Also, re: Psychic: I'm pretty sure you'll never agree with me, and you've just posted your response angrily and passionately. I will let you know that I still disagree with you (and nothing you can say will ever convince me either, this is a matter that I have had my mind set on for many many years), and see this whole thing as being people overcomplicating things and getting overly offended. My point isn't that such things don't exist or that I don't understand them. I do. But I think they're too specific and unnecessary to have a term for.
In short, here are my views:
- Pansexuality to me is basically bisexuality, I don't see any genders other than binary existing, and I consider intersex or whatever you may call it as being part of the binary. Any "third gender" is just a variation of male or female (or both at the same time, which still counts as being within the binary) from what I understand. I realize this will offend a lot of people, and they may call me ignorant, but that's what I think. This is why I don't think it deserves a term. And most people, as I said before, don't really know about these niche gender identities. So they would pretty much consider it the same if it was explained to them this way.
Your tone policing is duly noted.
Eh, you
are saying a bunch of things don't exist. Specifically, that there are only men and women, and nothing outside of that. But we know that simply isn't true because in studying other cultures around the world, we've found many cases of people who don't fit inside the gender binary, and those people are not only accepted but
celebrated. In academia right now there has been an ongoing conversation about the gender binary, specifically in how it's a social construct that we humans created, and the importance of asking why it exists and ways we can play around with it. I know a lot of people have very strong feelings about this, but I can't respect the argument that "there are only two genders because I say so" when there's absolutely no evidence or proof of that. If anyone in this thread has evidence, I'd be incredibly interested in seeing it so we can have an educated conversation. But the current research points towards the binary being a construct, and people existing outside of it, and intentionally ignoring that makes it impossible to have a dialogue.
Maybe the idea of the binary works for you, and that's your belief, which is fine. But you're speaking as if your belief is fact, and that is where I have a problem. What you're doing is literally no different from the people who say "I don't think homosexuals really exist and I refuse to acknowledge the possibility, and I don't think the term "homosexuality" is necessary." That is historically an argument that has been used to silence and shame gay people.
- Regardless of whether or not you think it restricts the rights of others to mention that, in a world where even mentioning homosexuality can set some people off, I really don't think a term like "scoliosexual" is ready to be accepted. It's the truth of this world. And honestly, because of my belief that it fits into a variation of the three, I think it's too specific of a term.
Yes, silencing people and telling them they don't exist does restrict their rights. That is literally the history of gay people in this world. And I find it supremely disturbing that you're placing more emphasis on not "setting people off" than on making sure marginalized people have rights and are accepted by society.
You seem really intent on making sure things stay the same. None of this is the "truth of the world" – society can and does change, but we have to be active in making change happen. New words and concepts are introduced all the time, and people get used to it. Society evolves. If we always remain silent for fear of "setting people off" then we would never have accepted that the Earth was round.
- My main view, above all though, is this: words should be used only if a majority of people know what they mean. People know what homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual are. They don't know the rest. And I don't feel comfortable having them around or referring to them unless I am in some odd niche of the internet. I like stuff to be as clear as possible, to be as simple as possible, and other people do too. I honestly don't think a majority of people really want to know anything more specific than those three terms.
Your idea that we shouldn't have names for things because mainstream society might not accept them makes no sense. Language is constantly evolving as our understanding of the world changes. I'm also confused that you claim that you only respect words that are used in the mainstream…yet if you tell people not to give names to things, how will they ever become normalized and mainstream? If you refuse to use or acknowledge a term, how will you ever become comfortable with it? You're right that some people like things to be simple, but we'll never grow as a society if we don't push ourselves to better understand our world. Your assumption that people don't want to learn new things is just an assumption; many pockets of society have been evolving with these new concepts, and it's time the mainstream caught up.
People who identify out of the binary are making stuff up. Third genders simply don't exist, so that is undeniable. As for intersex? Yeah, that's a thing. But it's not a third gender, as you seem to think. The X and Y chromosomes get all screwed up, so either a man is born with lady parts or a lady is born with man parts. They are still either a man or a woman, and saying they are something else is disrespectful.
As for the rest of your arguments against me, you are simply misinterpreting me and putting words in my mouth. I'll just leave it at that.
As I said, not only does all of the current research from scholars and educators prove that there is much outside of the gender binary, but we can also see that throughout history, dozens of cultures around the world have acknowledged and even celebrated people who don't fit within the binary. Are you saying that those are all coincidences? I see a lot of people claiming there are only two genders, but I've yet to hear of any evidence that proves all of these people have been "making stuff up" and that every human since the beginning of time has fit within the gender binary. As it is, this just looks like people are basing their opinions off of their gut reactions and treating them as fact.
You're misinterpreting what I said, and you're not in a position to talk about what's "disrespectful." I'm not saying all people must identify as x, rather that they
can. People have been saying for hundreds of years and throughout the world that they don't fit within the gender binary, and here you are insisting that they've all been wrong and were making it up. You're denying that such an identity can exist at all,
that is beyond disrespectful.
