Not totally related to feminism but a fascinating example of academic wokery

[Doyoumind]

I came across this on Twitter and it really makes you wonder where the woke changes to language are going to take us next.

twitter.com/BMatB/status/1207554144174854144?s=09

By fascinating I obviously mean wtf.

Fucking hell. That would make conference small talk even more long winded and boring.

I mean...
It's good to be considerate in language choice but it is tricky to unpick decades of saying a certain thing.

I was told not to say 'that's a good question' as it's condescending.
But how can it be if I know I'm sincere?
Also, what I'm meant to say instead is 'I'm glad you asked that' and sometimes I'm really not glad at all. Sometimes I want to finish early and get a pot noodle.

Some of the replies are reassuring though. I can't help wondering how much work individuals like that do when they seem to spend most of their time in mental masturbation.

WTF indeed! Creation of pointless clunkier phrasing because he has gazed at his navel so hard that he has turned himself inside out.

I read this and thought Oh My Goodness or should I say Oh, a Goodness That I Think Of

Personally I think its a very male point of view, to consider everything in terms of possession rather than belonging.
It wouldn't occur to me to think someone who said 'my student' was being possessive. Its verbal shorthand for 'a student in my class', as in belonging to the group.

Mental masturbation is a great phrase!

"My" means associated with, as well as belonging to. Nobody thinks i'm making myself mayor when i refer to "my" home town.

I do hope there is a post - 2010s era of a return to common sense.

He does have a slightly valid point, but takes it to ridiculous extremes.

There is a feminist aspect to it. For example being referred to as 'my wife', rather than by your name, reduces you to a possession - unless the relationship is relevant.

'My' often signifies responsibility rather than 'ownership'.

I wonder what he'd make of "Oh my God!"?

So 'my friend', 'my colleague ', 'my mother' are out of bounds too now?

Back when I lived a different sort of life surrounded by wealthy Westerners with live in "maids" who were any combination of cleaners or nannies or cooks or all three, I didn't like it when people said "My maid is really annoying." "My maid has such a funny way of doing X." or "My maid is so lovely."

These women were all Filipina and it reeked of colonialism, privilege and reducing the identity of these women to the point of eradication. And it also reflected how they were treated - not directly abusively in these houses, but definitely without regard to the dire life circumstances the woman cooking for their children found herself in in order to provide money for her mother to cook for her own children back home.

I can see where this guy is coming from but he's just got too much time on his hands. (I'm assuming he identifies as male MNHQ). He's taking something and just distorting it out of all sense.

If PhD students are treated with zero respect then he may have a point, but that's not what I've seen (not that academia treats many people well).

It took him that long to realise that language matters? And that words have power to shape the world.......? It's like he's discovered the wheel.
'Man Made Language' came out in 1980.

Where do these people get the time for so much navel gazing. And they love to lecture everyone and police people's language.

They would make great citizens in a theocratic state. I suspect a lot of woke folk would enthusiastically sign up to be part of a Woke Religious Police force.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_religious_police

Islamic religious police is an official vice squad which enforces religious observance and public morality on behalf of national or regional authorities based on its interpretation of sharia. The practice is generally justified with reference to the doctrine of hisba, which is based on the Quranic injunction of enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and refers to the duty of Muslims to promote moral rectitude and intervene when another Muslim is acting wrongly.

So, do I still get to say "my boss" then? I mean, in the one hand, he is ... ummm ... I mean, they are [I've never really asked about gender - clearly I should have not assumed on the basis of the fact that they have a beaed stubble] an individual in their own right and I don't own them. On the other hand, though, the power dynamics would clearly put me in the underdog [or under-trans-cat] position on this one.

I'm going to need a manual here!

I wish people who don't understand language would stop pontificating about language. I don't go teaching him subatomic physics or combover maintenance do I?

Bet Ben is a mansplaining barrel of laughs at brew time in his department!
Oh sorry, 'the department in which he sits' .

Ridicul-arse

LOL at "You clearly don't linguistics, bro".

People who take themselves this seriously don't translate well into real life. It is almost a religious fervour: "My Sunday has been fine. You?"

"IT'S NOT YOUR SUNDAY, IT'S GOD'S SUNDAY, HOW DARE YE"

Unless I've missed it, this has not been posted yet: he's actually written a whole medium article on the subject now: t.co/gT22zrR84p?amp=1

On the upside: according to deductive logic, "my boss" is apparently just fine, seeing as he really does get his ideas from me [literally my job description - he's not horrible].

"IT'S NOT YOUR SUNDAY, IT'S GOD'S SUNDAY, HOW DARE YE"

That's a horribly monotheism-centric take on Sundays.

How about "the Sunday on which I happen to currently exist".

He's written a piece arising from this twitter spat. He does have a point that - perhaps historically more than now, though I'm not sure - PhD students can be used as cannon fodder for the advancement of senior academics. But it's the power structure which is the problem, not the mere use (or not) of 'my', which can be entirely benign. A professor who refers to a student by name or uses his suggestions "a PhD student in the/my group", or "a PhD student who I supervise/advise" could still be an exploitative egomaniac.

medium.com/@BMatB/my-language-barrier-da33e5f05e93

I think it depends on context. I don't have an issue with "my student" or "my child" because these expressions are almost terms of art; they refer to relationships rather than possession. But I have to say that I don't like to hear managers refer to "my staff" because that does imply that they are there to serve the manager. "Our staff" or "our team" is better.

Creation of pointless clunkier phrasing because he has gazed at his navel so hard that he has turned himself inside out.