March 2012
“The solution is to not gender others when you don’t know their gender. If you see someone, you don’t just think you know their name right? Like, if you saw someone walking down the street, you wouldn’t just be like, “Their name is definitely Mark.” Genders/pronouns/etc. (as much as people want to argue that this isn’t true) work the same way.”
—
thelacydisease (via radicalqueery)
#when did we become dwarves? :s #Can I make assumptions about people’s sex based on appearance instead then? #cos there’s no way I’m greeting each new person with #’hi #’what’s your name?’ #’and are you male or female?’ #plus #would make surveys and bio practicals a lot more difficult #and when you’re pointing people out in the street to other people it could get really confusing if you can’t even differentiate between m… #just saying
[Tags retained because I want to comment on them.]
And merged from a separate post (sorry):
I put a lot of tags on the last post that I reblogged. Maybe I’m trying too hard to cling on to the stereotypes that I was born with, but I feel that being unable to make at least a decent estimate of whether someone is male or female based on appearance would complicate life far more than I would like to right now. I’m happy for people to identify as whatever, but the fact is that I am always going to initially assume that someone’s gender is the same as their outward appearance. I would sort of like to be more open-minded, but there is nothing that is going to stop me from seeing things like that. If someone wants do identify differently, then that’s fine, and I’ll accommodate that. But my initial assumption is going to be the obvious one, because life is complicated enough without having to say ‘well I was talking to them just now, yeah, they were tall, blonde hair, blue eyes… what?… well how am I supposed to know if it was a man or a woman?’ when describing someone.
I don’t want to cause offence, and I don’t have any hate for people who identify differently, but I am saying that assuming no knowledge of someone’s gender based on their appearance is not something that my mind is capable of, as much as I would like to pretend I can. As I said, I won’t stick with my initial guess if I’m corrected, but I will need correcting.
Welcome to another chapter in the eternal struggle against the way your brain wants to do things.
Unfortunately, like with stereotypes in general, gendering people is a really useful thing to do. Judging someone based on their appearance gives you a starting point; a vague idea of how to relate to someone. If you don’t assume anything about someone then, yes, you may have to ask them a lot of questions. And some people aren’t going to take kindly to being asked if they’re male or female*.
Way I see it, the far more important thing is just to be aware that you may be wrong, and to respect that someone’s identity might not match your perception of them. That, to me, is what it means to be open-minded. Even if someone doesn’t make assumptions about someone’s gender from their appearance or presentation, that’s no guarantee they’ll respect it.
Myself, though, I’ve caught myself using the epicene they far more than necessary.
Play
Note to self:
Watching a Weeping Angel episode late at night, on your own, just before you go to sleep = fucking stupid idea.
Yep. I missed out on watching The Time of Angels live with everyone else so I watched it myself in my room in the dark and oh so genuinely scary.
I may have cheated a little there.
7,14, 20, 22, 25
Oh, you spoil me. And are also quite cruel.
7: What I want to be when I’m older.
Master of Physics! *evil laughter* What? It’s my degree.
Beyond that, I don’t know. As much as I like physics, I don’t really see myself getting a career in it. I’d rather like to be a TV scientist, if I’m honest; it’s both enjoyable and worthwhile. It’s unlikely, though, and I fear Bill Nye would sue me.
Failing that, making a living off games of my own design wouldn’t be too bad. I can dream.
14: Description of who I like.
That presumes there’s someone I like. Which there might be. I’m not sure. They’re smart and funny and we share a fair few interests and all of that. I’ll refuse to divulge much more than that, for the protection of the innocent. I believe they’re “preoccupied”, however, or perhaps just uninterested.
20: What I wish for at 11:11
To be able to be myself.
22: Favourite movie
This is even harder than picking a favourite book. I can never get tired of watching the Princess Bride, the Fifth Element or Big Trouble in Little China, though.
25: Question of your choice ~ 12: What I’m doing tomorrow
[Deferred to the Gods of Random Number Generation]
Interpreting ‘tomorrow’ as what is technically today - sleeping in, revising, and hopefully working out for more game designing.
Literal tomorrow - driving to collect my brother from the clutches of Warwick University.
I just had to buy this tea. Just look at this guy. Look at him.
That lion is the most dapper fuck I have ever seen.
He’s just like;
“Kindly observe the sum total of fucks I administer.”
That is the best of lions.
blumineck replied to your post: Thought of another question! What types of weapons do people usually use/what would they make them out of. Thanks! Oh and I appreciated you addressing other LARPers you know as well. It would be great if they had anything to add!
Don’t get me started on LARP bows! (unless that’s what you want) but I could write for quite a while, mostly complaining about how physics works :p
Physics: the bane of a LARPer’s life.
But I am happy to volunteer information if necessary, now that I have been accused of being knowledgeable [puffs chest out and grins]
I did so like the idea of running around with a LARPy cross/bow or some such. I don’t much fancy my odds in melee combat.
Apathy for my Empathy: Calling all LARPers! Feel free to chip in/add stuff! →
carlathezombie.tumblr.com
I was writing this in your ask and I ran out of room. So just reblog this with your answers.
OK, here’s my questions:
1) What types of larps have you participated in? (boffer, theatre style, sci fi, action/adventure…I’m getting…
It meant exactly what it said http://ornithocracy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/cotery-green.html
I really wish I could play something like that sometime. It looks fabulous.
3, 6 and 18 xox
3: My favourite book.
As previously stated it’s a toss-up between Night Watch, the Hobbit and the Edge Chronicles as a whole.
6: Most famous person you’ve met.
I don’t think I have, actually.
18: Something I’m really good at.
This is where I get all self-effacing and say “worrying over much”, or perhaps I should just say “being self-effacing”.
I guess I’d have to say Physics, given that I’m studying it at Durham after all, but it’s not like I haven’t had certain failures along the way so I’m wary not to get overconfident.
Apologies to those who know exactly what the last post was about.
I guess I do try to be more open on here anyway. But I don’t want to make a fuss of it, either.
Re: Question 24
Just thinking, it’s hard for me to post a random fact about myself here. Petty pedantry aside, the fact will almost certainly not be random. It’s more a choice of what I feel like telling you, and there a quite a few things I don’t feel like telling you. Not in an open question, anyway; I made a deal with myself a while ago to answer a specific question honestly. But apart from that, I don’t want to say anything you’d know already, because that would feel like cheating. It needs to be something more unusual, and possibly embarrassing/incriminating. But I really don’t know what you do know about me. I have no idea how much anyone reading this, or asking that question, knows already. I have few followers and even fewer who know me in real life (not surprising). So the question I have to ask myself is how much any follower really knows about me (or cares to know). This blog is largely personal, even if mostly reblogs, so I there’s much to glean, I suppose, if anyone cares to. But I sometimes worry before reblogging something if it will say something about me that I don’t want it to.
That’s a problem, really. If I can’t be open about myself here, where can I?
To make up for being boring, I also want the answer to no. 3.
Fair.
I could also say Night Watch. It’s certainly my favourite Discworld novel, though I’ll admit to having read far fewer than I ought to. I might also say the Hobbit. I read it when 7 or so without even knowing what it was, and it defined quite a bit of my perceptions and tastes in fantasy, which only seems fair. I still haven’t read all of Lord of the Rings.
If I’m permitted to choose a series, though, I’d pick the Edge Chronicles without hesitation.
