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

It's like the conversations I have with the kids about the cats.
'Our cat...'
'She's not our cat! We don't own her. She owns us.'

'Need to do better'. Oy.

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.

Again, it depends on the power dynamics. If you're in a company in which the senior management is likely to refer to eg 'the R&D team', then having an R&D manager who refers to 'my team' - and who takes responsibility and flak, but not the all the credit! - is a very good thing for the people in that team.

then having an R&D manager who refers to 'my team' - and who takes responsibility and flak, but not the all the credit! - is a very good thing for the people in that team

That’s virtually exactly what dh just said...if the team make a mistake its his fault

The most sensible response comes from a non-native speaker:

'My mother, my wife, my children, my students. I don’t think “my” in this context implies possession, to me it implies a relationship. It becomes even clearer when talking about “my employer”. But I’m not native, does this have connotations I’m unaware of?'

No, it doesn't. It's just that you're dealing with a bunch of idiots.

Sometimes I want to finish early and get a pot noodle

🤣

It reminds me of the regular complaint that comes up on MN that a mil is calling a poster’s new child, ‘My baby’.

With possessions, my denotes ownership.

With people, it usually denotes relationships - a relation, an employee, a workmate.

Except with babies and slaves.

If you're in a company in which the senior management is likely to refer to eg 'the R&D team', then having an R&D manager who refers to 'my team' - and who takes responsibility and flak, but not the all the credit! - is a very good thing for the people in that team.

This depends on whom he/she is talking to then. Speaking to a more senior manager "my team" might be defensible, but when talking to the group, "our" is definitely my preference. And certainly "my staff" does not have a nice ring.

Even my staff depends on the context.
In a temp job I had once someone in another department had said something untrue about me and I very much appreciated my manager going all 'who's spreading rumours about my staff?'

Oh just fuck off. Not you OP. Him.

I wonder what he thinks of "my friend".

One of my managers did refer to *her girls’

Partly because of the whole her girls as a phrase bit

And mainly because she would not hesitate to throw any one of us under the bus when necessary

I thought it might be satire

The issue isn’t the language; the issue is the power relationship. Change the power relationship and whatever’s he’s seeing implied by the language about the power relationship will no longer be there for him to see implied.

Postmodernists’ theory of change is exactly ass-backwards.

In fact, in their enactment of top-down authoritarian insistence on language change, with ex-communicative punishments of those who fail to obey, they only further embed existing power relationships.

@ItsLikeHeardingCats One just realised why one's Queen Elizabeth speaks in such a way. One wouldn't want to be presumptuous.

My first thought on starting to read his tweets was that he was cold-hearted. Really quite appropriate that he's getting a bit of a roasting! 🔥🔥

"My PhD student" --> "a PhD student in the/ my group", or "a PhD student who I supervise/ advise."

Man, that's cold. Even with people pushing back and saying exactly that, he still keeps coming back to argue his gotcha, because People Are Wrong On The Internet. (Not his own communication skills which are at fault, exceot insofar as he's clearly communicating what a massive have-to-be-right wanker he is).

@BickerinBrattle. Yes, I really think you're right about the way they want reality to serve language, nit the other way around.

Many people are paid to talk shite

I think that’s been the case for a long time, but suddenly they are being taken seriously.

This person's twitter thread is all over Facebook so I read it through and wow his sense of superiority is so clear. Yet another public school and Oxbridge-educated "Internet Mansplainer with Important Opinions" pontificating from their privileged position on how they think the world should be.

I work in a uni and guys (it's always men) like him are exactly the ones who make it harder for everyone else trying to make academia a batter and more welcoming place.

I take it his research isn’t yielding much data currently... Too much time on his hands.

The issue isn’t the language; the issue is the power relationship. Change the power relationship and whatever’s he’s seeing implied by the language about the power relationship will no longer be there for him to see implied.Postmodernists’ theory of change is exactly ass-backwards. In fact, in their enactment of top-down authoritarian insistence on language change, with ex-communicative punishments of those who fail to obey, they only further embed existing power relationships.

Yes, this. I'm late to this discussion but I feel this is so important. It's a real frustration I have at times with Marxist-influenced ideas, and feminism. This assumption that the language is creating the problem and changing it will be a step to solving it. When it worn't, in most cases changing it will create the same negative connotation in the new language, and it will likely reflect other power dynamics anyway. (But won't cause them...)

Back

Actually I’m quite sure that HIS trainees are working their asses off producing data and writing papers that he then stamps his name onto the end of. Biomed research is pretty heirarchical so he can get away with pontification on twitter and meeting with his students for an hour a week while they do the grunt labor needed to get the results.

He's being a pretentious arse. All the use of 'my' is doing in that context is identifying a relationship in shorthand. Nobody thinks the supervisor owns the student.

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.
What about 'my husband'? 'My son'? 'My favourite walk' doesn't mean you own the walk...

fwrlurker indeed! I have been thinking and I find him quite ‘othering’ why can’t he care about HIS students like the other supervisors? Why so distant?

I call my team, MY team. I have their back and they work for me. I don’t think they’re my puppets!

It’s all just a bit ‘I don’t stand up for pregnant women because of equality’. Knobbery of the highest standard.

audibly correct myself. He must be fun at parties 🥳
could NOT roll my eyes more