web gender neutrality
this is my reply to an essay in the big queer blog re:gender neutral terms here:
http://www.bigqueer.com/index.php?/archives/196-Shes-Not-Heavy,-Zies-My-Non-Gendered-Sibling-Why-Gender-Neutral-Pronouns-Dont-Work-for-Me.html
their main argument is that they will never gain currency.
my reply:
i think you actually missed something in your thought about gender neutral pronouns, and your assumptions of it's ultimate goals. perhaps their use isn't for a gender revolution as you define it, but rather one as we ("new gendered/transgendered") people define it. perhaps it's simply a way of showing equal respect for those who are in the middle. instead of the purposeful, bigoted use of incorrect gender pronouns.while i agree that queering the use of pronouns (by queers) as you point out does a bit to disable gender, it is largely contained in a subculture, and has little chance of gaining currency in the larger society. i disagree with you, that these words will never take hold. i think they are in their infancy. in the 30's there was no transgendered. before it was zhe is an "invert" but we have changed to see and recognize those who's gender has changed or in the process of changing. i think in the future gender will be very different from how we see it now, and i think the next generation may find creative expression in lives that are gender neutral, and at first it will be weird, and people will need to come "out" and it will become more and more common, as will pronouns that describe those who understand or project themselves absent of gender. not all revolutions are the loud, it-happened-over-night ones. and not all revolutions are about completely dismantling what came before them. sometimes they simply strive to make room for those who had no room. or to create new freedoms. sometimes revolutions are personal, and take place when people who look themselves in the eye and understand that they are different than they've been taught. just like the queers before us did.
but on further thought i would amend my comments to say this:
i don't think that the linguistic queering of gender in the queer community really does much to disable gender, not just in the larger community, but even in the queer community.
using this essay about, of all things, postmodern evolutionary theory in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman.' by tony e. jackson, we find a slightly succinct synopsis of post modern critique-- which is perfect for looking at gender. understanding this, we discover that to truly disable gender requires more than the occasional, intentional queering. items in brackets [] are mine added for context.
quote:
"The elements of postmodern thinking that will be most relevant here revolve, as always, around the fundamental critique of metaphysical absolutes of all kinds, a metaphysical absolute being any representation [like gender] that is taken consciously or unconsciously as entirely self-contained, self-identical, self-present, and therefore outside the realm of culture, history, desire, and ideology.
....
In any case, whatever the particular realm in which the critique of metaphysical absolutes occurs, one common outcome is the discovery that absolutes of this kind always function as unconscious anchors for a certain kind of identity. So the critique typically involves two most general results: It reveals that a given absolute is in fact a construction of history, culture, and desire, and it reveals that the construction has been misrecognized as an absolute because a certain self or cultural or sexual identity depends on not seeing the construction as a construction."
unquote.
in other words, we think of gender in this culture as being something entirely natural. but using a postmodern critique, we see that gender is false, constructed. carefully crafted to hide it's lies and seams. the seams-- what makes natural gender obviously false-- in this case are the transgendered, intersexed, and androgynous. when we use the tools that hide gender's artificiality (our gender specific pronouns), we reinforce it's lies, pushing the transgendered back into a useless binary of male/female. creating and using words that force us to realize gender is not a binary, either or proposition, makes us look at the lies of a natural gender as just that, lies.
ADDENDUM:
i went out to dinner and a show with an old friend of mine. my friend is exactly a year and one day older than i am , which means she's somewhere in her 40s. she is easily one of the most intelligent, down to earth people i've met. i mention her because at the show we were talking about people who look interesting, and she commented that she was thinking about changing her androgenous look, which, i think, which suits her. she is at once feminine, sexy, masculine and androgyne simultaniously. imagine a petite salt and pepper haired annie lennox, but softer. she prefers men's suits, but is the only person i know who still wears aprons everytime she cooks. her scent is armani for men, and loves cosmetics. she straddles all of these things, both male and female. i don't know how she'd feel about being adressed with a neutral pronouns, i suspect she wouldn't like it. she is very much a female bodied female, and despite her straddling gender, her gender is something that is in tune with her sex. (hopefully the reader is aware of the three parts of sexual identity and of their differences-- SSG--sex, sexuality and gender) but my main case for using them, isn't that i expect it to be in vogue next year. it's that i think those words are the tools for the next generation to define themselves, in the same way that transexual was a means of self-defination for the generation before mine, transgendered for my generation.
a few days ago i was looking at online music editing sites. there were two: and when you are entering info about yourself, the options are male, female and transgendered. most mainstream sites haven't figured that one out, but this one has. beautiful little steps.... where our generation really took the idea of crossing gender seriously, i think the next will actually TRANCEND gender. i think we are too attached to gender. the next generation won't be as tethered. and in the same way we used words like gay, dyke, queer, and trans common, they will make being free of gender common in language. no one really requires anyone to use GN words, now days, why should they? there really aren't that many people who insist on it. but those who follow after us...well, we've laid the foundation. and i couldn't be a prouder mama.
http://www.bigqueer.com/index.php?/archives/196-Shes-Not-Heavy,-Zies-My-Non-Gendered-Sibling-Why-Gender-Neutral-Pronouns-Dont-Work-for-Me.html
their main argument is that they will never gain currency.
