This can all be cleared up quickly enough (Greta and Consul)
If someone wished to be treated like a woman, and this person was polite and considerate in stating such a wish, then I would expect you both to respect this wish. If they were to demand that they are in fact a woman (yet in appearance, and with physiobiological attributes that flew in the face of such a statement) the I would expect you both to say, “no, you are not a woman, but I respect your wish to be treated as a woman because that is how you feel.”
That said, you may wish to force the issue and ask why they would say such things and learn about their position. You may not agree with some of the viewpoints, just as you wouldn’t agree numerous things anyone might say.
I look at common curtesy as being applicable to everyone. If anyone feels the instance to continually push how they feel they should be treated at every given opportunity then I get deeply suspicious or simply assume a recent event made them more sensitive to any hint of an attitude. A awful lot of political discourse turns into one, or more parties, becomes more hypersensitized due to the political climate.
I’ve had numerous instances of people saying what I should and shouldn’t say. Recently I made some remark about ethnic diversity in creative writing and was roundly set upon even though my comments were non-specific and aimed at the broader area of stereotypical prejudice (not merely ethnicity) and focused on the choices of the writer.
I can laugh about it here because I am free to laugh about the hyperbole used and the hypersensitivity expressed. On the other forum it’s not worth the bother and may lead to me being banned due to mob mentality (or simply being painted as some racist bigot and therefore not getting the feedback I want based on my writing rather than some presumption of my moral sensibilities.
Greta -
If you claim that all transgenders going to the bathroom risk physical violence then you’re also conflating isolated incidents with the broader picture just as Consul is inflating the relevance of ... something somewhere? We all do it.
We live in a society where transgenders can come out and say “I don’t like being treated like this.” That is surely something to celebrate in and of itself.
Note: I have had people attack me for saying “transgenders” insisting that I should say “transgender people” ... the irony is it is they who insist that such terms are different not me. I assume the “people” to be a given just like when I say men and women I don’t get stick for not saying “men people” or “woman people”. That is the kind of hypersensitive nonsense spewed by some a we should certainly stand strong and say “no” to such nonsense and stick to the real social issues involved - the most blatant being how as a societal group of people we deal with and come to respect individual differences rather than shaming and/or acting with aggression toward the unknown. On the flip side those deemed as “other” (and we’ve all felt like this at one point or another in life) need to be bolder and to make themselves heard in a calm and measured manner not as a victim and not as singular representative of some disembodied group of “them”.
Understanding something about ignorance is the first step toward knowledge. Accepting your own ignorance is the first step toward becoming wise.
Note: I consider myself knowledgeable fool who is making an attempt to to be a little less stupid and foolish by tomorrow (I often fail at this task
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