Tangent

[bubosquared]

I was gonna post this as a comment in Ruth's journal, but then the server went offline and now I have nothing better to do than sit here and type in my LJ thingie.

Now I, personally, am not bothered by being addressed as a 'guy', but then I've always felt 'one of the guys'. But then, Ruth doesn't have my gender identity issues, so if she refuses to be a guy, I'll do my best not to address her as one. [Note how I said I'll do my best. I know I'll often slip. Feel free to cough loudly when such is the case.]

Aside: I spent at least 15 minutes trying to figure out how to call the chatgirls then, because "y'all" - I've used it, and it made me slap my head every time I cought myself at it - is just far too American for me. Yes, I'm a language-snob. I'am fully aware of this.

Lastly, Ruth, if you don't want to be seen as a 'girl', I'll do my best not to call you one, but I am a girl, and I'd like to have the right to identify as one, thanks. You made a good point about the 'guys' thing, but I personally don't see the harm in identifying as a girl even though I'm 20. I am not a woman. I'm a girl.

Comments

Re: gendered language and gendered realities

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

1. Maybe. I mean, yeah, intelectually I know you're right, but I can't bring myself to care about it. I'm not that feminist. I'll fight for concrete, tangible rights for women, but this ... I'm not saying it's not important, I'm just saying it's not on my priorities list. [But then, neither are a lot of other important things.]

   Also, I don't think this is a winnable fight. [Wow, witness my incredible vocabulary.] I think in the end, 'guys' will just become a generic, non-gender-specific noun, and people won't even consider it to be making women invisible.

   And I don't identify as male. I identify as non-gendered. Or maybe bi-gendered. So maybe that's [part of] the problem I can't empathise with you on this.

2. According to M-W online, a girl is "a young unmarried female person," which I am. 'Adult' means "having attained the normal peak of natural growth and development," which I haven't. Though I can and want to take responsability of my own life, I don't feel 'fully developped' at all. I have a lot of growing to do, in every possible way - well, except physically. That's why I identify as 'girl' and not as 'woman', which to me also bears a 'subtext' of motherhood, of settling down, of ... nurturing.