Yay for the Twitterverse, for pointing me towards Mur Lafferty and her not-new but effective description of our society's choice to use "girl" and other female-specific words to denigrate — or make something "the worst."
"Dear daughter, you should know that you are hated," she writes, bemoaning a boy saying being called a girl — to throw like a girl, cry like a girl, even just being a girl — would be a fate worse than anything his young brain could fathom.
The words we use are important, telling our members our society's hierarchy and where they — and others — "should" be found therein. .
Choose wisely.
And please please please please please remember my longstanding point: gender is merely one characteristic of a person, not THE defining one, at that.
"Dear daughter, you should know that you are hated," she writes, bemoaning a boy saying being called a girl — to throw like a girl, cry like a girl, even just being a girl — would be a fate worse than anything his young brain could fathom.
The words we use are important, telling our members our society's hierarchy and where they — and others — "should" be found therein. .
Choose wisely.
And please please please please please remember my longstanding point: gender is merely one characteristic of a person, not THE defining one, at that.
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