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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

More celebrities coming out as non-binary

154 replies

NinaMimi · 19/05/2021 10:04

I saw this on bbc: www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57169541

I’m not familiar with Demi but notice every week the bbc is reporting on some young celeb and their special lgbtq status.

I suspect it’ll have an influence on young people and maybe it’ll peak and people will get bored of it.

I remember 10+ years ago it was really common and cool to come out as bisexual. Though now there’s a whole array of statuses you can choose from.

OP posts:
KaleSlayer · 19/05/2021 10:12

It’s quite tedious isn’t it. She’s clearly trying to stay relevant after lots of issues over the last few years. I think she’s probably quite vulnerable.

JamesGetIn · 19/05/2021 10:15

Ffs 😏

HecatesCatsInFancyHats · 19/05/2021 10:18

It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy, employ LGBTQ+++ Correspondents to cover the issues. They inevitably become focused on the trans agenda because of hard lobbying (and the trans umbrella covers pretty much anyone who wants attention now). They give publicity to anyone and everyone vaguely famous declaring themselves trans & NB and more and more celebs decide they'll maximise publicity by declaring they too like wearing clothes that most women wear everyday. They get coverage and they get to feel extra special. Repeat.

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 19/05/2021 10:19

I'm thinking of "coming out" as non-binary.

Acceptance without question, right? So shut up 'cause I'm just as speshul as you now. No I will not announce my pronouns because it is triggering for me. I also find it triggering when others announce theirs so... ner.

WinterTrees · 19/05/2021 10:20

From the BBC article: Non-binary people don't identify as male or female, and tend not to conform to gender norms of either

A quick google image search shows a person who was extremely conforming to sexualised stereotypes of femininity. I also noticed that they have spoken out about suffering from a severe eating disorder and having been raped. They seem to have recently cut their long hair very short.

When a young woman in the public eye has been hyper-sexualised, controlled by her management, felt driven to punish her body by starving it and survived rape I don't think you need to look too far to wonder why she would want to disassociate herself from female 'gender norms.'

The crying shame is that they make a sunshiney announcement about removing themself from the system, rather than speaking out against the whole toxic, misogynistic, damaging bollocks that is 'gender norms.'

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 19/05/2021 10:20

Actually, I might go for "fluid" instead. Is that still one?

BraveBananaBadge · 19/05/2021 10:20

"I will officially be changing my pronouns" - good for, er, them, but that's absolutely meaningless isn't it?

An armchair psychologist would had a field day with this - Demi's had a lot of horrible experiences in life and from a mile away this looks like some sort of 'opt out'. If this beings her some peace then fair enough but what difference it makes to anything is hard to fathom.

SpindleWhorl · 19/05/2021 10:21

That's nice for them.

It was much easier to spell 'punk' though.

TedImgoingmad · 19/05/2021 10:22

Another one with a history of mental health and drugs issues. But as OP said, there's always a celebrity cult-like craze. Yoga, yogis, tantric sex, starving to size zero. Always some harmful bullshit they are pushing onto their young and impressionable female fans.

HecatesCatsInFancyHats · 19/05/2021 10:25

*A quick google image search shows a person who was extremely conforming to sexualised stereotypes of femininity. I also noticed that they have spoken out about suffering from a severe eating disorder and having been raped. They seem to have recently cut their long hair very short.

When a young woman in the public eye has been hyper-sexualised, controlled by her management, felt driven to punish her body by starving it and survived rape I don't think you need to look too far to wonder why she would want to disassociate herself from female 'gender norms.'*

YY

Excilente · 19/05/2021 10:26

Normally i'd be 'yeah ok' as i'm fine with pronoun changes, but in their case.. i'm a little dubious that it isn't another symptom of their ongoing difficulties with mental health problems.

I mean, of course not being able to 'come out' could be part of WHY they're suffering with long term poor MH of course, but they seem one of the most unlikely to make such a change.

CrumpetShaw · 19/05/2021 10:27

Yawn🙄 I know I'm preaching to the converted here but the article explains "Non-binary people don't identify as male or female, and tend not to conform to gender norms of either."... Anyone can not conform to gender norms ffs, you don't have to adopt nonsensical pronouns!

Councilworker · 19/05/2021 10:29

Recovery from bulimia, anorexia, addiction to cocaine and heroin or fentanyl. Multiple short term but high profile relationships that are then scrutinized when they end (all with men I think). Raped age 15 whilst working for Disney.Has been famous since the age of 10. What a huge burden on a young person. Who wouldn't want to opt out of being a famous woman but keep the fame?

