Transcripts / Pronouns

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Lenora: Death! Death, death, death, death! It's the only thing everyone fears, and the only thing that gets me off. Hello my devilish darlings, I am Lenora LaVey. Your hostess of horror, your rare and radiant maiden of mayhem. Tonight's program is about the death of meaning itself. The story is rather simple really. The he's become she's, and the she's become he's, and those and the middle are them and xem. And then my dreadful dears, the Western world shall surely succumb to renewable energy, affordable healthcare, and video games for lesbians. 

But there's one man who stands in the way, the villain of tonight's thriller. A meddling little cipher of a man. A man who prefers light to darkness, reason to madness, order to chaos. Ugh, can you imagine? His name is Ben Shapiro, and his catchphrase "facts don't care about your feelings". Ugh! Can our heroine put a stop to this? Well, I'm just the executioner. You, my vile viewers, must be the judge.

โ–ถ๏ธ๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Hi girls. It's me, Ms. Points. Mademoiselle Points. Words, words, words. What do they even fucking mean? Well I don't know and I don't care, but we have to talk about it anyway because of a boy named Ben Shapiro. So who is Ben Shapiro? ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘„๐Ÿ‘

Well, he's a popular conservative pundit, the editor of The Daily Wire, and the auteur behind such Criterion Collection classics as "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Yale Snowflakes", "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Every College Snowflake Part Seven", "Ben Shapiro Crushes Anti-Free Speech College Snowflake", and "Ben Shapiro DESTROY Caitlyn Jenner". ๐Ÿ’ฅ

Ben's especially notorious for his provocative, controversial, politically incorrect, snowflake-smashing refusal to call transgender people by their pronouns:

"I'm willing to call Caitlyn Jenner 'Caitlyn Jenner'. I'm not willing to call Caitlyn Jenner a 'she'."

Surprising, you might think, for a person so insistent on the value of civil discussion. 

Bill Maher: "And let's be civil, right? That's the tone of the day." 

Ben: "I'm a fan."

But Ben seems to abandon civility in his discussions of trans people, preferring to fall back on his edgier mantra: "facts don't care about your feelings". And you know on this one point, I actually agree with Ben. It's true. Facts don't care about my feelings. I dislike this trend toward regarding as a conclusive argument, the proposition "this makes me feel invalidated". Because sometimes things that make you feel bad are true. 

It makes me feel bad that I used to be a sexy, sexy boy with rippling abs. But too fucking bad for me because there I am, indelibly exhibited on YouTube for everyone to gawk at forever. Mmm, I was a yum yum tho. Build me a time machine doc. We call this autoandrophilia, nurse. What can I say, I like younger men. I'm a cougar in tiger's clothing. ๐Ÿฏ

So look, I want to be treated like an adult. I don't want to be indulged. If I'm delusional, I want to be disillusioned. I don't want people lying to me just to protect whatever deranged fantasy stories I need to tell myself to make it through the night. 

It's probably just dry down there. They're just ingrown hairs. I'm sure plenty of healthy people have blood in their urine.

I don't want my gender to be "tolerated" in the way that liberal Christians "tolerate" other of course false and heathen religions. I am an evangelical transsexual. I don't want toleration dammit, I want converts.

Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about my womanhood? Sure, go ahead. Touch it.

So look Shapiro. Benny. Baby. I invite you to disenchant all my fairy tales, to melt away every crystal of my snowflakery and henceforth dispense only the most scalding tea. Alright big boy? Let's have it:

"I'm willing to call Caitlyn Jenner 'Caitlyn Jenner'. I'm not willing to call Caitlyn Jenner a 'she'. Because you can't change your sex, you can change your name. Caitlyn Jenner is a man, a biological man. And if he were born with high doses of estrogen in his bloodstream, he would also not be a woman. You're determined by your chromosomes." 

So the argument is that what it means to be a "she" is to have a normal female karyotype, that is, XX sex chromosomes. And if you don't have that karyotype, then you're not a "she". And to call you she would be tantamount to a lie: 

Student: "I was wondering what you see the detriment of society like why we can't like let a transgender like woman be called 'she' or something?" 

Ben: "Because it is a lie."

So since you think calling a trans woman "she" is a lie, and you think that what it means to be a " she" is to have a normal female karyotype; then you must think that when we call a trans women "she" we are saying that she has a normal female karyotype. But hold on. I'm a transgender woman and I've never claimed to have a normal female karyotype, and yet my friends, lovers, and most strangers call me "she", "her", "miss", "ma'am", "girlfriend", "ladies". "Good girl, good girl, just like that, don't stop, don't stop". 

