Already fraught
I don’t think so.
I don’t think it’s daft or purist or obstinate or stupid to dislike customized pronouns. It’s maybe somewhat stupid or wrong to tell off other people for using them, but I think we have good reasons for objecting to them in general.
For one thing they condition us, as is the plan. If we say it we start to believe it, involuntarily. I don’t want to be conditioned to believe it.
For another it’s a falsehood, and not the minor personal kind to save people’s feelings but the major public kind to convince us of a general falsehood. I just don’t think we should be pressured to comply.
And on a more trivial level it’s just irritating and stupid and tedious, and extra effort to remember.
On the other hand…it’s trickier for a journalist, because Singal can’t just use the real pronouns as the default, in a normal no-problem way. His not using them would send all kinds of messages, which he won’t want to send in a piece of journalism. We’ve been boxed into a no-win situation here.
I never thought using pronouns correctly (as I was taught to as a child) would be so courageous. I guess adhering to principles also learned as a child, such as don’t be a liar, cheater, or theif are also courageous, but in today’s world those seem rarer and braver still. Go ahead, use whatever pronouns you want. Cowards suck.
As numerous people pointed out in the comments, there’s a big difference between talking to or about someone transgender when being transgender isn’t the topic, and doing so when it IS. The fact that it was a woman who was abused and traumatized in the past is directly relevant to the story. Constantly referring to “him” changes the nature of how we understand what’s happening.
As a journalist, Singal may not be allowed to use the proper pronouns, though. Best options are writing so that pronouns aren’t used, or employing “they.”
I don’t think we’re even taught to use pronouns correctly in childhood, I think it’s more that we pick it up. It’s so embedded in everyday language that there’s no need to teach it, the way one teaches particular words that are unfamiliar. We pick up she and he the same way we pick up what they mean.
True, Sastra, about the relevance of her sex to the story – the hideous gut-wrenching story.
Jesse is pretty sympathetic to trans-whatevers personally though, so journalistic concerns aside using “correct” pronouns is on brand.
As for me, barring Chase Strangio, I’ll not bother with the farce.
Although a lot of TRA’s regard him as a Terf or Terf-adjacent. I think he does his best to navigate the issue as he can, or at least as he sees it.
None of it worked; none of it cured anything.
Arranging for your own violent rape? That’s insane.
The victim still wasn’t cured. She got “top surgery” and hormones, and *says* she finally felt human. That didn’t cure any mental anguish, because she still almost committed suicide.
Sounds like she thought “bottom surgery” would be a cure, too, so none of the other “treatments” cured anything. There’s no reason to think that any of her self-chosen “remedies” are effective in any way. The underlying mental health problems are still there, untouched.
She’s a bit painted into a corner now, though, maddog. No serious therapist would touch her with a ten foot pole. The TRAs have done their utmost to make any therapy but gender transition impossible.