LRSA 4/11
Gender Trouble is hard for a reason. It is hard because things that seem simple – that seem to be commonsensical – are actually hiding something: that the naturalness of gender is a language that is composed of a whole host of occlusions. Gender is at the heart of how we make sense of the world, it is bound up with language, and there is something about queer sexuality that makes clear that the sense we make of the world is hinged on an apparatus of discipline, power, and a lot of things you can’t see until your worldview is messed with somehow and then either you can see them, or you become the screen through which other people see them. (And sometimes, when they see them, they freak out.)
- Excerpt Gender Trouble on Mother’s Day = Jordy Rosenberg
I took this excerpt to analyze because I felt it was important to note how we are so ingrained in our genders, that we don’t realize how it defines us. Within the last 5 years, I’ve made a conscious effort to remain gender-neutral in my writing and speaking. Now, it’s almost natural! Aside from the fact that I refer to all drivers on the road as “him.” I still recognize that it’s based on negative gender norms, but it made me question if I have any other internal biases that I still have, and made me question why are we raised with these biases. As children, we use gendered language to reinforce male and female limitations that are simply unfair. Aside from the negative effects it has on our psyche, and how it reinforces female self-imposed-hinderance and hypermasculinity--It has come to a point where people become angry when others remain gender neutral because they feel it violates the nature of language itself!
For example, for the last few years, there has been a hot debate whether referring to people as ‘they/them’ and referring to a single person as a plural noun is offensive. I think that referring to people by their chosen pronouns is fine, even if it ‘supposedly’ is offensive to the English lexicon. Same as referring to singular persons as plural nouns. Instead of fighting over foolishness, we should work together to change the English language to accommodate LGBTQIA+ persons! Over time, I hope to see that gender neutrality takes hold across all written materials in the English language as well as our daily language.