[lg policy] blog: He . . . She . . Ze?!: Most Absurd Language Police Yet

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

Debbie clearly needs some help her to cope with her problems and address some of her prejudices, which include long hair [in men, I assume], punk music, lefties, lesbians, intergender people, transsexuals, Islam,  pedophilia, bestiality, people with psychiatric disorders, English teachers and of course, the University of Michigan).


Anthea
(for the record, I am a leftie feminist, and am prejudiced against people who get drunk, people who smoke, racists,  .... )

*     *     *     *     *
Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>>
*     *     *     *     *

________________________________
From: lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu [lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Jeremy Graves [jayrkirk42 at yahoo.com]
Sent: 16 February 2010 20:17
To: Language Policy List
Subject: Re: [lg policy] blog: He . . . She . . Ze?!: Most Absurd Language Police Yet

So we counter a ridiculously far-left policy with a ridiculously far-right one? Ms. Schlussel is as bad as the ones she's criticizing!

-Jeremy Graves

________________________________
From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Tue, February 16, 2010 7:32:28 PM
Subject: [lg policy] blog: He . . . She . . Ze?!: Most Absurd Language Police Yet

He . . . She . . Ze?!: Most Absurd Language Police Yet
By Debbie Schlussel

When I was a freshman at The University of Michigan, the thuggish,
long-haired, far-left hippie in a punk band teaching assistant of my
English class reduced a grade on my paper by a full grade because I
used the word, “Congressman, ” and not the gender neutral,
“Congressperson.”  I told him, “This is a bunch of verbal manure . . .
or is that, ‘personure?’”  Thomas Sowell found out about it and
mentioned it in one of his syndicated columns.  It was ridiculous, but
at the time Michigan had an absurd “inclusive” language policy, which
stated that if you used words like “he,” or “fireman,” or, even
“mother,” you were being “uninclusive,” and therefore, you were
somehow a bigot.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  But leftists get off on being the
language and speech police. Stretching the limits on political
correctness is their ultimate aphrodisiac.

And, so, it’s no surprise that my alma mater is once again involved in
this ridiculous  language orthodoxy.  While our Islamic enemies are
teaching their kids to use guns, rig IEDs, and destroy us, some
gender-ambiguous bizarro in the University of Michigan School of
Social Work, Timothy Jean Corvidae, who wants the University to get
rid of the use of gender specific pronouns like “he” and “she” in
favor of “Ze.”  Corvidae is both a student and on the University of
Michigan staff. The fact that Corvidae has a man’s name, but
identifies on her/his/its/ze’s Facebook page as a woman (where
he/she/it/ze looks like a pre-op male-to-female transsexual)
interested in dating women, might have something to do with it. (It’s
creepy to see a photo, above, of he/she/it/ze hugging a kid.)

Sadly, the University faculty Senate is considering the measure to get
rid of the pronouns, and could refer it Michigan’s President for
approval.  Yes, “Idiocracy,” ain’t just a movie or our future.  It’s
our present.  And, frankly, if they don’t identify with any of the
genders, what if they identify with pedophiles or those who engage in
bestiality.  They need to feel “included” in our language, too, don’t
they?  It’s only fair if we’re gonna subvert English to the warped
sexual urges and identities of every weirdo minority on earth. Maybe
they can use the words “horse” and “camel” or “molesta [my new slang,
hip word for child molestation, b/c who are we to judge that it's not
cool, right?]” as adverbs.  “Molesta” went to the store with “camel’s”
daughter.  “Molesta” didn’t have enough money to pay for candy for
“camel daughter.” Yup, that’s, um, “gender neutral,” and is a whole
lot more entertaining than “ze,” which just sounds like some former
Nazi hiding in South America.


Timothy Corvidae is a student in the University’s School of Social
Work. Corvidae doesn’t identify with any specific gender and uses the
pronoun “ze” instead of “she” or “he.”
Yup, and far left professors are actually going along with this
instead of failing this candy-ass like he/she/it/ze deserves. Uh-huh,
exactly the type of “social worker” and future psychologist you
want–someone who is that confused and insanely obsessed with gender
pronouns. Corvidae is a member of a group of people on campus who face
language barriers as a result of their decision to not identify with a
specific gender. Though these individuals represent a minority of
students, their cause has recently made its way to the forefront of
campus discussion.

Barriers? What barriers? Either you know how to speak English or you
don’t. Recently the Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution to
recommend removing gender-specific language from the Statement of
Student Rights and Responsibilities and some students and professors
are discussing mandating the use of gender-neutral language in
University classrooms. Ah, the far left Michigan Student Assembly.
When I served on this “august body,” I was considered extreme far
right for opposing similar language police declarations. They wanted
to kick me off, but couldn’t.

In its simplest form, gender-neutral language encompasses the use of
the singular “they” as well as non-binary pronouns like ze, in place
of the traditional he/she. This form of speech eliminates any word
with connotations of gender like “chairman,” opting instead for the
nonexclusive “chair.”  Yup, even the Republican Party, nationally and
in Michigan, has already adopted using a piece of furniture as a
faux-title, so, in essence, these nuts have basically already won or
are on home stretch.  Corvidae said finding alternatives to the
traditional gendered language is important because there is an intense
level of exclusion in texts that only use binary language. “I don’t
identify either way (as male or female),” Corvidae said. “When I read
texts that use him or her, I feel like, ‘Where am I in this text?’ And
it’s as though I’m invisible.”

