As the language has evolved, Guys here in Australia can refer to everyone as a group(gender neutral) and is popularly used by both men and women, although some object to it OR a group of men, whereas guy in it's singular form is gender specific. Not sure how it is in Nebraska.
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School Told to Call Kids Purple Penguins Because Boys and Girls Is Not Inclusive
- Thread starter benjipwns
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Higgins113
Banned
The downfall of western society continues. Good grief
BobbyRobby
Member
I don't think this will do much of anything. I think the kids will splinter off in recess or away from school if they don't allow it.
I feel bad for people with gender identity issues, but don't you run the risk of creating similar issues in these kids by telling them to inhibit behavior they may naturally have??
I feel bad for people with gender identity issues, but don't you run the risk of creating similar issues in these kids by telling them to inhibit behavior they may naturally have??
I don't think that much thought goes into these issues. Most of these types of responses are reactionary and there's little forward thinking involved.
Eteric Rice
Member
I just want to be called human, thanks.
Masquerader
Member
It's weird, this is. Although I suppose that we'll adapt to this gender neutrality, like we have adapted to cars, longer lifespans, etc.
Hot Coldman
Banned
it's a silly fun phrase for school children
christ
christ
How terribly otherkin exclusionary.
lazorexplosion
Member
You don't need practically Orwellian language modification to create tolerance.
I'd even say you DON'T make tolerance with this sort of bullshit.
I'd even say you DON'T make tolerance with this sort of bullshit.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
This is a really forward-thinking initiative, and I honestly can't see the harm in not stuffing gender stereotypes and gender binarism down the throats of kids.
With that said, I'd rather they use a different word, like, you know, child, or person, or being, etc.
With that said, I'd rather they use a different word, like, you know, child, or person, or being, etc.
Referring to boys as boys and girls as girls is 'stuffing a stereotype down someone's throat'?
K..kay.
I honestly don't believe that anyone is legitimately offended that a teacher would call kids "purple penguins". I really don't know if people are being very sarcastic and I'm just unable to pick up on it.
It's literally the most innocent thing I could possibly come up with, and somehow it's an awful thing to some people. How.
It's literally the most innocent thing I could possibly come up with, and somehow it's an awful thing to some people. How.
rocketknight
Member
What the fuck are you even talking about? This thread is such a gross circlejerk, Jesus.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
It is because of all the sexist baggage associated with the words "boys" and "girls", which is a lot harder to remove than simply not using those two words in question - you bypass the problem of gender seperatism through the clever use of a singly gender pronoun.
anonymous_abc
Member
On the topic at hand:
I approve.
Serpentine
Banned
All for not having kids line up by boy/girl
That'd make sense, we kinda had something like that in my elementary school
That'd make sense, we kinda had something like that in my elementary school
DigitalDevil
Member
I really don't understand the point of all this. It seems very PC and silly.
Boys are boys. Girls are girls. If a boy feels like a girl or vice versa, the focus should be on fostering tolerance and acceptance, not erasing the difference between boys and girls. There is a difference.... And that's okay.
Boys are boys. Girls are girls. If a boy feels like a girl or vice versa, the focus should be on fostering tolerance and acceptance, not erasing the difference between boys and girls. There is a difference.... And that's okay.
rocketknight
Member
My bingo card is complete with that transphobic South Park meme reference. Great job everybody, we can all go to bed now!
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Not everyone can be neatly slotted into thoso two gender categories, there's a near-infinite number of gender categories.
Business
Member
My first thought exactly.
This is ridiculous. We're a gendered species, not a gendered society. No amount of language remodelling is going to change our sexual dymorphism or the fact that sex is still a damn useful identifier / term of reference as it is age, job or complexion. Measures like this one are the epithome of attacking the symptoms rather than the cause. Wholly misguided.
rocketskates
Member
Well thats one way to confuse an undeveloped mind.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Not everyone can be neatly slotted into two categories, biology & genetics can be fuzzy.
