The "What Are You Doing This Moment" Thread

[Onder]

I don't accept that reasoning. If I were to get thousands of people to refer to themselves as "ahsdfasdfs", that would not make "asdfasdf" a real word.

Asdfasdf has been a real word pretty much since the invention of QWERTY keyboard tbh.

 

[Einherjar86]

I don't accept that reasoning. If I were to get thousands of people to refer to themselves as "ahsdfasdfs", that would not make "asdfasdf" a real word.

Why the hell not? If those people use that word and know what it means, then it's a real word! That's what "words" are.

Language isn't just what you find in the Oxford Dictionary.

 

[Eligos]

If you told someone five years ago that you tweeted the location of this weekend's party, and that a couple dozen more friend showed up as a result, that person would have looked at you funny. The English language is agile and evolves rapidly.

That being said, in order for a new word to take off, it does have to be received with enthusiasm. I think that as with a lot of queer culture, xe/xyr/etc. will be more useful in urban environments where LGBT minorities are more common. I've definitely been in that awkward situation where someone is grasping for straws to find a pronoun applicable to a story about a transgender person, while the rest of us were hoping against all odds that they wouldn't land on "it" or some awkward amalgamation like "he/she/whatever you wanna call em". Fuck, I could have used the new word this last weekend, even.

I think the responses we're seeing are much like those toward "African American" back in the day.

 

[Vimana]

Xe is not a "new pronoun"

It has been around since the 1970s, and how is it fucking stupid? Why should people who do not fit neatly into the restrictive Western gender binary be forced to use pronouns that do not apply to them?

I think it's fine to make up a new pronoun and use it, as well as identify oneself as whatever the fuck you want as long as you don't hurt others, but if people pushing new pronouns want to be taken seriously, they should stop saying things like that. Male and female are the genders.

Unless you're a hermaphrodite, you fit into the "restrictive" binary. But you don't have to identify by it. It's not that you are not the gender, but that you don't identify as it, and I think that sounds more reasonable than saying, "I have a penis, but I'm not a man." Try, "I have a penis, but I identify as something different than man or woman and would prefer to be treated as such."

This "gender binary" exists in a lot of plants and most animals, and has existed in most cultures in history. The only exceptions I can think of are a third gender in Sumerian mythology and a Hindu god that is both male and female.

 

[The Butt]

But the words for what they are trying to achieve already exist. This is just politic correctness taken to a new extreme; and I'm not meaning to be rude but it saddens me. "One", "one's", "they", and "their" already exist, there is literally 0 need to make up words that I guarantee will not catch on into becoming universally accepted.

 

[Eligos]

Yeah I mean I totally get that. We don't get to just announce that a new word is now in the vernacular like we do with a software patch or the new pop tab on a can of Coke. The population at large actually has to accept this new word and start using it.

 

[Vimana]

But the words for what they are trying to achieve already exist. This is just politic correctness taken to a new extreme; and I'm not meaning to be rude but it saddens me. "One", "one's", "they", and "their" already exist, there is literally 0 need to make up words that I guarantee will not catch on into becoming universally accepted.

Well, "one" doesn't specify gender, but "xe" specifies that the person doesn't have a specific gender (I think). That's the only use I can think of.

 

[Einherjar86]

Furthermore, "they/their" is plural, and saying "one/one's" all the time is fucking annoying as hell. In papers it looks and sounds awful. I would gladly accept a different word in place of that shit stain. Educators often encourage writers to pluralize their subjects if possible to avoid using "one." But, in speech that refers to a singular person/subject, there's no other option. If language finds itself cornered, it will retaliate and expand.

 

[Vimana]

If someone wants to identify as a different made-up gender each day of the week, and maybe have a few for holidays, I don't give a shit. I think they'd be better off specifying it's how they identify themselves instead of acting like anatomy isn't what gender is about and fighting this imaginary "gender binary" in our DNA.

 

[Dak]

How is xe doing? Xe is fine, how about xu? Xym doing fine, thank xu for asking. Do xu know what xey are doing tonight? Nah, Xy have no idea xude.

Progrexxive, brought to you by the letter X.

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Haha y'all just wait. In a few years people will be complaining that xe sounds too much like he, and that we need a new word.

 

[damnromulans]

Such butthurt. Mind your own fucking business, you troglodytes. This is exactly like when someone happens to be a vegan and people react by shrieking about how much they like meat.

 

[Zephyrus]

New vocabulary always encounters resistance. I remember when using the word "partner" almost always meant you identified as a gay person. Now plenty of straight people use it to refer to their SO's.

 

[damnromulans]

And if you say "partner" and are straight, people get up your butt "why do you have to be PC about it?!?!?!?!?!?!"

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

I prefer cum receptacle but people are so rude about it.

 

[Onder]

I prefer cum receptacle but people are so rude about it.

Try xum receptacle.

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

I just find it funny, Einherjar is right. "One" is an abomination. its just funny how far people go to be politically correct

 

[Blind Guardian]

That being said, in order for a new word to take off, it does have to be received with enthusiasm.

I don't think so. First the media spreads it, then people start having discussions like the one we are having here, then people start using it sarcastically, and eventually it becomes so common that people forget the sarcasm part and it becomes 'legit'.

 

[SentinelSlain]

I find it amusing that loads of gender studies or feminist boo booing about gender as a binary was based around the sad tale of one guy that got his penis destroyed by a shitty doctor trying to circumcise him as a baby. The guy got brought up as a girl instead, it worked for a while, so all of the feminists celebrated and cracked the beams with their shrill cries, but then, as a deeply unhappy and quite male adult, the dude committed suicide. So basically, they based all of this shit on ONE CASE and that ONE CASE ceased to prove, in any way, the point that they were trying to make (that gender is a social construct).

They also tend to suggest that transvestites, crossdressers and intersex people are the "gray area" between genders, but you could just say that intersex people and generally those with odd chromosone arrangements, are some kind of third gender or "other", but people who genetically belong to a gender, belong to that gender. Why do I make that distinction, well, we don't even know what it's like to "be" the other gender. Supposedly men and women even see colours differently, they have different hormone levels affecting their feelings, they have complex biological differences between them and males. So to say someone is totally female because they had a sex change is kind of primitive and pretentious.

 

[Dak]

One does not simply use one.