period, before you are eligible for surgery.
No drawbacks? What about being ostracized by your family, beaten up and bullied on a daily basis, being attacked every time you NEED to use a public toilet, perhaps being raped and/or killed? Nah, those are just funny perks, right?
Most people who suddenly become "someone" are unloved boys who find themselves in the fascist/Nazi community. To them, being hated is better than being ignored, not seen.
And if people who were transgendered or gender-queer had been given the right to have a fellow employee fired as you describe you might have the beginnings of an argument.
As things stand, however..
When right-wingers have been subjected to Persecution for thousands of years, then you'll have earned the 'Privilege' of thinking you have the right to be 'Privileged'.
But it's only been since 2008. You've got several millennia to go, rather than several years , you poor victim-ised babies.
Newsflash: since late last year, Nazis are officially terrorists here in Britain. [/Charlottesville]
Nobody gets fired for not using the pronouns once. Hell, most trans people will let slip-ups or ignorance slide, at least the first few times. You know what does get you fired? Constant harassment and dehumanization of a coworker for no good reason. AS IT SHOULD.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
To post a comment, you'll need to Sign in or Register . Making an account also allows you to claim credit for submitting quotes, and to vote on quotes and comments. You don't even need to give us your email address.
