Batshittery from the Guardian

[PlayerOneReady]

And yes they really did refer to lesbians as ‘non men loving non men’

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/05/i-am-16-and-identify-as-an-ace-lesbian-but-i-dont-want-to-come-out-to-my-parents

I'm really cheered by the idea that it might well be a parody, as I came away from reading it in the Grauniad earlier feeling exhausted by the fuckwittery of it all.

It’s not the Guardian though, it’s a child writing to an advice column who you’re making fun of.

And why does everyone else have to be informed and educated about your “identity”? I would have died of embarrassment at the thought of explaining who I felt like having sex with, and how often or whatever or not at all, to my parents 🤦‍♀️ It’s so bloody self involved and self righteous, all of it.

Yeah, me too, I just would not have been interested in putting this out there for anyone, it would have been mortifying. Not because it was shameful but because who need to know this stuff? I didn't want to know about my parents sexual feelings, either!

This is something that always strikes me about this generation. Their sense of privacy is really different. Undeveloped, almost.

Is it?

I mean it reads pretty weird to me.

I'm a total naive person in many ways always been that way. I take everything at face value.

So u read this took at face value you'll see I described letter writer as poor sod.

Reading again after seeing posts the letter is strangely constructed and so... I have heard these things are quite often concocted by the columnist. I mean I don't know.

My main issue is with the guardian linking to a Reddit thread for info. That's just really shit.

In the advice it says don't live whole life online. But the paper still decides to direct readers to Reddit?

I mean what the fuck is that about?

How many 16yo would write to guardian? I mean. Chance is like 1 in thousands surely.

Plus letter writer is using internet for info advice etc so I mean. They'd just ask online. What 16yo wouldn't?

So yeah it's pretty odd.

I've not taken the piss though and wouldn't because could be true/ just feels mean to me really.

what are she/they pronouns? surely it is one or the other?

@lochmaree

what are she/they pronouns? surely it is one or the other?

I've seen similar use of (sexed) singular/plural

I feel for any foreign language exam markers who are marking essays and have outmoded ways of thinking when it comes to concordance of pronouns and verbs.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus so is it you'd say "she went to the shop, but their hair is blonde"? like she/her but instead of her you say they? i can't quite get my head around it and would be afraid of the potential repercussions of misgendering someone but this seems unfair!

[quote lochmaree]@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus so is it you'd say "she went to the shop, but their hair is blonde"? like she/her but instead of her you say they? i can't quite get my head around it and would be afraid of the potential repercussions of misgendering someone but this seems unfair![/quote]
I think it's more like, e.g., Peter gave it to them and then she passed it to X

It used to mean that someone would be OK with the stated sex singular pronoun or the plural.

Then it more meant that someone chose to move between the two and would tell you (depending on the circumstances).

However, I've seen enough of the usage I wrote above to think this is taking hold. I do not pretend it makes sense which is why I worry for language teachers.

@risefromyourgrave

I half seriously find myself wishing for a solar flare to wipe out the internet for a few weeks, just to get all these poor confused kids out in the real world, where validation and affirmation are not the be all and end all of life.

This.

@flyingbuttress43

Reading the phrase "educate yourself/themselves" really sets my teeth on edge. It is the go-to cliche for gen Z/+ and is usually preceded or followed by a load of narcissitic twattery.

Yes, totally agree

@MarlowMafia

It’s not the Guardian though, it’s a child writing to an advice column who you’re making fun of.

Quite.

@MarlowMafia

It’s not the Guardian though, it’s a child writing to an advice column who you’re making fun of.

Ah we're back to Schroedinggers teenager -

Robust and sure enough to consent to being maimed.

Fragile and vulnerable enough to be unable to withstand words and truth.

A truly incredible invention of the 21st century.

This is all very confusing and depressing. Do 16 yos really write like this? My dd is only 13 but I couldn’t imagine her writing to a major newspaper to get advice and discuss hating her breasts.

Absolutely, @Christmas101

It's even stranger when the teenagers do it themselves. Old enough to be on Twitter posting abusive messages and pictures of guns to women, but if you criticise them you get 'I'm a child, don't reply to me!' They're mostly 16/17.

@Christmas101 @GreenWhiteViolet The teenager under discussion hasn't done any of those things though. She isn’t consenting to “bring maimed” or posting abusive messages. She’s just a confused kid who has written in to the paper for advice, using the terminology she’s presumably picked up online. Whatever your thoughts on gender theory,, I’m not sure that deserves the vitriol being displayed on this thread.

As for it being a spoof, who knows? But the underlying scenario is pretty normal (teenager who doesn’t like all the stereotypes associated with womanhood, feels romantically attracted to girls but not sexually attracted (yet), is uncertain about all of this and finds it changes day to day - that’s a fairly run of the mill problem). She conceptualises all of this in terms of gender and group identities, which sounds bizarre to me as a middle-aged woman but I think would sound pretty normal to my teenage kids [shrug].

“Educate yourself” almost invariably means “educate yourself about the unutterable magnificence that is meeeeeeeeeeeeee! Aren’t I great? And clever? And special?” 🤣

@Theeyeballsinthesky

How amazingly serendipitous that such a letter should drop into The Guardians email after so much push back around girl guides promoting ace week to children/teenagers. It really is the most astonishing coincidence isn’t it

This. Given the response to the GG's on Twitter, this seems like a very obviously orchestrated post to normalise ACE and bring it back into the youth domain. Less creepy than adults working with children and wanting to showcase their sexuality to them all.

'Educate yourself' means 'indoctrinate yourself'. The last thing the actually want you to do is educate yourself.

As for not commenting on a piece in a mainstream newspaper because it may have been written by a child: if there is any valid criticism of this then the place to direct it is solely towards the Guardian. One they publish it it becomes part of their output/propaganda and completely open for critique, ridicule,

@Sophoclesthefox

“Educate yourself” almost invariably means “educate yourself about the unutterable magnificence that is meeeeeeeeeeeeee! Aren’t I great? And clever? And special?” 🤣

Yes!

If the Guardian has any interest in a proto-ace middle-aged person who is unlikely to ever experience desire or attraction again, I can raise my boring hand or use both to type a column that will spread this indifference (edging towards antipathy)

I think we need a label for this ...

@Sophoclesthefox and stunning and brave, surely?

But of course!

[quote BackBackBack]@Sophoclesthefox and stunning and brave, surely?[/quote]
I was going for UQ (universally queasy or quelled as appropriate). That or EU (everlastingly uninterested) or EI (eternally indifferent).

Stunning and brave is a much better marketing slogan for the brand, however.

It's the lack of torment that gets to you. The ability to attend a social setting and seep indifference to the physicality of others from your pores without it being at all problematic. The freedom to converse without fretting that someone will construe your question about propensity weight scoring and stabilised weights for average treatment effect for the control as an invitation to to sexual congress.