Someone is WRONG on the Internet

[telerib]

Must not engage in Merry Rose discussion, must not, must not...

(For the non-subscribers: the hoary old flame-bait as to whether or not "he/him/brother/mankind" are gender-neutral or not has been raised. Marshal your "I am not a man!" arguments to this side and "Do you hate the English language?" arguments on that one. Love how I can be told in the same breath that it's silly to pretend there are no differences between the sexes and then insist that I allow myself to be referred to as a man.)

Comments

[beatrixherald.livejournal.com]

OY!!! that old debate.


It would be easier if there just stopped being sexism so that we (women) could care less about if we were included in that "Hey you guys" or not.

I got off the Merry rose after the FIRST stupid debate like that. If they are good enough, they always make it to LJ anyway.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Weird but true story... I grew up with "you guys" (or "youse guys") being pretty gender-neutral. Our Girl Scout leader was forever correcting us in high school and we were forever laughing her off.

I took a SCUBA course in grad school; instructor was a 50-60ish man. Class was mostly men. And when he said, "You guys, come over here," I totally felt like he only mean the males. I'd never had that reaction to that phrase before, and still generally don't. Something about the delivery...

Context is so important. When Neil Armstrong is walking on the moon, acting as a surrogate for all of us, I'm not likely to mind if he uses "mankind" instead of "humankind." When we're talking about the community of SCA fighters, which includes some women who are often swimming very hard against some powerful currents, further disappearing them by referring to the community as a 'brotherhood' gets me. Go home, little girl, this isn't a game for you. :p

[beatrixherald.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the context thing. I grew up with everyone being DUDE. Male or female, but this morning, a dj refered to a person called Nancy as DUDE. It was intended to insinuate that she was a guy because of her deep voice. It kinda pissed me off.

Sexism is harsh in the SCA. We are all "Forward" but we cling to old timey gender roles in a lot of ways. I almost feel like the fighter community is one of the worst examples of sexism. (against women and men).

I have always lived my life pushing back against anything that says, you cant do that because you are a girl. I Swear, and tell raunchy jokes, and talk about sex, and (when I was single) was proud of my sexual conquests, and spoke up in public, and...well you know how I am.

The hardest pill for me to swallow was accepting that I CANT be a fighter. I CANT even be a combat archer. I'm not sure if it is a gender thing, but it IS an I'm not strong enough thing. I feel bad for the guys who have to swallow that as well. In the Fighters Eyes (who are at the top of the SCA Hierarchy) I get a free pass because I am "just a girl"... But for other dudes who dont measure up, it must be worse.

Especially in Atlantia, they set it up so that most women are not able to swing hard enough to get a guy to take it, never mind win a tourney.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

but it IS an I'm not strong enough thing.

Are you sure? I don't want to make assumptions about your body, but I fought heavy for a year. Before I started working out.

Granted, I never fought in a tourney, but they'd take my blows (the few I managed to land :/... I sucked) at practice. I did totally suck, but that was more lack of talent and no dedicated practice to make up for it. I entirely believe that practice and skill can overcome a lack of innate ability, but I was not practicing outside of once a week - and if I'd wanted to be good, I should have been doing footwork drills and pell work at home.

Then we had a spate of hand injuries in the barony, and I was all, "Wait, I need my hands for my HARP" and wasn't really having fun anyway. So I quit.

(So Mars/Venus... first practice, they hit you in the head three times and ask you how you are. "Okay," I said. It didn't hurt, it wasn't scary.

Months later, I watch some new guy get hit in the head three times, asked how he is. "AWESOME! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Seriously? Dude, you just got hit in the head!)

[cmccurry.livejournal.com]

There are always those who must be offended by something lest their day be ruined. -:-)