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snarkivist ([info]snarkivist) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2007-08-03 21:52:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:genderblah

The Vulva Superstar PC Revue
[info]bellasmommy links to a [info]vaginapagina mod post about whether or not everyone who owns a vagina isn't grossly butthurt when it's implied that zhe is a woman.

[info]stupid_free disagrees. For 700 comments, and counting....

Choice bits:

[info]jack_jackrum: Some people who have vaginas are not women, ladies, or girls. I don't see how this is hard to understand. Have you been under a rock for the last 50 years?
[info]freezer818: Seems like overdramatic, oversensitive hair-splitting that will cause more drama than it's meant to prevent. But what do I know, I'm just a lowly man. *crawls back under rock*

[info]pettythiefIn the example the poster gives (paraphrasing) "recommend that women get pap-tests", how do you re-write that sentence so as not to offend people who have a cervix but don't call themselves 'a woman'? Can it be done? What are you supposed to say? "People with a cervix"? "Vagina-sapiens"? Is it fair of the cisgendered people to expect everyone to perform lexical gymnastics when they represent a tiny proportion of the populace? Unless of course there's a disproportionate number in that community, in which case it's a whole different ball-game.


...and, with that, I think I've burned out, since this whole post makes my head ache. Let's pick a pronoun and go with it.

The real problem is with a safe space that's so safe you're not allowed to say anything at all.



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[info]panthea
2007-08-05 12:20 am UTC (link)
I am so very, very confused.

Not about the transgender thing; I get that. What confuses me is how you get from there to "OMG you assume I'm a woman just because I have a vagina! HOW DARE YOU SIR AND/OR MA'AM."

I mean, isn't that the sort of thing that just comes with the territory? Like having a last name that's really hard to pronounce? Sure, it's really fucking annoying the millionth time someone calls and horribly mangles my name, but you get used to it eventually. I'm not about to bitch out complete strangers just because they somehow fail at Arabic pronunciation.

Shit, I'm gonna start telling people I'm really an octopus. Isn't it obvious?

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]miss_arel
2007-08-05 01:04 am UTC (link)
Ugh, I hear you. I'll see your Arabic name and raise you a German one.

Although to be fair, at least (usually) when someone mangles my name and I correct them, they apologize and start pronouncing it the right way. (Or at least trying.) But I don't know how many people would just go, "oh, okay, sure," if I told them I actually preferred to be referred to as "he".

Not that that makes the person raising a stink any less wanky; I just wish more people were as flexible about pronouns as they are about names.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]panthea
2007-08-05 01:47 am UTC (link)
Yeah, it's not really a comparable issue, just the first thing I thought of. In either case, though, that's really not the first thing that's going to spring to somebody's mind. "Perhaps this cervix-carrying person is not, in fact, a woman!" And now "cervix" sounds like some kind of terminal illness that you can pass on to other people without dying from yourself. Like typhoid. I'm a cervix-carrier! I'm Cervix Mary!

And now I should probably stop typing.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]miss_arel
2007-08-05 03:16 am UTC (link)
What do you know! I'm a cervix carrier, too! Small world we live in. :)

...in conclusion, octopi. Cos I don't think anyone would ever look at an octopus and go, "Really...? You don't look like a girl..."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]panthea
2007-08-05 01:35 pm UTC (link)
Girl octopodes have eyelashes. Everybody knows this.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]red_eft
2007-08-05 01:16 am UTC (link)
"OMG you assume I'm a woman just because I have a vagina! HOW DARE YOU SIR AND/OR MA'AM."

...but... there was no bitching! It was a polite request, in a community that the person requesting it was an active part of, and that tries to be aware of these things. There wasn't any outrage in VP itself, just in stupid_free. It's less like bitching out complete strangers who mangle your name, and more like asking someone who uses your name a lot to pronounce it correctly. And then they say "Okay, sorry!" and then someone who overhears your conversation goes on and on about how oversensitive you are.

Sorry. That metaphor got away from me, and also was distinctly lacking in amusement. Here, have some dating advice from the fifties.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]panthea
2007-08-05 01:45 am UTC (link)
In that case, apologies and a retraction. Yeah, I skip the links sometimes. They just tend to depress me.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]freezer
2007-08-05 03:11 am UTC (link)
Sad part is, one of my coworkers talks just like Mick from that film...

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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