s/he

Five four three two one...

Okay so there...wow it is really hot in books a million tonight, or I am running a fever I have no idea what exactly is happening to me right now. I also don't care. Not true but I like to put on a brave face. I would like to point out that my insomnia has gotten much worse recently. I went to bed at 4 wired as fuck, and who knows when I actually fell asleep. Yeah I may or maynot have a topic for tonight but damnit it is writting time and that is going to happen no matter what. It will be bad poetry time in a bit grunt.

I'm not sure how that is going to work out, but even a wrong step is better than a step not taken...and other things that make me sound like a dad. Not my dad mind you but a dad, that prototypical sitcom dad that we all have in our heads when we think of dad. Or something.

Part of me wants to write about racism. Another part of me wants to write about the acdemics treatment of the lower class and the connection between the two. Part of me wants to write about the danger of acedmics when they release an idea that wasn't quite revised yet. Another part of me wants to discuss stuff about gaming...gaming. Gaming, obviously more important than racism.

No seroiusly what the hell is there to say about racism that hasn't been already said? Well a lot actually because most people spend more time deciding on politically correct rhetoric rather than actually talking about the problem.

Oh fuck it I am going to write about the most recent thing to annoy me. S/he. That symbol has never failed to piss me off and one day recently I was just sitting there thinking of things and that came up, and man what an annoying concept. People should be ashamed.

So yeah the astute observers, which I assume is all of you, have noticed that I have been calling it a symbol rather than a word. This is because I believe that in order for something to be a word it needs a few requisit items, such as a definition and a phonetic component. / has no phonetic component because it is not a letter. Strawman arguments are styleish and easy to write!

They suck though so let us move on. Lets say that you as my loyal ready have just suddenly seen the light and decided to abolish the s/he symbol in favor for the also gender nuetral word Mikerocks. Very wise of you. However, it is still wrong.

Since this is not a blog an not an acedmic paper I am going to present my evidence up front in a disorganized blob.

Doubleplus good
El muchacha
Feminism


Right. So frightening view into my thought process no? Well it only gets worse from here on in.

Doubleplus good. 1984 is a book about control. Lots of control everyone, everywhere was controlled underneath the all seeing eye of big brother. Good stuff. As you may have guessed from the reffrence we are going to be looking at the phonetic controlls imposed on the peoples. I forget the language used in 1984, but there is a point in the novel where they make a big deal about how they are actually working to shrink the language if there are no words to express negative thoughts then there can be no negative thoughts. This is a rather childish view on the importance of language but what the hell, Orwell isn't a linguist and the book is mostly allegorical anyway.

The thing is though is that the thoughts didn't stop. Placing linguistic control on ones through process is not a fix. It is a lot like placing duct tape over a leaky faucet and declaring the job compleate. Part of what makes our form of comunication so unique is the ability to take new concreate & abstract thoughts and codify them. Abolishing gendered pronouns such as he she in to unfunctional symbols won't work. It won't eleminate the visual diffrence, nor will it deal with the precieved diffrences between the multisexes (male, female, trans, androgine, et cetera) based on personal experiences. S/he may make a statement regarding how we structure our language but it is functionally inadiquet to brining about social change. Even if it was would you want to?

Perosnally I am a fan of more words not less. The idea of breaking two fundamental building blocks of our language into one functionaless symbol seems nebulouse at best. The english language's ability to come up with and absorbe new words is increadble. Look I just did it earlyer, multisexes. There is the singular multisex. It is easy, fun, and it doesn't tread on the toes of negative icky ideas in favor of our bright shiney new ones.

Yeah this is where I am going to come off as a little bit hysterical. It can't be helped. However, I am firmly against the idea of concept assasination. Okay yeah I agree the he/she dichotimy has done just a little bit more harm than good, you don't need to tell me twice I am with you on that. However, I think it is an idea to be kept and treasured, not just thrown out because it is "doublepluseungood" no it needs to be remebered.

Instead of harping on this point for the next thousand years i think it is easyer to pose a question. Which is better. To eliminate the male/female dictomy by removing the basic distinction between them such as the signifiers he/she. Or would it be better to keep using he and she, with full knowlage of what the words mean, the connotations behind them, the history of them, and thier inherent inadiquecies. Instead of just covering up by using one friendlyer word.

SWhew. This subject is actually a little bit trickeyer than I thought it would be. Mostble because of the way I set it up.

Lets take the feminism example. Okay that piece of evidence is going to be larger than the word feminism. Specifically it is that archtypical quote, "It is tempting to use a word less loaded than feminsim to protray the feminist moviement..."

Which goes back to the point i just made. Using feminsit rhetoric against itself is one of my great pleasures in life. The idea of using a word less muddied than feminsim is one that makes sense on the surface but there is the idea of the history behind feminsim. It is important to make all of that work for you rather than against you. After all we are all part of the same movement.

El muchacha. I've read a lot of colonialist theory in my day. I plan on reading more because I find it interesting, but just a tad bit uncomplicated. I have never seen a momement quite so dedicated to the idea of, "IGNORE THEM" as coloniaism. I fear that it might be getting eaten by crappy theory put out by sub standard acedmics. Still I digress. Say what you will about post colonialsit theory there are still some pretty basic concepts that we can all agree on. Pointing to man other cultures on the face of the planet and say, "No you are talking all wrong" is a bit of a fuck ass thing to do. It is really easy for us to adopt the s/he thing or the mikerocks word if you like talking and shit. However, there is a certain point where we are going to bump into the el/la languages and then what are you going to do? You are asking them to make a dramatic fundamental shift to the entire structure of thier language, instead of you know using thier language to increase the complexities inherent within the whole gender dynamic. I mean there is no reason why people from france or spain can't have thorughly nuacned views of gender because they gender every noun in thier language.

It is silly.

Now for thous of you who know me super well you have an idea of my still forming pragmatic mindset. Specifically the idea that if a word or idea is not doing anything then to throw it out.

The thing is though is that the words he and she are doing something. They are the first steps in distinguishing gender. Set up the polar opposites, then learn about everything in the middle. That's where all the neat things happen.

Okay. Well l am done for now. Excting stuff all in all.

The thing that sucks is that there are some compelling arguments for the s/he thing. It also looks neat, and it harkens to Trin's I/i thing which is really fucking cool and one of my favorite pieces of theory. But that is all it is a thoery, bit I am all about the practice, that is the point of theory after all. ANd I think the whole s/he thing just doen't work.

KAY! DONE!

I'll do gaming stuff next time.