If only. Where are you? You’re not in the insane asylum, where you
desperately belong. Anne Hermann, interim chair of the Women’s Studies
Department, said eliminating gendered undertones is essential to
ensure fairness in language. Getting rid of tenure for useless lesbian
weirdos who teach worthless BS like this is essential to ensure
fairness in education . . . or, rather, any education at all. And
fairness for humans and Western society, for that matter. “If I were
the ‘chairman’ of the Women’s Studies Department, there would be this
incredible disconnect between my title and who I am,” she said. “And I
would be constantly reminded that I’m not really supposed to be in my
position.”

OMG, I’m laughing my butt off. Is this for real? Am I actually reading
this bad SNL skit? Noah Meeks is a volunteer at the Spectrum Center —
the University’s office for LGBT affairs. Meeks said traditional
debates over gender have been limited to eliminating language
associated with men in situations that are meant to be all
encompassing.
“We rejected ‘he’ as an all-encompassing pronoun,” he said. “With ‘him
or her,’ we need to recognize that some people don’t identify with
either, and although there are few of them, they still need to be
accounted for.”

Um, yeah, some people don’t identify with the human species, and
there’s a loony bin and medications ready to go. It’s not the language
that needs to be altered. It’s some people . . . with shock therapy.

“There’s more awareness, more openness and more resistance to the idea
of a binary gender system,” he said.

In recognition of non-gendered students on campus, the Michigan
Student Assembly passed a resolution to amend the Statement of Student
Rights and Responsibilities to use gender-neutral language exclusively
as part of a package of recommendations to the student code.

The resolution is currently being reviewed by the Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs — the leading faculty governing body
on campus — and if passed, will continue to University President Mary
Sue Coleman for final approval.

Loren Sherry, assistant director of the Spectrum Center, helped to
compile the resolution. He said that when he went through the
approximately 10-page Statement and replaced every use of binary
language with a gender-neutral alternative, he was very specific about
the choices he made.

TEN pages for this BS?! Just draw a picture of a man with his penis
cut-off (and Western civilization and the classics with their penises
cut off). That only takes one page. And it says the same thing.

In addition to the work by MSA and other student groups, in interviews
last week many professors said they agree that gender-neutral thinking
should be used in the classroom.

Robin Queen, professor of linguistics, wrote in an e-mail interview
with The Michigan Daily that educators should promote awareness about
the exclusionary aspects of language.

“The main issue, in my opinion, is to help writers (be they students,
administrators, instructors or staff members) become aware that there
are choices to be made and that those choices have consequences,”
Queen wrote in the e-mail.

Yeah, the choice to drop out of Michigan and go to a real university
where they give you an education instead of subjecting you to this
insane bullcrap. And the consequences that an “education” not even
worthy of a Jonestown cult might some day cause people to wake up and
stop funding these people with their tax money (Michigan is a public
university relying heavily on state and federal funds and grants).

Corvidae said teaching gender-neutral language is an important step
because so many people are unaware of how to handle gender in their
speech.

“One of the biggest challenges with gender-neutral language is that
people don’t know how to use it,” Corvidae said. “They feel
embarrassed if they don’t know how to read people’s gender because
that’s something that’s really important in our society.”

Ding, ding, ding. You finally came close to reality. This whole
episode is an embarrassment. I’d be embarrassed in the presence of
anyone using “ze” as a pronoun. It’s bad enough to hear someone call
themselves the “chair.”

Corvidae said using gender-neutral language in the classroom allows
students a “safe setting” to practice non-exclusionary speech.

A safe setting? PUH-LEEZE. If I’m an Islamic terrorist, that giant
swamp of limpness epitomized by humans is gonna be my first target.
Ze-hu Akbar, Ka-Boom.

Aric Knuth, lecturer in Department of English, said though he is often
skeptical of new policies, he was surprised to hear no policy is in
place.

“It surprised me because we are people who are in the business of
language,” he said. “And we understand how language interacts with and
often represents other kinds of big intellectual problems in our
lives.”

Uh, dude, the big intellectual problem is that you have a job teaching
English in the United States of America.

Despite the lack of an official policy, professors continue to
encourage the exploration of different language options.

The Department of English ruled in favor of the singular “they” as
grammatically correct, and many professors in the Women’s Studies
Department implement gender-neutrality into their curriculum to some
extent.

LSA junior Kelsey Sovereign said gender-neutral thinking is strongly
encouraged in her women’s studies classes.

“In our society you often are either designated as a man or a woman,
but we talk about not necessarily labeling things as one or the
other,” she said.

She’s right. Tomorrow, I’m gonna stop being unfair to bananas and call
them soda. And apples, well . . . it’s not nice to exclude them from
the meat group. Gonna call ‘em steak.

She also said that specific assignments often call exclusively for
gender-neutral language.

Wow, someone’s parents are blowin’ a whole lot of money.

Keith Reisinger, graduate student instructor for the Women’s Studies
Department, said the issue reaches far beyond any departmental policy
or the confines of the University.

“I think we as a whole need to change how we talk about gender and
people,” he said.

Me, too. About Mr. Reisinger, “ze” is an idiot.

Like I said, our enemies are teaching their kids how to kill us, and
we’re too busy destroying masculinity, gender roles, and the English
language with this absurd exercise in the trivial. And we wonder why
they hate us.

This is a sliver of why.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/17428/he-she-ze-most-absurd-language-police-yet/
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