I am just going to use "it" for everyone from now on.
Has political correctness actually gone mad?
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
'They' works, too, and doesn't suggest disdain.
Immediately after leaving which, most graduates will try to find work. I guess uni is a bubble in many ways, but my going the extra mile, it does feel like they are going to make it even tougher for the students when they leave and find you don't get 'safe spaces' in a call centre, office or wherever.
Would be interesting to know what the demand for this was prior to the change, whether loads of students were actually lobbying for it or whether it was just deemed an issue by some NUS council.
We're throwing the laws of grammar out of the window...
I can almost guarantee that nobody cares outside of the SU. Engagement with SU's across the country is virtually nil (I think only one university and I cant remember where, Durham maybe, gets over 50% turnout for their elections) and most are somewhere between 20-35%.
They sometimes even forget what they've done themselves. I remember my favourite one here was when they had to hastily reverse the boycott of RBS because they'd forgotten they were boycotting them and they wanted to show the six nations in the bar.
Bold one - Yes. I could list all sorts of ways it's made more of a bubble that I think have much more of an impact than members of an SU making more of an effort not to offend each other than the rest of the world does. If anyone wants to argue this is the 'straw that will break the camel's back' I find that rather silly.
Bold two - I would imagine it was deemed an issue by a number of those attending meetings, who are the one's going to be affected.
Bold three - I find it works, fine, once you've gotten used to it. Not that I have any qualms with abandoning unnecessary strictness of grammar, in our post-twitter world. EDIT - Wait a minute, didn't you live in Hull? Far more grammar is ignored in non BBC English accents than simply using 'they' to refer to people.
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Just out of interest, does it annoy young people nowadays to refer to a group of them as "guys"? Only I've always used that as a catch-all term for people of all genders. Admittedly this goes back to a time when people didn't seem quite so sensitive about gender pronouns.
Never come across anyone objecting to that. I refer to my friends as guys, even though usually they're more female than male when we're in a group.
I don't know what world you live in (I wonder if it's one massively exaggerated from the posts of a few 14 year olds on tumblr) but as someone who personally lives in an LGBT bubble, it's nothing like this.
Do you know people who are particularly that bothered about gender pronouns either? It's always struck me as vastly exaggerated. I can't say I personally know many transgender people but most of them are happy enough with people being sensitive and accommodating and don't fly off the handle if you happen to misspeak.
I reckon there must be people who get extremely bothered about it. Although more than likely they're a tiny minority, portrayed by the right as being representative of everyone that shares their politics.
Everyone I know is understanding that it's tricky for most people. I've forgotten and used the wrong pronoun, with friends or acquaintances, plenty of times (particularly with one, as it's really easy to do when your transman friend's children still refer to him as 'mum'), and the worst that's ever happened is a mutual friend has politely reminded me.
It will be used universally so no it's should take offense. Justafan will just refer to Justafan in the third-person from now on.
DOTA is fine with this.
Not necessarily, but if a person comes from a very "protected" sphere and suddenly gets thrown into a world where people generally don't take these kinds of considerations seriously, or will even hurl abuse at you for fronting them, it will be a bit of a shock.
I don't really care what some student union prefers to call each other, but things like these are the first step to even more demands. What if they demanded faculty and other students on the Uni also started asking about pronouns or using gender neutral pronouns.
It's not so much this case in particular, but rather the fact that this kind of mindset is turning universities into isolated little hugboxes, and nobody is benefiting from it in the long run. Creating a a climate where no one is offended or even feel uncomfortable is not only impossible, it's dangerous; Especially at a university, a place where you are supposed to be intellectually challenged and grow
I was being pedantic on the grammar front tbh and being from Yorkshire, there's plenty of examples of that in my speech patterns no doubt. I have kind of considered using 'they' on the odd time I am quoting somebody with a name where it is not immediately obvious what gender they are- (messed a Francis up last year and got a call from the company's press office politely informing me).
As much as anything I guess, I'm kind of amused by the DM-style apoplexy around these stories, albeit maybe I shouldn't because I guess they are ultimately rooted in some people's misery.
This is how Nazi Germany started.
Oh I'm sure they exist. Just I'm not sure they're actually a sizeable number at all and the typical 'tumblr' personality that people seem to think of seems like a gross mis-representation of what actual real people are like.
I think theres a very small, but vocal, minority that really care and a very large group of reactionary types on the internet that view any concession to transgender people (even if it doesn't impact them) as akin to having their cock cut off or something which seems to amplify the issue whenever it arises.
University of Cis-sex.
If only it was Francis that complained about it, would have been the perfect chance for Jippy to respond with "Lighten up Francis"
As would saying the kind of things we do in the RAWK thread, because we're largely surrounded by like minded people in our United bubble, in a pub outside Anfield. We all live in certain bubbles and have to adjust when we leave them.
It's been done (to death). As has painting over the first three letters on the Sussex toy museum sign. So many disappointed visitors...
Had to google that!
What the feck are you talking about? Sounds like something out of Game of Thrones........
Google seems to think he's largely listing stuff from a game called Warcraft, if that enlightens you at all.
I thought I was a genius for a second there.I'm sorry.
As you obviously thought of it yourself you can have a deserved green smiley, representative of my amusement the first time I heard it.
I thought is was quality. Probably should have fired a lol your direction. Sorry about that.
Can you educate me?
Surely there are four categories. You either want to shag:
Men
Women
Men & women
Neither
How can there be 31? I don't get it..... Or was your post taking the piss? I genuinely don't know any more......
For a start, you're confusing gender and sexuality.
I don't know what the NY list contains but most of them will just be different names for what is essentially the same thing, as there is not as yet a commonly agreed upon term for certain gender identities, as they have only recently been a thing publicly discussed on such a scale.
Basically (I use the term loosely...), you've got people who consider themselves;
Cisgender
Either male or female - which you may be familiar with.
Non-Binary
A mixture of male and female (terms such as bigender, pangender and genderfluid - the latter of which implies your experience of masculinity/femininity is variable).
And those who feel neither male or female (agender, genderless).
Trans
Transsexual (someone who is changing from one sex to another)
Transman (a man who was born a woman) and Transwoman (the opposite)
Transgender (a catch all term for someone who feels a different gender to what is written on their birth certificate)
That vast majority of terms on this list of 31, or any other large list, will just be variant terms denoting one of those things.
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In Sweden they no longer use "he" and "she" but a gender neutral word which is "hen" (combination of han \ henne which is him \ her in Scandinavian).
I don't even think there is a translation for "hen" into English.
Fecking Swedes.
I don't even think there is a translation for "hen" into English.
Fecking Swedes.
'Ze' is sometimes used.
Turks are way ahead, their language has no gender specific pronouns.
And that is a problem because...?
Saves on pensions, though I don't know how nutritious the elderly would be.
Bit chewy I reckon.
Aha.
Grammar just as the rest of a language changes all the time. Always has and constantly so.
People all over the world speak and write in roman languages which were created by people not following the rules of the latin language. Simplifying grammar, mispronouncing words and even making up new words. Don't know about them having big problems because of it.