What's Up With Neo-Pronouns?
Hello dear listeners, thank you for coming back for a second episode of season two, we are so very thankful to have you here.
Our first discussion topic today is a question from a student who asked, what’s up with neo-pronouns. Jodie and I get into a bit of a grammar discussion about what pronouns are in the first place, as I often get grammar items incorrect. Being as Jodie is a language arts teacher, I thought she would be the absolute best person to ask about this.
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
pro·noun
noun
plural noun: pronouns
- a word that can function by itself as a noun phrase and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g., I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g., she, it, this ).
- a third-person pronoun by which an individual wishes to be referred to in order to indicate their gender identity.
- noun: preferred pronoun; plural noun: preferred pronouns
- "he then publicly announced in September that he is changing his pronouns to “they/them”"
Generally the most common pronouns are he/him, she/her, and they/them. However some people have begun to use what are referred to as neo-pronouns.
neopronoun
[ nee-oh-proh-noun ]
noun
a type of gender-neutral pronoun, coined after 1800, and used especially by nonbinary and genderqueer people, as in English ze/hir/hirs,e/em/eirs, or xe/xem/xyrs.
This has led to quite a bit of confusion on how people are supposed to address some other people. Part of the difficulty in understanding how to address people is that many people do not want their pronouns to be based upon their appearance. Oftentimes when we do that we must rely on stereotypes which are not always true. As well, for some people, like myself, I want to be viewed as female and I want people to assume that I use she/her pronouns, based solely on my appearance.
So what is a person supposed to do? How are we supposed to address people? For me, I say, you try to be polite and kindly ask people how they would like to be addressed and then you do so. Period. Yes, even if that makes you uncomfortable. Yes, even if that messes with your grammar police thoughts. Just address people how they would like to be addressed.
https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-neopronouns
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/guide-to-neopronouns
Our second topic today is about how some celebrities are jumping onto the anti-trans bandwagon. Apparently some people are very upset that you can’t call pregnant people women and they feel that is totally wrong. The main gist of their argument is that anybody and everybody who ever becomes pregnant is female, and all females prefer to be referred to as a female. Thus it is every person’s right to assume that anybody who is pregnant wants to be called mom or referred to as a mother.
Instead of understanding that sometimes some people who are not female can become pregnant, and sometimes those people do not want to be referred to as female, these celebrities are stating that they are upset because now they can’t refer to anybody as mother or mom.
Way to show your ignorance levels people!
Our final segment today is about strange stories in the news. We first discuss how a man got arrested for attacking someone with a cheeseburger. Apparently the story goes that he hurled a cheeseburger at someone who then crashed to the floor and was injured by the flying cheeseburger.
The next weird story has to do with a stolen circumcision ambulance. Yes apparently there is such a thing as a circumcision ambulance. No, I didn’t realize that either. But yes there is such a thing and apparently one of them got stolen and taken on a joy ride.
The final strange story is about a woman who communicates with her loved ones from beyond the grave. Sounds quite eerie but it is just a sign of our times as she is using artificial intelligence of a sort to answer and respond to people’s questions as if she is in the room.
Thank you for being here. We super appreciate you listening to us and we hope you are intrigued enough to keep tuned in for our coming episodes.
Please reach out and contact us at hostess@transcister.com
