Polite Paradise

Quote from: yourdadjustcallsmekatya on June 19, 2019, 08:46:26 pm

Quote from: whiterose on June 19, 2019, 11:41:30 am

Warning- controversial.

I dislike the singular "they". I wish English had gender-neutral singular pronouns for people.

I will still respect and use "they/them/they/theirs" for people who prefer them.

But how I wish there were a gender neutral one. I mean, if English is progressive enough for inanimate objects to be gender neutral, it should also have a singular one for human beings.

They is a singular pronoun in English. What does being ‘progressive’ have to do with having gender neutral pronouns for inanimate objects?

"They" is a plural pronoun, but English uses it informally in lieu of a gender neutral singular pronoun. It solves the linguistic problem neatly, and I don't quite understand the objection to the usage.

I can already picture how subjective it can get regarding prior employee performance, not fitting in, and other biases.

For example- something innocuous and factual such as:

"Mexican Spanish is the slowest because it is staccato"

gets reported as

"Teacher Jennifer Honey said 'Mexicans are slow'"

 

Jennifer gets confronted by her principal Agatha Trunchbull regarding the post. Jennifer shows Principal Trunchbull the actual post with the date (and lack of edits) when it was posted stating the original inoffensive message. Principal Trunchbull still disciplines Teacher Honey stating that "it can still be misread as something offensive"- and thus disciplines Jennifer as if she had actually posted the offensive message somebody tergiversed the original harmless statement into.

So sadly, even with evidence of absence of any wrongdoing, one can still get into trouble. Hence having to be so uber-careful and hypervigilant.

I am not referring so much to big things like threatening people or even calling them names (including, but not limited to, racial slurs). But things that are not just a non-Native American stating they have a spirit animal. More in the gray area- where there could be several factors in the employee's position/education/demographics that could alter the severity of the perceived offense.

And it would not just be a family member or close friend that you would enlighten (if it is out of character) or would just cut off (if violent or at least deliberately done to cause offense and hurt feelings).

More like someone said something that would make the person relaying this to the employer think that the original poster would not be a good match for the job simply because of that. It may have been a hot-button issue to the tattletale. Or the tattletale may have a vendetta against the employee (e.g.- the jilted exes, exes' new partners or new partners' exes from the Ask A Manager post).

Sadly, some of my friends from one of my hobbies stated that somebody in the community whom I did not know well lost his job because of a Facebook post somebody else reported to his employer. I do not know if it was a racist comment or something else. But everyone agreed it was unfair.

And this was a Facebook post with the person's full name, current picture, and possibly current employer listed on his profile. Imagine if it were something posted on a forum like this one with a handle- would reporting anything less than a threat be considered stalking/invasion of privacy and thus a much worse offense than the original offensive post could ever be?

Anything at all worth reporting to a person's employer, other than when the person is highly likely to harm themselves or others and have given credible reason to believe they will?

Quote from: yourdadjustcallsmekatya on October 07, 2018, 01:59:07 am

How on earth is disagreeing with gender reveal parties ‘political’?

The fundamental disconnect between the traditional concept of gender being tied to biological sex vs gender as a psychosocial construct separate from biology, has certainly been politicized.

Issues of gender identity and how they should be acknowledged in society are frequently folded in with other political positions and arguments.

Thinking gender reveal parties are silly or eye-rolly isn't political.

Thinking they are *unethical* because it's up to the child to determine their own gender later in life, could be fairly characterized as a political position.

I like Nike's campaign, but not their choice of Kaep to be the "face" of it. IMO, so many others have made the ultimate sacrifice, and his so-called sacrifice just doesn't compare.

As for people destroying their Nike apparel, that's just silly. I have a pair of Nike athletic shoes in my closet which still have a good 2 or 3 years of wear left in them. I'm going to continue to wear them for as long as they hold up, but I won't buy that brand again. It has been my tradition for a few years now to buy my 3 oldest grandchildren new tennis shoes after Christmas. I won't be purchasing Nike for them.

I didn't like Pride and Prejudice.

I don't like the My Favourite Murder podcast.

Chocolate and any fruit flavour together is so gross, but on their own they are both quite delicious.

Oh, one more. Kate Moss is as ugly as sin. She always has been, and she is getting worse with age.  Looking very skinny is very highly overrated, I have no idea why people think it is attractive. I am of average weight but if you asked me to choose between being a bit overweight and between being as thin as models are meant to be, I would choose being fat all day every day. People like to scream about health when you say that, but being skinny is just as unhealthy (often more so) and absolutely no more attractive.