my reply:
i think you actually missed something in your thought about gender neutral pronouns, and your assumptions of it's ultimate goals. perhaps their use isn't for a gender revolution as you define it, but rather one as we ("new gendered/transgendered") people define it. perhaps it's simply a way of showing equal respect for those who are in the middle. instead of the purposeful, bigoted use of incorrect gender pronouns.while i agree that queering the use of pronouns (by queers) as you point out does a bit to disable gender, it is largely contained in a subculture, and has little chance of gaining currency in the larger society. i disagree with you, that these words will never take hold. i think they are in their infancy. in the 30's there was no transgendered. before it was zhe is an "invert" but we have changed to see and recognize those who's gender has changed or in the process of changing. i think in the future gender will be very different from how we see it now, and i think the next generation may find creative expression in lives that are gender neutral, and at first it will be weird, and people will need to come "out" and it will become more and more common, as will pronouns that describe those who understand or project themselves absent of gender. not all revolutions are the loud, it-happened-over-night ones. and not all revolutions are about completely dismantling what came before them. sometimes they simply strive to make room for those who had no room. or to create new freedoms. sometimes revolutions are personal, and take place when people who look themselves in the eye and understand that they are different than they've been taught. just like the queers before us did.
but on further thought i would amend my comments to say this:
i don't think that the linguistic queering of gender in the queer community really does much to disable gender, not just in the larger community, but even in the queer community.
using this essay about, of all things, postmodern evolutionary theory in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman.' by tony e. jackson, we find a slightly succinct synopsis of post modern critique-- which is perfect for looking at gender. understanding this, we discover that to truly disable gender requires more than the occasional, intentional queering. items in brackets [] are mine added for context.
quote:
"The elements of postmodern thinking that will be most relevant here revolve, as always, around the fundamental critique of metaphysical absolutes of all kinds, a metaphysical absolute being any representation [like gender] that is taken consciously or unconsciously as entirely self-contained, self-identical, self-present, and therefore outside the realm of culture, history, desire, and ideology.
....
In any case, whatever the particular realm in which the critique of metaphysical absolutes occurs, one common outcome is the discovery that absolutes of this kind always function as unconscious anchors for a certain kind of identity. So the critique typically involves two most general results: It reveals that a given absolute is in fact a construction of history, culture, and desire, and it reveals that the construction has been misrecognized as an absolute because a certain self or cultural or sexual identity depends on not seeing the construction as a construction."
unquote.
in other words, we think of gender in this culture as being something entirely natural. but using a postmodern critique, we see that gender is false, constructed. carefully crafted to hide it's lies and seams. the seams-- what makes natural gender obviously false-- in this case are the transgendered, intersexed, and androgynous. when we use the tools that hide gender's artificiality (our gender specific pronouns), we reinforce it's lies, pushing the transgendered back into a useless binary of male/female. creating and using words that force us to realize gender is not a binary, either or proposition, makes us look at the lies of a natural gender as just that, lies.
ADDENDUM:
i went out to dinner and a show with an old friend of mine. my friend is exactly a year and one day older than i am , which means she's somewhere in her 40s. she is easily one of the most intelligent, down to earth people i've met. i mention her because at the show we were talking about people who look interesting, and she commented that she was thinking about changing her androgenous look, which, i think, which suits her. she is at once feminine, sexy, masculine and androgyne simultaniously. imagine a petite salt and pepper haired annie lennox, but softer. she prefers men's suits, but is the only person i know who still wears aprons everytime she cooks. her scent is armani for men, and loves cosmetics. she straddles all of these things, both male and female. i don't know how she'd feel about being adressed with a neutral pronouns, i suspect she wouldn't like it. she is very much a female bodied female, and despite her straddling gender, her gender is something that is in tune with her sex. (hopefully the reader is aware of the three parts of sexual identity and of their differences-- SSG--sex, sexuality and gender) but my main case for using them, isn't that i expect it to be in vogue next year. it's that i think those words are the tools for the next generation to define themselves, in the same way that transexual was a means of self-defination for the generation before mine, transgendered for my generation.
a few days ago i was looking at online music editing sites. there were two: and when you are entering info about yourself, the options are male, female and transgendered. most mainstream sites haven't figured that one out, but this one has. beautiful little steps.... where our generation really took the idea of crossing gender seriously, i think the next will actually TRANCEND gender. i think we are too attached to gender. the next generation won't be as tethered. and in the same way we used words like gay, dyke, queer, and trans common, they will make being free of gender common in language. no one really requires anyone to use GN words, now days, why should they? there really aren't that many people who insist on it. but those who follow after us...well, we've laid the foundation. and i couldn't be a prouder mama.
Labels: big queer blog, french lieutenant's woman, gender neutral pronouns, gn, other blogs, postmod, postmodern, postmodern critique, postmodern evolutionary theory
posted by nicki b. at
3:04 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting. I'm not sure I agree with all of your points but I'd certainly like to hear more of them. As a writer, I have to use what's in my current language toolbox.
The problem I see with establishing a gender neutral pronoun...aside from coming up with something that is agreed upon... I've seen many different versions used. Would be recognizing where to use it. Right now, someone has to tell me their preference, if I am going to call them "sie" or "zie" or whatever pronoun they choose. I would consider it rude use a gender neutral pronoun if I didn't know exactly how that person saw their own gender identity.
It's not always so obvious. Sometimes it is...sometimes it's just not. There are women who get "sir'ed" constantly, that may feel very feminine in their heart of hearts. I don't think they are going to be any more pleased when they get "hir'ed". And the psychological androgynes...what's to be done with those who are born and look one sex, are okay about that, but have brains that are balanced between genders or are gender neutral?
My feeling is that until society as a whole is able to disconnect physicality from the concept of gender, establishing a gender neutral pronoun in the English language is going to be a difficult road to hoe.
Write more. I'll read.
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