S/o to my followers whose language is hard to make gender neutral, who have to invent words not only for their gender identity and orientation, but also for any and every situation.
It will take time but we will make the world see us.
Un peu de positivité pour mes abonné.es dont la langue maternelle est difficile à rendre neutre, qui doivent inventer des mots non seulement pour parler de leur identité de genre et de leur orientation, mais aussi pour n’importe quelle situation.
Ca prendra du temps, mais le monde finira par nous voir.
Um pouco de positividade para minhes seguidorus cujas línguas maternas são difíceis de deixar neutras em relação a gênero, que precisam inventar palavras não apenas para falar de sua identidade de gênero e orientação mas também para todas as situações.
Levará tempo, mas faremos com que o mundo nos veja.
shout out á followerana mína sem eiga móðurmál sem er erfitt að gera kynhlutlaust, sem þurfa að finna upp ný orð ekki bara fyrir kynvitund sína og kynhneigð, heldur líka í öllum öðrum aðstæðum
Þetta tekur tíma en við munum láta heiminn taka eftir okkur!
S/o ai miei followers la cui lingua non è facile rendere neutra, che devono coniare parole non solo per la propria identità di genere e orientamento sessuale, ma anche per qualsivoglia circostanza.
Ci vorrà tempo ma faremo in modo che il mondo ci veda.
S/o til mine følgjarar som snakkar eit språk som er vanskeleg å gjere kjønnsnøytralt, som er nøydde til å finne opp nye ord ikkje berre for kjønnsidentiteten og orienteringa deira, men òg for nesten alle andre situasjonar.
Det vil ta tid, men me skal få verda til å sjå oss.
S/o til mine følgere som snakker et språk som er vanskelig å gjøre kjønnsnøytralt, som er nødt til å finne opp nye ord ikkje bare for deres kjønnsidentitet og orientering, men også for nesten alle andre situasjoner.
Det vil ta tid, men vi skal få verden til å se oss.
shoutout do moich obserwujących, których język niełatwo jest uczynić neutralny płciowo, którzy muszą wynajdować słowa nie tylko dla ich identyfikacji płciowej i orientacji, jak i dla każdej sytuacji.
to potrwa, ale sprawimy, by świat nas zobaczył.
Shoutout zu all meinen Followern, deren Sprache schwer zu neutralisieren ist, die Wörter nicht nur für ihre Geschlechtsidentität und Orientierung erfinden müssen, sondern auch für jede mögliche Situation.
Es wird eine Weile dauern, aber wir werden die Welt dazu bringen, uns zu sehen.
Shoutout por todos mis seguidores que tienen una lingua muy dificíl para la neutralidad de género. Que tienen que inventar palabras para no soló su sexualidad y género, pero también por todos las situaciones.
Tomará tiempo, pero nosotros hacerémos el mundo nos vea.
“[V]iolence against women is a form of
gender-based violence that is committed against women because they are women.” ~ Council Of Europe
Is it okay to do harm to women for not conforming to the stereotypes
assigned to them?
Is it okay to react with violence towards women who are not being
mindful of men’s comfort, power, or feelings?
Is it okay to enforce a position of dependence or subjugation for women,
and threaten financial, physical, or emotional retribution when a woman fights
against her chains?
Is it okay for women to not know their place?
But we’ve talked about all that, haven’t we?
These should have been questions with easy answers, but those who were
so firmly against the “dangerous” Istanbul Convention failed to understand the
real issue: violence against women is specific and distinct from violence
against the person. The Convention would have combated the root of the
problem, not given a man a slap on the wrist after he had burned his
ex-girlfriend’s face off with acid.
If everything was already fine, there wouldn’t be a need to sabotage a
measure which protects women – protecting women would already be in accordance
with the country’s goals. If the tools we had in place were working, we
wouldn’t be having thousands of women trapped in abusive relationships; all the
women in our lives wouldn’t have been able to tell countless stories of
harassment, abuse, rape, or other forms of women-specific violence.
Women-specific violence.
She was raped because she didn’t let him have her in the first place –
and satisfying him is a woman’s obligation.
She was hit because she burned his dinner – and cooking is a woman’s
obligation.
She was stomped on because she asked him where he’d been – and that is
not a woman’s business.
She was locked in her room because she was tired of him stinking of
alcohol – and telling him what to do is not a woman’s place.
She had her “allowance” taken away because she spent some time out with
her friends – and having a life outside her husband’s grasp is not a woman’s right.
I’ve been wavering back and forth on whether or not I should post this because it’s very personal and possibly not as informed as I would like it to be. And it requires a little prefacing.
I’m nonbinary.
I write nonbinary characters. (I don’t have a single story which doesn’t include at least a protagonist or love interest who’s nonbinary, usually with a number of nonbinary supporting characters.)
And these nonbinary characters come in all forms and styles and pronouns and self presentations, from humans who believe they aren’t defined by anyone else’s perception of their gender, to characters whose entire society doesn’t differentiate between male and female, to agender demi-gods who use gendered pronouns because they feel like it and their to genderfluid parents who wear dresses to the opera.
Through the process of writing these characters I’ve subjected them to quite a few beta readers. And what I see in my feedback is a consistent trend of binary readers worried over whether my portrayals of nonbinary character might come off as offensive, while nonbinary readers don’t bat an eye.
Now, I’m certainly not saying that it’s bad for people of binary genders to be critical of how nonbinary characters are portrayed, because I love having people watching out for me and my nonbinary fam.
But I’m also worried.
I’m worried that binary writers aren’t writing nonbinary characters because they’re afraid of getting it wrong.
If binary writers are worried a nonbinary writer is getting their own representation wrong, then how much more are they criticizing themselves for perceived flaws in their own nonbinary characters?
Please: Write nonbinary characters. Specifically, write nonbinary protagonists and love interests.
There is such a broad scale of nonbinary identifying individuals, who’ve all had very different experiences, who all present themselves in different ways, with different pronouns, for different reasons. We are more diverse than you can imagine.
And yet we have essentially no representation. We are dying, dying, for characters in fiction who’s similar to us. The most devastating way you can mess up is to not care enough to try in the first place.
Edit:
I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts for a day because I needed to edit it and boy. Boy am I pissed.
Just fucking pissed.
After having a binary person (one who only writes a nonbinary villain no less) attempt to call out my #ownvoice representation, I couldn’t be more angry.
(I mean, I could be more angry, as proven by that time a TERF broke into my personal messages to write me two essays on why my identity isn’t real and I actually just hate myself enough to pretend it is, but that’s a different story altogether.)
So I amend this:
Please, please write nonbinary characters. But please, for the love of all things good, don’t try to tell other writers how to write these nonbinary characters if you aren’t also nonbinary.
Write us characters but don’t fucking step on us in the process.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 