From the Left

/

Politics

‘Wokespeak’ is Changing Faster Than I Can Keep Up

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

I get it. That echoes the longer standing LGBTQI, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and/or questioning. Sometimes it is expressed as “LGBTIQA,” with the “A” standing for “Asexual” or “Ally.”

Media seem to be settling on LGBTQ, but this, too, can change and undoubtedly will. Culture clashes are inevitable and patience too often seems harder to find.

Such are the ways of “wokespeak,” as conservatives derisively label the new language of the political activist and ivory tower academic left.

I knew something has changed when the new word “Latinx,” a gender-neutral version of Latino/Latina, began to catch on much faster among political activists than among actual Latinos/Latinas.

Another naming fashion concerns not just the nouns but also the pronouns that we use to identify ourselves and our gender, as if that were not clearly obvious for most of us.

When mail from your local politicians, for example, include “he/him/his” or “she/her/hers” as a courtesy after their signature on messages, you probably live in a pretty liberal neighborhood.

 

The idea, I am told, is to discourage people from taking someone’s gender identity for granted simply because of how they look. Silly me. I thought that how you look was a major element of one’s identity, gender or otherwise.

And I am further confused by the wish of many in the trans community to be referenced in the third person. Should I greet a trans friend with, “How are they doing today?”

Yes, I am told, as my life begins to sound increasingly more like a TV sitcom: “Page’s Predicaments.” Maybe Dave Chappelle is available.

Since I don’t want to offend, I take some comfort in my late mother’s consoling words after one of my many early embarrassments: “Your true friends will understand.”

...continued

swipe to next page

(c) 2021 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

Comics

David Fitzsimmons David M. Hitch Ed Gamble Jeff Koterba Gary McCoy A.F. Branco