Are all of us deluded about my biology? No. It is not I who misunderstands biology Ben Shapiro, it is you who misunderstands language. You have deceptively framed the debate as a debate about biology, which it is not. We all agree on the biology. The actual subject of debate is the proper use of words such as "he", "she", "man", and "woman". But how do we decide on the correct way to use a word? 

Well there are two kinds of arguments we could make, descriptive or prescriptive. If we take the descriptive approach, then what we must do is act like anthropologists and study the way a wordโ€“ for instance "she"โ€“ is used by a linguistic community. And whatever the social convention is, is what's correct. But if we take the prescriptive approach, then we must make an argument about the way the word "she" should be used. Meaning we either defer to an authority such as the dictionaryโ€“ or my ruler on your wrist you naughty boyโ€“ or we must have some goal that we want to accomplish by approving some uses of the word, and prohibiting others. 

Now if we take the descriptive approach, you lose Ben Shapiro. Because most people call me she, and that's all there is to it. What's more, your usage of "a she" and "a he" is ungrammatical. You don't put an article before a pronoun, that's not how pronouns work you silly dumdum. Also human sex chromosomes were discovered in 1905, while the English pronouns "he" and "she" originate in the Proto-Germanic language spoken during the pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe beginning around 500 BCE. 

Therefore, by insisting that the singular third-person pronouns of the English language refer specifically to karyotype; it is you and not I who is breaking from linguistic tradition, Ben Shapiro. However as a trans woman, it's not generally in my interest to defer to traditions. So, let's try out a prescriptive approach. Without simply appealing to the way a word is already used, how do we decide how a word should be used?

Language is by nature ambiguous, and the way we attempt to disambiguate it is often motivated by political goals. Ben Shapiro thinks we should not call trans women "she" because his political goal is to reinforce rigid conservative gender roles. Whereas I think we should call trans women she, because my political goal is to live in a society where I can achieve the same level of sadness and dysfunction as everyone else. 

It's analogous to the debate about same-sex marriage from a decade ago. Opponents argued that the dictionary and legal definition of marriage was union between a man and a woman. And the definition shouldn't be changed because it's the definition, and... "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN TO MY CHILD?" And on the other hand, gay people argued that the definition should be changed because they wanted to achieve the same level of sadness and dysfunction as everyone else. 

And they succeeded. Because as it turns out, you can in fact change the definitions of words. The dictionary is simply a usage guide, it's not the Bible. And for that matter, you can change the Bible. I mean have you read the Contemporary English Version? The prose is atrocious, appalling. I won't stand for this. But unlike the debate about gay marriage, the question about trans womanhood is more than just a political and legal dispute. It seems to me that whatever church, state, and Merriam-Webster decide, trans women are already women and will continue to be women. 

And to see why, I want to elaborate on an argument posed to Ben Shapiro by my sometime rival Blaire White. Yes, even though she's one of the YouTubers whomst is bad. The debate begins with Ben Shapiro asserting his usual position that pronouns are used to designate so-called biological men and biological women. Blaire responds by observing that Ben's way of using pronouns is in her case completely impractical:

Blaire: "Well if you and I were to go to a business dinner or any kind of dinner. And you were meeting me at a restaurant, and I was there first and I was in an orange shirt. And you had to tell the host 'I'm here to meet my friend Blaire' and they said, 'okay'. And you had to describe me to take you to the table, you wouldn't say 'the man in the orange shirt," you would say 'Blaire' and you would say 'Her over there'."

Ben then responds saying:

Ben: "I think there's some truth to that, meaning that, I think that there is a utility to the use of pronouns but that's not quite the same as suggesting that a transgender woman is 'a she' in the objective sense." 

And Blaire responds to that, with what I think is a very good analogy:

Blaire: "For instance if someone were to adopt children, there's no biological basis for calling them that kids' parents because they're not. Like they're just literally not, there's no link at all biologically. But there is a social reason to do it and there's a legal reason to do it."

Let's expand on that analogy. Suppose you're an adoptive parent, and you're arguing with someone who says your adopted child isn't really your child and you aren't really a parent. As evidence they point to the dictionary definition of parent: "one that begets or brings forth offspring". "You did not beget or bring forth offspring" they argue, "therefore, you are not a parent. Facts don't care about your feelings. No matter how much you love and care for this child, you'll never be anything but a glorified kidnapper". 

