The standard advice is that we should not live our lives by comparison. What could result? Feelings of inadequacy? Envy? But sometimes, it might be good to live by contrast. It just depends on what we contrast.
Now, pronouns. “Gender-neutral” pronouns. Here’s the story. In 2015 Todd Starnes reported that Rickey Hall, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, released a list of gender-neutral pronouns for the university community to use in place of English personal pronouns, and the story reemerged in 2018.* You’ve probably heard of the movement to remove gender-specific pronouns. Obviously, I don’t know where you stand on the issue, but consider this in contrast.
In parts of the world atrocities against large groups of people are common. Think the Syrian civil war. Think ISIS. People suffer and die. Innocent people. But in the contrasting relatively safe confines of today’s Knoxville, TN, someone—maybe a whole group—is concerned about not recognizing a person’s biological nature. Such a confusing time in Knoxville! But if you go to Knoxville, you might take a little tour to learn that pronouns were not on the minds of its residents in 1863. Bombs and bullets were.
Gay Street, the site of the 1796 State Constitutional Convention, was, in a sense, an inclusive area. During the Civil War it became alternately the headquarters of both Union and Confederate generals. Fort Loudon/Sanders stood nearby. It was the site where 813 Confederate and 8 Union soldiers died in about 20 minutes of fighting. No one was thinking “Pronouns might hurt someone.”
Of course, it is difficult to make an argument to the “diversity and inclusion” crowd that changing pronouns to gender-neutral syllables accomplishes more exclusion than inclusion. And we can’t take Rickey Hall back to the Civil War. Hall could, however, take a trip abroad to visit lands where atrocities are common, and there propose the university’s important agenda on pronouns to the people wounded by suicide bombers, gas attacks, and sadistic murderers
And should the USA and some foreign power like Russia, North Korea, or China go to nuclear war, what would be the importance of using gender-neutral pronouns in a destroyed Knoxville? Maybe living under threat and in actual conditions of death and injury might make the replacement pronouns “ze,” “hir,” “zir,” “xe,” “xem,” and “xyr” seem, by contrast, a bit silly.
Maybe, also, each of us should look at what we consider to be “really important issues” as those issues contrast with what others might believe to be important. In large cities and medium-size cities violence is a problem even without a civil or nuclear war. Currently, one in 111 Knoxville citizens has a chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime. I might be wrong—and I might even offend the people in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion—but I have difficulty believing a 911 dispatcher in Knoxville will ever hear “’Ze’ has a gun” and “‘Xe’ has been shot.” And the president of the university system and the chancellor seem to think similarly as a report in 2015 suggests: “There is no mandate or official policy to use the language. Neither the university nor the Office for Diversity and Inclusion has the power or authority to mandate use of gender-inclusive pronouns.”**
Have you noticed that the direction of attention for “living by comparison” is always in the supposed “upward” direction. Keeping up with the Joneses is a material pursuit that aims to raise someone to the status of another. It makes the one trying to “keep up” envy or covet. But almost everyone in an affluent Knoxville has something someone else elsewhere doesn’t have—like relative safety or health or a flat-screen TV. Except for the completely destitute—possible, but relatively rare in Knoxville—almost everyone, if not everyone, at the U. of Tennessee has sufficient clothes and shelter and freedom from incoming bombs and bullets. Those for whom just surviving is an issue might look in comparison at those for whom pronouns are important; those for whom pronouns are important might consider looking at those suffering in Syria and elsewhere by contrast.
*Starnes, Todd, Cal me ‘ze,’ not ‘he’: University wants everyone to use ‘gender inclusive’ pronouns. Todd’s American Dispatch, August 28, 2015 online at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/08/28/call-me-ze-not-university-wants-everyone-to-use-gender-inclusive-pronouns.html
**Jaschik, Scott, Fear of new pronouns. Inside Higher Ed. September 8, 2015. Online at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/08/u-tennessee-withdraws-guide-pronouns-preferred-some-transgender-people
Now, pronouns. “Gender-neutral” pronouns. Here’s the story. In 2015 Todd Starnes reported that Rickey Hall, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, released a list of gender-neutral pronouns for the university community to use in place of English personal pronouns, and the story reemerged in 2018.* You’ve probably heard of the movement to remove gender-specific pronouns. Obviously, I don’t know where you stand on the issue, but consider this in contrast.
In parts of the world atrocities against large groups of people are common. Think the Syrian civil war. Think ISIS. People suffer and die. Innocent people. But in the contrasting relatively safe confines of today’s Knoxville, TN, someone—maybe a whole group—is concerned about not recognizing a person’s biological nature. Such a confusing time in Knoxville! But if you go to Knoxville, you might take a little tour to learn that pronouns were not on the minds of its residents in 1863. Bombs and bullets were.
Gay Street, the site of the 1796 State Constitutional Convention, was, in a sense, an inclusive area. During the Civil War it became alternately the headquarters of both Union and Confederate generals. Fort Loudon/Sanders stood nearby. It was the site where 813 Confederate and 8 Union soldiers died in about 20 minutes of fighting. No one was thinking “Pronouns might hurt someone.”
Of course, it is difficult to make an argument to the “diversity and inclusion” crowd that changing pronouns to gender-neutral syllables accomplishes more exclusion than inclusion. And we can’t take Rickey Hall back to the Civil War. Hall could, however, take a trip abroad to visit lands where atrocities are common, and there propose the university’s important agenda on pronouns to the people wounded by suicide bombers, gas attacks, and sadistic murderers
And should the USA and some foreign power like Russia, North Korea, or China go to nuclear war, what would be the importance of using gender-neutral pronouns in a destroyed Knoxville? Maybe living under threat and in actual conditions of death and injury might make the replacement pronouns “ze,” “hir,” “zir,” “xe,” “xem,” and “xyr” seem, by contrast, a bit silly.
Maybe, also, each of us should look at what we consider to be “really important issues” as those issues contrast with what others might believe to be important. In large cities and medium-size cities violence is a problem even without a civil or nuclear war. Currently, one in 111 Knoxville citizens has a chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime. I might be wrong—and I might even offend the people in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion—but I have difficulty believing a 911 dispatcher in Knoxville will ever hear “’Ze’ has a gun” and “‘Xe’ has been shot.” And the president of the university system and the chancellor seem to think similarly as a report in 2015 suggests: “There is no mandate or official policy to use the language. Neither the university nor the Office for Diversity and Inclusion has the power or authority to mandate use of gender-inclusive pronouns.”**
Have you noticed that the direction of attention for “living by comparison” is always in the supposed “upward” direction. Keeping up with the Joneses is a material pursuit that aims to raise someone to the status of another. It makes the one trying to “keep up” envy or covet. But almost everyone in an affluent Knoxville has something someone else elsewhere doesn’t have—like relative safety or health or a flat-screen TV. Except for the completely destitute—possible, but relatively rare in Knoxville—almost everyone, if not everyone, at the U. of Tennessee has sufficient clothes and shelter and freedom from incoming bombs and bullets. Those for whom just surviving is an issue might look in comparison at those for whom pronouns are important; those for whom pronouns are important might consider looking at those suffering in Syria and elsewhere by contrast.
*Starnes, Todd, Cal me ‘ze,’ not ‘he’: University wants everyone to use ‘gender inclusive’ pronouns. Todd’s American Dispatch, August 28, 2015 online at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/08/28/call-me-ze-not-university-wants-everyone-to-use-gender-inclusive-pronouns.html
**Jaschik, Scott, Fear of new pronouns. Inside Higher Ed. September 8, 2015. Online at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/08/u-tennessee-withdraws-guide-pronouns-preferred-some-transgender-people
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