The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

I guess it's that in an ideal world nobody would give a shit whether you're male, female or whatever, and you could present however you wanted; but in the real world as it exists today there very definitely is the culturally constructed strict binary and it sucks if your genitalia force you onto the wrong side of that?

Of course but when there seems to be pressure to accommodate various NEW designations as sources of identity to account for alleged gender nuances, that works against equality, not for it. Or just to keep it simpler, you cannot expect to remove distinctions between male and female while emphasising the importance of "presenting" one or the other and society's respect for that. How are you even "presenting" a gender if there are no attributes that can be flagged as representing a gender?

I don't really understand the various extra gender types either. But I'm not sure how they work against equality. Whether there's 2 categories of something or 100 categories of something there's no reason they can't all be regarded as equal.

[grumbler]

I'd argue that it is much easier to combat prejudice if there are 100 varieties of something that could cause prejudice than if there are only two.  If there are 100 varieties, any individual will be unsure what the "proper" way to react to a given variety is, and will either react to all "not us" presentations with a bigoted negative reaction (in which case no different than the bigot in the binary case) or will hold off judgement until they can get a feel for how to respond to a person with a given presentation.  A person holding off on making a judgement is, by definition, avoiding pre-judgement, or prejudice.

"What the hell is that?" is a much healthier initial reaction than "I hate that."

[crazy canuck]

I'd argue that it is much easier to combat prejudice if there are 100 varieties of something that could cause prejudice than if there are only two.  If there are 100 varieties, any individual will be unsure what the "proper" way to react to a given variety is, and will either react to all "not us" presentations with a bigoted negative reaction (in which case no different than the bigot in the binary case) or will hold off judgement until they can get a feel for how to respond to a person with a given presentation.  A person holding off on making a judgement is, by definition, avoiding pre-judgement, or prejudice.

"What the hell is that?" is a much healthier initial reaction than "I hate that."

Makes me think about the first time I met with the transgender consultant I use to help advise my clients about these issues.  I caught myself wondering if they (their preferred pronoun) was male or female.   As the issues were patiently explained to me (I can be a slow learner) I realized that they was not male or female.  And that was really the point I was supposed to learn.

[Razgovory]

My new cats don't come when I call them, but they figured out that I come when they call me.  So I guess it works out.

[mongers]

My new cats don't come when I call them, but they figured out that I come when they call me.  So I guess it works out.

Raz, the stray cat that's taken up residency here, has adopted as similar tactic. 

[PDH]

It takes patience and understanding, perhaps with gifts of treats now and then for good behavior, or a small whack when bad behavior continues, but a cat knows it can train its human.

[mongers]

It takes patience and understanding, perhaps with gifts of treats now and then for good behavior, or a small whack when bad behavior continues, but a cat knows it can train its human.

[Razgovory]

Addendum:  The cats WILL come if I fall down the stairs.

[Syt]

[Grey Fox]

That's basically all porn these days.

[The Brain]

She needs to get stuck more.

[Valmy]

That's basically all porn these days.

Yeah. You really need to make an effort to not see somebody banging their "step" siblings or parents. WTF world?

[DGuller]

That's basically all porn these days.

Yeah. You really need to make an effort to not see somebody banging their "step" siblings or parents. WTF world?

What else is there to do during Covid lockdowns?

[Razgovory]

That's basically all porn these days.

Yeah. You really need to make an effort to not see somebody banging their "step" siblings or parents. WTF world?

I have no idea why that has become so popular.

[Admiral Yi]

I have no idea why that has become so popular.

It makes perfect sense to me.  A common experience; somewhat taboo but not gross out taboo.