I think it's clear that the person who makes this argument is being uncivil, yes. Being provocative, controversial, politically incorrect. But they're not just impolite, they're also wrong. Because an adoptive parent is, socially and functionally just as real a parent as a biological parent. And to say otherwise is not just rude, it's false. So, what do you have to say to that Ben Shapiro?

Ben: "I would say that we actually do have different descriptions for adoptive parents than biological parents. You'll say in shorthand that they're parents because they're all different types of parents. But we do say adoptive parents."

Right. Adoptive parents. An entirely valid type of parent. To call them parents is not a lie. 

Ben: "And then the question becomes okay, exactly is the context that you were suggesting matters. In what context are we talking about the parents? Are we talking about a PTA meeting? Okay, this person is the legal guardian and therefore the parent. Because parenting has two aspects, there's the biological parentage and then there's the actual role of parenting."

So yes, there are some contexts where we do need to distinguish between biological and adoptive parents. For instance, if a doctor is assessing a child's risk of some hereditary disease, they need to know if the parents are adoptive or biological. But at the PTA meeting and in most other contexts, it doesn't matter in the slightest. 

Ben: "In the dinner conversation the same thing sort of holds true. Meaning, there is the biological role of woman, which you are not and then there is the you look like a woman. Which is, I'm gonna describe you as a woman to the waiter when he comes to direct me to the table."

Just when Ben seems on the cusp of having a breakthrough, he and Blaire pause their argument to congratulate themselves on how civil their discussion is.

Blaire: "From what I've seen a lot of your interactions with trans peopleโ€ฆ they always end up kind of ugly. You know what I mean? There was, I think the person's name was Zoey Tur. There was that threat of physical violence."

Ben: "What are your genetics, sir?" 

Zoey Tur: "You cut that out now or you'll go home in an ambulance."

Ben: "And what's hilarious about this, Blaire is, literally the exact same thing that I'm saying to you right now is exactly what I said to Zoey Tur on the air."

But that's not exactly true, is it Ben? Zoey threatened you after you called her sir. And you didn't call Blaire sir did you? Why did you call Zoey "sir"? What kind of reaction were you hoping to elicit, O distinguished destroyer of snowflakes? I suppose you were just sticking to the facts. I suppose "sir" is a strictly biological term. Queen Guinevere said in days of old, "I knight thee Lancelot, thou that art karyotypically male".

Ben: "And you're exactly right. When people start yelling at each other or tweeting out 'FU', that's not a great way to change my mind, it turns out that's not particularly convincing.

So what is a great way to change your mind, Ben Shapiro? Did Blaire budge you an inch with her rationality, her even-temper, her civility, her aesthetic? It doesn't seem like she did. At the end of this debate you regurgitate your original position undigested. 

Ben: "You know, I'm the editor of a pretty major site and my basic rule is that when we're discussing people who are trans, we immediately say in the first paragraph 'trans woman' and then refer to them by their biological pronoun because biology is the nature of the pronoun." 

"Biology is the nature of the pronouns?" Didn't Blaire just demonstrate to you that in most contexts that's not true for her? Remember the analogy of adoptive parents. There are some contexts where it makes sense to distinguish between adoptive parents and biological parents. Likewise, there are some scientific and medical contexts where it makes sense to distinguish between transgender and cisgenderโ€“ or as you say "biological" womenโ€“ for instance when discussing who needs access to certain reproductive healthcare you think should be illegal. 

But does this apply to pronouns? That is, are pronouns technical biological terms denoting karyotypes, or are they part of the everyday language we use to describe each other socially? The answer is obvious. There are no geneticists studying pronouns. In fact, there's not a single biology textbook with a chapter on the difference between "a he" and "a she". There is no such thing as "biological pronouns". This is a phrase invented in the last decade to describe the misgendering of trans people. 

So as a trans woman, I'm reintegrating myself into society as a woman. "She" pronouns are therefore most appropriate for me regardless of my anatomy, which is none of your business Ben Shapiro. Fascinating though it is. And just as it is incorrect to tell an adoptive mother that her son is not her child, to call me "he" is not just rude or insensitive. It is, in effect, false. But it is also rude and insensitive, so even if you don't agree with me you could still not. What's the harm, right?

Ben: "I teach my almost 4-year-old girl that she can become a boy, then I think that is not only lying to her, I think it's confusing her and I think it's damaging to her psyche."

Oh yes, the classic argument "HOW DO I EXPLAIN TO MY CHILD?" Kill your shitty child for all I care, that's simply not my problem. I regret every night I spent with you Ben Shapiro. I'm in a new relationship now, with a lesbian. You and I are through! I'm getting an abortion and you can't stop me! 