NecessaryScene1 · 19/05/2021 10:29

Non-binary people [...] tend not to conform to gender norms of either.

Citation needed.

WinterIsGone · 19/05/2021 10:30

I had never heard of them until an article in The Times Magazine a little while ago. I felt so sorry for all they have gone through. I agree with WinterTrees' analysis.

IvyTwines2 · 19/05/2021 10:32

@WinterTrees 'The crying shame is that they make a sunshiney announcement about removing themself from the system, rather than speaking out against the whole toxic, misogynistic, damaging bollocks that is 'gender norms.'

Yes - they're so steeped in the bollocks that they can't imagine actually stepping out of it and calling it out - instead the Patriarchy has created this clever way for young women who are upset by it all to appear to shift sideways within the system, AND it has the added bonus of kicking other women down at the same time by implying that those of us who want to continue being called women and 'she' accept the abuse and objectification and regressive gender stereotypes as part of the package of femaleness.

SecretThermalsAreTheBest · 19/05/2021 10:44

Usually I'm very tolerant and think live and let live... But this phrase gets me from the article - non binary people "tend not to conform to gender norms of either male or female."

SO?!? That just means that gender stereotypes are a real thing... and everybody exists on a spectrum and it's not a big deal? I don't conform to most gender norms either - I was the most ungirly girl when I was a child and I don't fit many of the 'female' stereotypes now I'm an adult.

....does not mean anything. I'm a woman ffs. This just all seems so attention seeking.

Unsubscribed · 19/05/2021 10:49

Agree it will no doubt have an influence on young people. Some teenagers at DC's school called themselves a different this, that and the other every week to keep relevant .

TedImgoingmad · 19/05/2021 11:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WinterTrees · 19/05/2021 11:05

Agree it will no doubt have an influence on young people. Some teenagers at DC's school called themselves a different this, that and the other every week to keep relevant

I'm not sure it's just to keep relevant, though that may be part of it. The they/them girls in my daughters' peer groups are notably those who have a troubled history in some way - one of them had nudes shared by an ex bf, one of them was very sexually precocious in her early teens and got "a reputation", one of them is totally infantilised by her parents and denied the freedom and autonomy her older brothers had (not allowed a door key of her own, not allowed to go to parties etc.) It seems to me to be a very obvious way of shrugging off all the negative, restrictive baggage of being female.

What a false promise they've been sold. What a lie this 'I'm so happy to announce that I wasn't actually female at all!' is. In a time when there are many, many things that make me baffled, speechless and incandescent with rage, the bullshit of 'non-binary' is actually right up there at the top of my list. That it's actually seen as cool and progressive is just mind boggling. We have never needed feminism more.

TedImgoingmad · 19/05/2021 11:19

I think it goes beyond merely shrugging off the baggage of being female. It goes beyond that. It is the reinvention of self as a wholly new person. Like the other person never existed at all. It's a re-birth. So with all their life achievements to date, which they want to hold on to, they have to gaslight like crazy to make people accept that it was never their previous self doing those things in the first place. That's why dead naming, incorrect pronoun use etc is literal violence.

FixTheBone · 19/05/2021 11:21

Agree this is going to cause all sorts of unpredictable problems in the future.

who remembers the teen magazines of the 80s and 90s with slim, blonde busty archetypes being pushed as the 'norm' fast forward to spates of eating disorders.

I don't mind people identifying as whatever they want, but the media obsession with pushing it front and centre is going to create an abnormal frame of reference for youngsters who will assume that half the population is non conforming to traditional genders, when in fact the truth is much less.

A also hate the pronoun them/they it's inherently plural and smacks of somebody who doesn't know their own mind, the gender neutral singular alternative of it/that isn't great though as it implies a dehumanised object....

TedImgoingmad · 19/05/2021 11:21

It is an extreme way of dealing with and managing trauma. If it all happened to a different person altogether and not me, I will be OK, and I am a clean and pure person who needs to feel no guilt or shame or distress.

Bythemillpond · 19/05/2021 11:24

I wonder if there is a correlation between flagging careers and coming out as special to get people talking about them again

WinterTrees · 19/05/2021 11:25

AND it has the added bonus of kicking other women down at the same time by implying that those of us who want to continue being called women and 'she' accept the abuse and objectification and regressive gender stereotypes as part of the package of femaleness

This is so depressingly true. Do it to Julia.

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