An excellent discussion. Thanks for posting these!
A person was objecting to being referred to by an incorrect term (which had been accidental on the part of the person using it) It was stated that this was non-consensual, and equivalent to physical violence. Is a pronoun, an insult, or any other term used to refer to a person, really a matter of consent, as opposed to politeness?
Maybe I misread this -- I thought at first you were suggesting that if I called someone by the wrong (gendered) pronoun, I would be behaving in a non-consensual and physically violent manner. Then I re-read and guessed you meant calling someone a highly charged label ("slave", "slut", "bitch", etc.) as invasive and inappropriate?
If so, I do agree with the latter. Although for the sake of argument, I would be highly defiant against construing the former as a violation of such magnitude, especially if it were done by accident.
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Date: 2010-07-17 03:04 am (UTC)A person was objecting to being referred to by an incorrect term (which had been accidental on the part of the person using it) It was stated that this was non-consensual, and equivalent to physical violence. Is a pronoun, an insult, or any other term used to refer to a person, really a matter of consent, as opposed to politeness?
Maybe I misread this -- I thought at first you were suggesting that if I called someone by the wrong (gendered) pronoun, I would be behaving in a non-consensual and physically violent manner. Then I re-read and guessed you meant calling someone a highly charged label ("slave", "slut", "bitch", etc.) as invasive and inappropriate?
If so, I do agree with the latter. Although for the sake of argument, I would be highly defiant against construing the former as a violation of such magnitude, especially if it were done by accident.