โน๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ˜ˆ

Lenora: It's disgusting what they allow on TV these days. I won't allow my children to watch movies unless there's at least a bloodbath, or maybe an orgy. But hey, I don't choose this schlock, I just present it. The second program of tonight's science fiction double feature is about a cult of chaos hellbent on destroying Western civilization. I sure hope there's more sex and violence this time. 

โ–ถ๏ธ๐Ÿ“บ๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿ’ƒ

Hi boys. It's Points again. Same queen, new look. Try to keep up. In my previous video Nasty T-babe Likes It Rough, I made an argument about why it's correct to call trans women "she". But I'd be bullshitting you if I only discussed fully integrated binary trans people. Everyone basically calls them by their pronouns already. Dingbats like Ben Shapiro have to exert conscious effort to continue the charade of misgendering them:

Ben: "The transgender woman from Orange Is the New Black."

Joe: "I never watched that show."

Ben: "I've never watched that show either, but she's on the cover of Time magazine."

Joe: "Oh."

Ben: "Or he's on the cover of Time magazine." ๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿšจ๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿšจ๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿšจ

I limited my argument to trans women who look the way society expects a woman to look, because cis people have an easier time making sense of that. But the reality is that in a lot of cases it's a little more complicated. Now, as far as early transition trans people go, I am fairly integrated. Society basically gets that I'm a woman. Without me having to explain my gender, strangers usually default to "she", "her", "miss", "ma'am", "Hey haven't I seen your videos on TgirlLove.com?" 

But the truth is, I don't pass perfectly. I got called "sir" last week by the cashier at H&M. Not that I usually deign to shop at H&M. But needless to say, it was a desperate emergency. And by emergency I mean I met a cute busboy at P.F. Chang's. And what happened next stays between me and the Lord, but suffice to say that my blouse was irrevocably drenched inโ€ฆ ๐Ÿฅ› Okay, I embellished the story a little. He wasn't cute. 

So between being six foot one, the horrific transsexual squawking I try to pass off as my voice, and my tragic inability to conduct myself in a manner befitting a lady of good breeding, your girl remainsโ€“ despite my desperate painstaking effortsโ€“ somewhat clockable. You look great hon. ๐Ÿ™ƒ In that debate between Ben and Blaire, Blaire says that pronoun usage boils down to what you look like:

Blaire: "But it really does kind of boil down to what you look like."

And it's true that most strangers will choose a pronoun for you largely based on your appearance. So appearance definitely matters, but in my opinion "passing" in the sense of looking like a cis woman, isn't really the most important thing. What matters more to me is the kind of vibe you give off, the way you speak, the gestures, the conversational dynamic. 

That kind of stuff to me is what makes a person viscerally seem like a man or a woman. So my goal isn't necessarily to serve unclockable fish, so much as to embody a certain kind of diaphanous archetypal femininity. In layman's terms, girl dick energy. Also I am gonna have a lot of plastic surgery, thank God. 

Last month I released a video called Sexy Furry Pounded by Skinny TBabe. And a lot of trans people got mad at me because they thought I was saying that performing your gender is the only thing that matters, and that how you identify counts for nothing. But that's not what I think. I do prefer to argue that trans women are women because we live the lives of women, because I think that's a much more compelling argument than "I'm a woman because I psychologically identify as a woman". Which in my experience doesn't really persuade anyone, it's just too easy to poke holes in it. 

But identity definitely does matter, especially when it comes to pronouns and I'll explain why. Now first, I should acknowledge that a lot of cis people are very sensitive about anyone telling them what pronouns to use. So I'm gonna try to be respectful of your feelings, and what a difficult and personal issue this must be for you. 

After all, we live in a repressive political era, despite the best efforts of hero professor Jordan B. Peterson. But alas, he was too late. Now we have Bill C-16 which compels speech and sends people to jail for... oh it's been more than a year since Bill C-16 passed? Let's check in on how many people have gone to jail for pronoun misuse.

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Oh. Guess that uhโ€ฆ guess that was a false alarm, huh. Goddammit. Look, I'm not gonna tell you what pronouns you have to use. I'm just going to tell you how I use pronouns and my reasoning behind it, and you are welcome to use your free speech to choose how much of an obstinate hobgoblin you wanna be. Okay?

So, back to identity. If I were a cashier at the Emporium of Ethereal Trinkets and a customer were to walk in looking like this, I might ordinarily default to female pronouns. But that would be wrong, since I happen to know this person is not only a man, he is the man. YouTube's most regal makeup artist, his Lordship John Maclean and he uses he/him pronouns. 

