I fucking hate the words “genetic female/woman”.
But what I hate even more is what those words arose from. From the structural oppression of cissexism and the invalidation of our genders built into every level of this society and many others.
Y’all remember my post on words and offense? Words are tools of these systems. They influence mindsets and further discriminatory structures as well as stuffing extra internalized bigotry and pure -ism into the brains of the oppressed and the privileged respectively. In the end offense is a low priority compared to that dangerous effect of them.
Let’s go further.
Words are small parts of a really big system. Little tiny gears. Stamping them out will have a very small effect. Because in the end, that system will find new ways to influence mindset. New words, new phrases, new attacks designed to erode the humanity of trans people, queer folks, poc, pwd, neurodiverse folks, the mentally ill, the poor and working classes, homeless people, fat people, etc etc etc.
No doubt, just like offense still being a problem (cuz when you say a word that hurts an oppressed person you’re adding to the sort of shit we all deal with mentally and emotionally. And that’s oppressive too), words influencing mindset is still a problem too. They’re still dangerous. You can’t run around calling people shemale and not make shit worse for trans people. And you should stop using those oppressive words if you’re privileged.
But for fucks sake don’t have that be the only thing you concentrate on whether you’re a privileged person trying to help reduce your nasty impact or an oppressed person fighting the shitstorm around here.
Words are so goddamn easy to replace. Just look at all the alt insults created to avoid oppressive language. You think oppressor classes can’t do the same? You think a giant system built to crush an entire group of people, interlocked with a bunch of other giant systems built to crush entire other groups of people, amplifying each other and existing underneath the surface of every social thing out there like some kind of fucked up hateful Matrix shit can’t possibly find some new words to mess up their targets’ lives?
Come on.
It’s time to shuffle up priorities. Cuz I watch all the EssJay community obsess over the words and YES, words are important. As a writer I know how powerful they are. But we’re gonna be facing a whole new set of nasty words and phrases if all you do is fight on the linguistics front.
