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Originally Posted by DWarrior
Btw, I use "they" for a gender-neutral single pronoun, and fuck the people who deride, it's much better than "ze" or "he/she." Why not just refer to gender-whatever-is-not-offensive-now individuals as "they" and "them"?
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There are situations in which using "they" as a singular pronoun sounds really awkward, but if it works for you, go for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DWarrior
on that note, is "genderqueer" not offensive but "queer" is?
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For most of the last century, "queer" was used as a derogatory term; however, over the past 10-20 years, there has been a shift toward reappropriating the word to be used as an umbrella term under which sexual minorities may unite.
Some people disagree with this usage, as they still find the term offensive. But many people are beginning to identify themselves this way, especially because it is inclusive, so it unites everyone from bisexual and gay to trans and intersex under one term, which is helpful for working together to gain political power.
But that doesn't mean it's suddenly okay to go around calling people queers. It is still offensive if it's said with cruel intentions. And I wouldn't call anyone queer, even with good intentions, unless they had first identified themselves that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DWarrior
You never use gender terms when actually talking to the professor. If your class is in English, "professor" is gender-neutral. So it's pretty self-important to care about how people refer to you when you're not there. And asking to use "ze" is just asking people to talk about you.
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Actually, we called hir Shane, and ze was a guest lecturer in my class for a few days. And though ze was using hirself as an example, the point of teaching us these terms was not really about hir. Ze was teaching us about the sometimes complicated linguistics of gender identity issues, in general. In my profession, we often work with sexual minorities, and this was part of a class in which we were learning about gender identity issues and how they effect our clients.