Likewise if I were approached by this person, I'd fall in love and then default to female pronouns. And this time I'd be correct, but not because she's a cis woman or a trans woman, but because she's genderfluid drag queen Courtney Act. Who has the fucking audacity to be a more beautiful woman than I am, and who so far as I know uses male pronouns in boy mode and female pronouns in girl mode, as do most queens. 

A lot of the complexities of gender, language, identity, and expression get played out in the world of drag. Some queens like RuPaul, just identify as cis men who live as men and perform as women. Others like Courtney, Sasha Velour, Jinkx Monsoon, Shea Coulee, and Violet Chachki identify as non-binary. Others still are bio queens, cis women who perform as drag queens like Lucy Garland or Creme Fatale. And then there are trans women who are also drag queens like Peppermint, Imp Queen, or for that matter, me. 

I mean, look at me. You think I dress like this when I go to 7-Eleven at 2 AM? Because I do. Look what I've become, a bisexual transsexual drag queen. Look, I didn't intend to become this much of a snowflake. I, just through pure coincidence happen to be the most interesting and unique person who ever lived. I'm so sorry, I can't help it. 

So let's recap, there are gender non-conforming men who present very femme but use male pronouns. There are cis men who use female pronouns whenever they present female. There are genderfluid people who use different pronouns depending on their current presentation. There are pre-transition trans people who identify as a gender other than the one they present and live as, and prefer other pronouns. 

So you really can't just rely on the way a person looks, because there's a lot of situations where the way they look doesn't tell you the whole story. So as you can see, identity definitely is important, but it's also not the only thing that matters. If psychological identity were the only thing that mattered, then there would be no need for a trans person to come out or do anything to transition. Including requesting different pronouns, because pronouns belong to the social world of language, not to individual psychology. 

This is an idea I tried to explore in my sexy furry video. You can identify however you like, but gender is also social, structural and interpersonal. So if for example you're a trans woman still living as a man, then you are fully trans, your identity is fully valid, but until you begin living as a woman your womanhood remains kind of hypothetical. 

And when I say living as a woman, I don't mean "passing". There's too much emphasis on physical appearance and not enough on social relationships. You know, you don't become a woman the first time you put on a dress. You become a woman the first time an older female relative turns to you at a restaurant and says "maybe you should order the salad sweetie". My point is not to invalidate anyone's identity. As far as I'm concerned, if a trans person hasn't transitioned yet they are fully trans. I'm trying to be realistic about the fact that a lot of people's gendered experience isn't entirely a product of how they identify.

Put it this way, I will always use female pronouns for a trans woman. But my thought process behind it isn't always the same. Many trans women just seem like to women to me, in literally the same way that cis women seem like women and I use female pronouns for them effortlessly just as I was trained to do from birth. This I think is the goal for most binary trans people. We want not necessarily to "pass" perfectly, but at least to seem like our genders to the people around us.

As Laura Jane Grace put it: "You want them to see you like they see every other girl." I want people calling me "she" not out of politeness or respect for my identity as a trans woman, but just because I seem like a woman to them. Because the reality is, not all trans women seem like women to me in that visceral way and I live with this constant crushing anxiety that I don't seem like a woman to other people. I'm terrified of looking like a third-rate drag queen. And I cope with that fear by looking like a second-rate drag queen. 

But look, even if a person is giving my eyes and ears zero percent woman; if she tells me she's a trans woman, I'm gonna use female pronouns no matter what she looks like. Not just to be polite, but also because I want to recognize the reality of her psychological experience. And especially because I want to help her resocialize and reintegrate into the world as her true gender. And of course, cis people you have legally the freedom to refuse to do that. But if you refuse you are being a shitgibbon. And I would prefer that you not be a shitgibbon. 

Now, we need to address the genderqueer elephant in the room. An increasing number of people identify not as male or female, but as non-binaryl; an umbrella term encompassing a bunch of more specific labels such as genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, greygender, and so on. Many of these people use a non-binary pronoun, in English usually "they". 

Now if your first impulse is to argue that singular they is ungrammatical nonsense, consider that having gendered singular third-person pronouns at all is a particular feature of the English language that's by no means shared by all other languages including Turkish, Korean and Finnish, which don't have them at all. Language is just a bunch of fucking sounds coming out of your mouth that humans make up to suit our purposes. If you're new to using singular "they", it is a little confusing at first. But with some practice it gets pretty easy. 

