transcript

Screenshot of a tweet by @feralhousepuppy: hey so you’ve been calling me “bro”, “man”, and “dude” a lot and it’s really invalidating to my masculinity cause those are all gender neutral things you call trans women :/

  • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nzEnglish
    191·
    3 天前

    It’s deliberate, for all the same reasons across all of history.

    It’s why I use terms that (I assume) are genuinely like “folks” and “peeps” and “comrade” etc.

    • neatchee@piefed.socialEnglish
      24·
      3 天前

      Become ungovernable.

      Make all words genderless.

      Call men “chika”.

      Call women “brother”.

      Call your girl cat “bubba”

      Call your boy cat “pretty kitty”

      No gender = no gender conformity = better world

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      13·
      3 天前

      I’m sorry but I HATE folks. I’m down with virtually all other gender neutral terms, but I psychologically can’t uncouple ‘folks’ from pseudo-homespun charm put on by people who are sleazebags for various reasons. Anything but folks, I beg (general) you

      • SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        16·
        3 天前

        I use folks all the time!

        …but i’m also a server at waffle house, so I guess I am using southern culture and folksy charm to sell you waffles and coffee. It’s a soulless existence, I know, but at least I have my cold, hard cash tips to keep me warm at night.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          2 天前

          Well no, it doesn’t, because it’s a different word. Plenty of words have similar meanings or origins while having very different connotations from each other. See for example the whole [saxon? norman? whatever] vs french root thing in english, where words with identical meanings but different root languages came to have different connotations (worker vs laborer) or even different meanings (cow vs beef).

            • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11·
              16 小时前

              Just that you shouldn’t expect two words that have similar meanings to be treated the same way, because they often have different connotations and usages.

                • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  13 小时前

                  Do you know what a connotation is? Frankly this is a bit annoying and I’m going to be blunt: it’s exceedingly obvious that it’s a difference in connotation (as I’ve said three times now) rather than in definition*. The difference is the context of how the words are used and the associations they have.

                  I psychologically can’t uncouple ‘folks’ from pseudo-homespun charm put on by people who are sleazebags for various reasons

                  That is the difference.

                  * There are definitional differences too but it doesn’t really matter.

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            21·
            2 天前

            Another example: cavalier vs caballero. Cavalier comes from the French word for knight, and that’s caballero in Spanish, but the meaning is completely different. One is arrogant, one is noble (the good kind, yeah I do get how they are related and where and why the meanings shifted).

      • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        1·
        2 天前

        I just hear the word in Davey’s voice from Adventure Time and it has completely taken the term over. I can’t even say folks without impersonating Davey anymore.

      • fleebleneeble@reddthat.comEnglish
        3·
        2 天前

        I only use it to refer to my “parents” cuz saying parents otherwise makes me feel like I’m in grade school again or some shit. Otherwise to refer to others as folks feels weird to me.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 天前

      I think using “deliberate” to refer to something that’s as collective and reactive as societal trends in language usage is misleading. The amount of personal agency involved, except in rare cases of people intentionally trying to cause a cultural shift, is pretty minimal.

      Also you got me curious-- “peeps” comes directly from “people” as you might expect, and “folks” and “comrade” actually originally originate as terms referring to (among other usages) military groups. So I would say they are indeed gender-neutral, even in origin, unless you count gendered expectations of the military which I’m not sure carried over to later, more general usages.

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nzEnglish
        2·
        2 天前

        I actually spent a few minutes trying to think of a better word than “deliberate” but couldn’t, “not accidental” might have been a better choice.