I heard a very young person today berate a Baby Boomer who was not using the kid’s preferred pronouns as being somehow “disrespectful”.
As a Boomer myself, that got me thinking. We, as a group were raised on respect: respect for the country, respect for our elders, respect for the institutions around us, and respect for the English language. We learned (usually by rote) proper written and spoken grammar and every one of us can remember the weekly spelling and grammar tests.
So, when we use the proper English pronouns that accurately describe a person as they present to the world and refuse to bend language to suit the young woke crowd, we ARE showing respect.
We are showing respect for the English language that we learned, and we are showing respect (as we know it) to the person based on how they present to the world.
If you are a man, and present to the world as masculine looking, then we will refer to you as such. The same applies if you are a woman and present to the world as feminine then we will extend the same courtesy. If we somehow “misgender” you, then perhaps it is incumbent upon you to take a good look in the mirror and see how you present yourself to the people you encounter.
If you decide you are “gender fluid”, or any of the dozens of other insane and ambiguous adjectives floating around today, well then that’s just too much information for us. Frankly we don’t want to know or care what you do in the privacy of your own home. It embarrasses us, and we respect you enough not to broadcast to you what we do behind closed doors.
We expect the same respect from you.
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