Monday, October 12, 2015

More Snippeting

I feel there might be a less confusing way to phrase this sentence about a transgender teen:  "Ayden grew up a tomboy and in sixth grade thought he was a lesbian."

Maybe this would be a good opportunity to write a sentence without pronouns, newspaper people.  Because you can be correct and still ridiculous.

Also, I really really, really dislike the word tomboy.  It implies that sports, hammers, trousers, and playing in the mud are at best non-normative and at worst transgressive for little girls.  What the actual fuck, society?

(Just to be clear, I am suggesting they write "Ayden always gravitated towards sports and construction equipment, and eventually became aware of an attraction to girls." OR WHATEVER. But 'he was a lesbian' is always going to sound ridiculous, which distracts from the story.  Much like reading 'she always wanted to wear dresses' about a transgender teen who previously identified as or was assigned male, it makes the reader confused rather than thoughtful.)

5 comments:

  1. Re: "Tomboy." Yes, THANK YOU! One would think it would be getting better, but from what I can tell, one would be wrong.

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    1. So annoying. I played with trucks and hammers but.... wore dresses to school? I don't remember being called a tomboy but maybe I was just oblivious from a young age. But, you know, girls wear pants now! It's 2015!

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  2. It's interesting how terms like "sissy" or "Nancy-boy" are considered verboten (at least in progressive Cold City), but "tomboy" does not have the same stigma despite carrying essentially the same connotations.

    I agree, the sentence about the transgender teen is confusing, your version is much better. I've wondered whether intelligent people no longer choose journalism as a profession, and if that has contributed to the overall decline in media.

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    1. But it's not insulting to call a girl a tomboy, right? It's a compliment! She likes interesting non-girly things! HEADDESK.

      Journalism is a tough row to how and I know they have deadlines but ... still please don't write 'he was a lesbian.'

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    2. P.S. the story is from Cold City!

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