Hey Australia….we need to talk!
I’ve got to say this time I think we have gone too far! Now I am totally aware of the fact that political correctness seems to be the it thing at the moment but there comes a time when everything goes a step too far, and I think when it comes to the gender neutral debate we may have reached it.
The commonwealth Games organisers have released a handbook of guidelines for their volunteers and it includes what you can and can’t say to people while helping them out and well by the looks of it you can’t say anything that may slightly hint towards a gender…at all!
Are you kidding me? I mean I am all for equality but this is ridiculous!
People are being advised not to say “ladies and gentlemen” or “boys and girls”. Mothers and fathers are now just parents and we have to say partner instead of boyfriend or girlfriend! Are you kidding me this is beyond a joke!
Now I get it. This whole idea is to stop offending people but guess what Australia…I’m offended. In fact I’m deeply offended. Why? Not because I’m trying to be discriminatory or hate against anyone, no not at all, anyone who knows me knows that I am an open, accepting lover of people. I’m offended because I am one of these people and I’m having my identity stripped away from me, and that’s not ok!
While we are so busy wondering if people who make alternative choices are a-ok with every little title we have had in the world dating back a very long time we are forgetting about the people that might actually be ok with those titles and references.
Take me I am happy for anyone to make their choices in life but if you ask me who I am well, I am a woman, a lady, once a little girl now grown into a big girl but first and foremost I am a mother. It offends me greatly for someone to refer to me as a parent….no I a Mother and that’s what I always will be.
Truth be told, and I don’t mean to offend here but I like being a woman. I like going to the ladies bathroom, I like sparkles and I like sports! I am a well balanced, well educated woman with diverse opinions and an open mind but I will not stand for my own identity being taken away.
While we are so busy worrying about saying the wrong things, can we take a moment to realise that by saying everything neutrally we also may be causing offence.
We live in a world that is changing…yes but first and foremost, majority of people still identify with a gender and you know what that’s not the end of the world. While we should be more open to gender neutral and have more equality and balance I don’t think we need to eradicate it completely because while we may be giving some more of a sense of identity we may be taking it away just as quickly.
I ask you this. You have a name right? Yes. Now if someone asks you your name you tell them. Yes? If they acknowledge that and then go on to refer to you as “hey you” would you like it? Probably not, because your name is your identity. That identity can be mother and father too. Or Husband and wife or man or woman and can mean just as much to persons being as it does to someone who doesn’t associate with gender.
So instead of just saying we can’t use terminology that’s been used for generations and fob it off as “the times are changing” can we still use it and measure it on a case by case basis. If something offends someone in a minority do we change everything. No we adjust and include and we are doing that but that doesn’t mean we have to eradicate the thing itself…it can still be there.
I am sure that every mum out there, single , in a same sex or hetrosexual relationship, step mums, half mums and the like all have one thing the same…they want to be mum. I tell you it’s been my goal for many times to be mummy and I’ll be dammed!
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nickyainley 