I got into an argument awhile back about women using the term Mz ("Mizz"). To me, the term sounds ridiculous, but of course I got tons of flack from the super PC crowd I was with.
I totally understand the idea behind Mz, and in fact I like the theory. Why should women be judged by inherently sexualized terms, and ultimately imply that women have value only in relation to their sexual status vis a vis their husbands. BUT, my whole thing about Mz is that it's like using Life-Partner instead of husband or wife. It doesn't side-step the whole idea of identifying people by their sexual status, rather it replaces the outmoded, offensive (?) term with a clunky, artificially neutered fake sounding lesser version of the 'bad' term. It doesn't sound strong, it sounds wishy-washy. It doesn't say, "I refuse to be judged by my marital status," or even, "I demand to be judged by what I say and think and do, not by whether I'm married or not," it says, "I am asexual."
In a way, it calls attention to how stupid the whole thing is, as in, "Look at what I'm reduced to, using this ridiculous 'safe' term because you insist on looking at me that way," but is that the point?
I would just say, "Call me Susan."
No comments:
Post a Comment