Not everyone, but most people can. I'm fine for teaching kids new things but the part that bothers me is:
Teaching kids that using someone's visible gender by default as 'wrong' seems
wrong.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I think it's right, since someone's visible gender is a societal construct.
Broder Salsa
Banned
As someone who identifies as a purple penguin, I am very happy about this.
theSlacker
Member
Which is why "purple penguins" is offensive as well to otherkin who do not identify as a penguin. How is this any better for them? Are they irrelevant because they are in such an extreme minority?
DigitalDevil
Member
Last time I checked there were penises and vaginas. Is there some new sexual organ I'm unaware of?
Moral Panic
Member
Not everyone has 2 arms or two kidneys or 5 fingers on each hand or two legs or pretty much anything we normally associate with humans. I'm not sure why kids need to be clued into these complex matters and asking teachers to "interfere and interrupt if they ever hear a student talking about gender in terms of “boys and girls” so the student can learn that this is wrong" strikes me as brainwashing. If you heard a kid say humans have two kidneys would you correct him too? Ater all, we wouldn't want to live in a world where kids think all people have two lungs, would we?
I have no problem referring to a person as he, she, xhe or anything in-between but it isn't default and efforts to not only make it default but to refer to anything else as "wrong" is based on a ridiculousness that must be challenged.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
Intersexed individuals break the binary gender system when it comes outward sexual characteristics, and if we're going by chromosomes then there's plenty of non-standard sex chromosomal configurations. Same with hormonal levels, brain physiology, etc, etc.
Human gender is fuzzy, messy, and not at all neatly divisible in man & woman.
What? If you took a male and female child and just let them grow up in the woods for 25 years they would end up looking identical?
Regardless, like others in the thread have said, if someone identifies as something besides what you're assuming they do, then they tend to correct you and everyone moves on, but choosing a 'default' that applies to the majority of the world isn't 'wrong' in my opinion.
DigitalDevil
Member
Okay, but I don't think "not at all" is really accurate. What percentage of people born today are intersexed, would you say? Even if it's 5% which I doubt, should the whole system change to accommodate that 5%? Or should we teach our children to be accepting of everyone while still explaining the difference in the two most common genders. I don't think erasing the difference or pretending like it doesn't exist by ignoring it (because 5%) is the answer.
lazorexplosion
Member
Tolerance is "exceptions to the usual gender binary are fine".
Tolerance is not "it's wrong to even acknowledge the obvious gender binary".
Tolerance is not "it's wrong to even acknowledge the obvious gender binary".
No, you can
Boys are boys and girls are girls.
Stuff like this is really making me consider pulling my kids from school and home schooling
Stop right there you shitlord.
DigitalDevil
Member
"Shitlord"... I like it.
SliceSabre
Banned
I'm going to continue calling male looking people male and female looking people female unless that individual person tells me they are otherwise.
Might be a shitlady. Best to use 'shitpenguin'.
4th Chamber
Banned
BF4 emblem represent.
QuicheFontaine
Member
I think this would actually work as a great insult. Clearly offensive, and sends the other person away confused. A+
Robot Pants
Member
"I- I need a large pool full of salt water"
On the topic at hand:I approve.
Gender has indeed a hefty dose of social construct and fuzziness built into it, but sex does not, as far as I know. You can either have a penis, a vagina, or in some cases, you can be an hermaprodite and have both organs present, but that's pretty much it. Transgendered persons are either male or females that wants (well, need) to become members of the opposite sex, but are not nor want to be a "third sex", so to speak.
The problem is not the sexual difference per se, but the negative atributions that we as a society give to said difference. It is like this sci-fi short story, where an alien race deprives mankind from our ability to distinguish colour in order to stop racism... only to re-direct our discrimination impulses into fat vs thin people. The problem does not lie in our perception per se, but in our interpretation of said perception.
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