They poured milk on me. I poured milk on them. They did anoint themself in their milk and it was good, thus saith the Lord. ๐Ÿฅ›

So the polite thing to do here is easy. If someone asks you to call them "they", you call them "they". But if you're like me, you don't want to just do a thing because you dogmatically believe it's the woke thing to do. You want to understand why you're doing it. I don't just want to tolerate non-binary people. I want to be a convert. I want to believe about them, what they believe about themselves so long as those beliefs are reasonable. 

So what do all these words mean? What are these people talking about? Remember earlier we distinguished gender expression from gender identity. John Maclean is feminine in expression, but a man in identity. Whereas I am a woman in identity, and in expression I am a mess. 

Let us meditate upon one of lesbian culture's great contributions to humanity, art, science, spirituality, sexuality, metaphysics, the futch scale. The futch scale is a diagram that looks like this and quantifies from 1 to 10, or high femme to stone butch the gender expression of a given domain. Such as "Mulan" looks or "Steven Universe" characters. It can also be used more abstractly for weapons, fish Pokemon, or wind instruments. 

Maybe what non-binary people are trying to do with words like genderqueer, agender, greygender and so on, is to give to identity the same kind of specificity the futch scale gives to expression. But my input on this isn't really worth that much, because I'm not non-binary. And to tell you the truth, I kind of feel for cis people here because all this talk about gender identity; a lot of the time I don't really get it either. 

I look inside myself and ask "do I feel like a man or a woman?" And after all these years the answer is still that I feel like shit. And that's how I experience gender. I live, I exist as a woman. Which is the only way I can achieve the same level of sadness and dysfunction as everyone else. And I identify as trash. 

I guess there are certain moments that make me feel like a natural woman. Oh, listening to Aretha Franklin, the pain and ecstasy of penetration, waiting in a long-ass line for the restroom, a big strong arm around my waist, being asked if I have any tampons, having tampons in case someone asks, a dude explaining Philosophy 101 to me and me going "oh, really? Wow!" 

But you know, these experiences mean different things to different people. So all I can really tell you is that I prefer to express myself with diaphanous feminine gestures, that taking female hormones and having feminizing medical procedures makes me feel more at home in my body, and that I like when other people treat me as a woman, socially, spiritually, sexually. 

So that's the jargon-free explanation of my gender as I see it. Am I really truly a woman? Ontologically? Neurologically? Metaphysically? Well, honestly I don't even know what that would mean. But I do know that the life I live as a woman is the only life I have, and that I think, is legitimate enough. So, I know what living as a woman means to me but what does it mean to live a non-binary life? Well just like what it means to be a man or a woman, that's something that's going to vary between individuals and cultures.

Some cultures have ancient third-gender traditions, such as the hijra of South Asia. A legally recognized gender in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Or the various two-spirit traditions of indigenous North American tribes. Non-indigenous American culture doesn't have a third-gender tradition, but we do have individual non-binary people. 

Some of whom are making content that has taught me a lot about non-binary experience, non-binary bodies, and non-binary life. We have a lot in common, binary and non-binary trans people. Even as a binary trans person, I used to live as one gender and now I live as another gender. That in itself is a pretty serious challenge to the stability of the binary. 

But many of the people who call themselves non-binary seem to be fighting for something more radical than what I'm fighting for, at least in my personal life. I'm just trying to assimilate into a pre-existing female gender role. As you can see by the normal way I'm dressed. The traditional female garb of my culture. neeewwrr neeeewwrr neeewwrr

Whereas, non-binary people are trying to cast off these roles entirely. They're effectively trying to create the society that includes them. And sometimes that puts me at cross purposes with some non-binary people, who for example promote the practice of always asking for someone's pronouns. Whereas, I love it when people assume my gender. Provided they assume it correctly, otherwise I will throw you in imaginary Canadian pronoun jail. 

But what we all agree on is that many trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people find it easier to navigate the world using pronouns other than the ones that Ben Shapiro wants you to use. So if you want me to call you "they", I'm gonna call you "they." And though I cannot and will not force you, viewer, to do or say anything. I do hope you use your free will to freely choose to use your freedom of speech to choose to do the same. Freely.

โน๐Ÿ“บ

๐Ÿ˜ˆ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

Lenora: Well, at least there was a hideous monster this time. I'm talking about the female lead. Now the fun really begins. The show's over, I'm gonna go take my tits out at a funeral parlor. So goodbye my satanic subscribers and till next week, go to hell!

Victoria Nicolson