Acceptance
2009-09-18 14:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexibeastA couple of links, the first courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshire_bitten:
A lovely story about pronouns
and the second courtesy of Haaretz:
Virginia synagogue doubles as mosque for Ramadan
There was recently a hooha on the Trans-Academics Google group about the use of Gender-Neutral Pronouns. An ardent assimilationist on the list decried their use, claiming that it is wrong to ask people to use them, that those who make such requests are disrespecting society by trying to force these "made-up words" on others1, and that thinking that one can change society is patently absurd. Oddly, many list members - myself included - expressed slight concerns with all this. :-P
There's acceptance and there's acceptance: there's acceptance that there are certain aspects to society that "just are" and that we shouldn't expect to change (e.g. we shouldn't hope to see widespread use of GNPs where appropriate, we shouldn't hope that Muslims and Jews might coexist peacefully), and then there's acceptance of diversity and the possibility that people can change how they view others. i choose the latter over the former.
1. Because no words in any language are made-up - they've always existed in some wonderful platonic realm. :-P
cheshire_bitten:A lovely story about pronouns
and the second courtesy of Haaretz:
Virginia synagogue doubles as mosque for Ramadan
There was recently a hooha on the Trans-Academics Google group about the use of Gender-Neutral Pronouns. An ardent assimilationist on the list decried their use, claiming that it is wrong to ask people to use them, that those who make such requests are disrespecting society by trying to force these "made-up words" on others1, and that thinking that one can change society is patently absurd. Oddly, many list members - myself included - expressed slight concerns with all this. :-P
There's acceptance and there's acceptance: there's acceptance that there are certain aspects to society that "just are" and that we shouldn't expect to change (e.g. we shouldn't hope to see widespread use of GNPs where appropriate, we shouldn't hope that Muslims and Jews might coexist peacefully), and then there's acceptance of diversity and the possibility that people can change how they view others. i choose the latter over the former.
1. Because no words in any language are made-up - they've always existed in some wonderful platonic realm. :-P
