She, he, they, her, his… why should we complicate our lives?
Scientifically there are only two genders: male and female. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and begin by opening this dialogue with ‘what if someone considers themselves to be gender fluid ?’. Gender fluidity is a paradox, in layman terms it is self contradictory. For example, you cannot support gender equality and claim that gender is non-binary. If we are to debate this topic scientifically then let’s use a relatively easy case. If you are to receive urgent medical care then how on earth is the doctor supposed to guess your gender ? Would you as a woman or man claim to be the opposite gender, therefore injecting you with a lethal dose of medication ? Scientifically we all observe two genders but chose to be neither one or both therefore categorising yourself into the tick box of ‘alien’. If a man is to have gender reassignment then that he becomes a she but not biologically and vice versa.
A man who wakes up one morning and decides to be a woman for the day only is not a female. When the gang of gender-fluid people enter a lesbian bar and a man begins to flirt with a woman, he will have to be respectful to the fact that she will not want a male trying it on with her. A lesbian bar is a safe haven for women who are not only verbally sexualised by men but also physically harassed. Ten years ago we were fighting not to be thrown into categories and today we are doing everything to be the very opposite. There are a few disturbing issues which need to be addressed as a matter of urgency since the community are ostracising themselves with their own people and those who do not confine to the LGBT label.
The first problem to be addressed is to be accepting of those who will not understand your reasons for wanting to use pronouns such as ‘they’, ‘them’
and will not know when to employ them. You cannot expect a person to see a woman and to naturally call her ‘he’ or ‘they’ when they do not know one another. The violence extorted by the community in response to people who do not understand the significance of the absurdity to use unfamiliar pronouns towards an individual must cease ! Such acts of verbal and at times physical violence is turning the non LGBT community against us. If we are to demand acceptance and respect then we must give it. If somebody does not understand nor wishes to use the unfamiliar pronouns then respect their decision. The past generations have fought long and hard for our acceptance in society and to thank them, we are undoing their work.
For those who demand to be called ‘their’ and ‘them’ please understand and respect that your want of an unfamiliar and quite frankly non-conformed reasoning is your choice but do not force it upon others. Win the people over by demonstrating your qualities and not your illogical approach to not only the English language but to normality.
