Fucking Pronouns!
I’m really pissed off. A friend of mine was talking about her husband, and I politely asked, ‘Oh, how is Samuel doing?’
She replied, ‘He’s fine.’ Then she added, ‘He goes by Sam, by the way.’
What the fuck?!
I gritted my teeth and inhaled sharply.
‘Sam is a nickname of Samuel,’ I told her. ‘Why are you trying to control the way I speak?’
‘What are you talking about? I’m not trying to control how you speak; I’m just telling you that he prefers to be called Sam.’
‘And I’m telling you, I refuse to call your husband Sam! I have freedom of speech!’
She actually looked shocked. The audacity of her to act like I’m the one whose behaviour is shocking!
She sighed and said, ‘Nobody is forcing you to call him Sam, I just think it’s more respectful to call him by the name he prefers.’
‘Well, I think it’s more respectful for you not to throw a tantrum over the name I choose to call your husband. Its name is Samuel.’
She looked confused. ‘Its? Did you just call him “it”?’
Jesus Christ! The nerve of that woman!
‘Oh,’ I began, ‘so you’re one of those people who gets all bent out of shape over pronouns too?’
‘But… but he’s male… ’ she stammered.
‘Looks more like an “it” to me.’
‘What difference does it make to you? I’ve told you he’s male, he uses male pronouns. What’s the big deal?’
‘Stop forcing me to use pronouns!’ I yelled. ‘If I choose not to use pronouns, that’s my business! How fucking intolerant can you get?!’
‘But “it” is a pronoun… And you have been using pronouns throughout this conversation.’
‘You know what I mean!’
‘No, I really don’t. It seems as though the only time you are bothered by using pronouns is when it comes to my husband and using the pronouns for his gender.’
Ha, she just slipped up!
‘I knew it!’ I laughed. ‘You’re one of those gender ideology people! You’re trying to push your ideology onto me!’
‘What!?’ she gasped. ‘I… I… ’ She took a deep breath. ‘What are you talking about?’
She was flustered because she knew I was right.
I smirked. ‘See, maybe you’ll think twice before you go forcing your ideas on people. Imagine going on a whole tirade like this just because someone doesn’t agree with your politics!’
She looked at me sternly and said, ‘You know what? I’m done talking to you!’ And she stormed off.
The gall of that woman!
But this is the world we live in now. You can’t just have a normal conversation without it turning political! These people are snowflakes. I’m still fuming over it.
Fucking pronouns!
Author’s note: In everyday life, we call cisgender (non-trans) people by their preferred name and refer to them by their preferred pronouns. Transgender people aren’t asking for any special treatment in this regard, they expect the same basic courtesy you extend to cis people. If you find it absurd to make a fuss when you’re told that Samuel prefers to go by Sam and ‘he’ but don’t when it comes to trans people, perhaps you should consider that your argument against trans people isn’t really about names and pronouns.
