[QUOTE=Shoshana]
Is this a bad time to bring up trans and intersexed people?
[/QUOTE]
I’m beginning to worship you.
[QUOTE=catsix]
I never take the seat. I say ‘No, that’s OK, you were there first.’
[/QUOTE]
I’m beginning to think that you are dodging my question.
Why do you assume that they are offering you a seat out of what would essentially be feelings of superiority rather than them just trying to be nice?
[QUOTE=catsix]
I’m not trying to kill all manners, only the ones that are needlessly gender biased.
[/QUOTE]
So is your highly-principled stand against offering a seat to a pregnant woman ‘needless’ because the courtesy is gender based or because, after all, they chose to breed? You’re just as vehement about courtesy to visibly pregnant men, right?
You must have such fun, deciding exactly which total strangers really deserve basic human courtesy from you. But then I’m lazy and just assume that anybody–of any age, gender or physical capacity–probably appreciate being treated with a little consideration. It’s so much easier than all that judging, and the ones who don’t appreciate it are assholes not worth worrying about.
Hot damn, but your periodic explosions are hilarious. Takes all kinds to make a world and you’re a pip. Rant on, woman. Great theater.
Re: the word “breed”
[QUOTE=catsix]
It’s short and accurately describes the situation. It means ‘to produce offpsring; give birth to or hatch’. It also indicates that I view pregnancy as nothing special. I don’t think of it as an accomplishment worthy of congratulations. Every species is biologically programmed to produce more of that species. Why are those who make more humans supposedly so special?
[/QUOTE]
I generally find the term a bit offensive, partly because in pretty much every other context I’ve heard the term used for something other than a Kim Deal band, the people using it seem to mean it to be offensive. Even “spawn” doesn’t tend to be used with the same level of contempt.
Didn’t see the point of causing a scene about it on the original thread, but now it’s in the pit.
[QUOTE=jaderabbit]
Re: the word “breed”
I generally find the term a bit offensive, partly because in pretty much every other context I’ve heard the term used for something other than a Kim Deal band, the people using it seem to mean it to be offensive. Even “spawn” doesn’t tend to be used with the same level of contempt.
Didn’t see the point of causing a scene about it on the original thread, but now it’s in the pit.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Shoshana]
Is this a bad time to bring up trans and intersexed people?
[/QUOTE]
With catsix around? Yes.
[QUOTE=catsix]
Did you never consider that might be the reason I bring it up here?
If you want to call me a bitch because I don’t pussy-foot my point, that’s fine with me. There are plenty of people who like my style, and I’ll be glad to have them as friends.
Would you actually call me ‘young lady’ to my face?
I’m not trying to kill all manners, only the ones that are needlessly gender biased.
You haven’t been reading what I’ve been typing. You’ve been reading what you want to see.
And I’m the bitch?
Then do it for the able-bodied man too. Really, that’s all I’m saying.
And I’ve specifically said at least a half dozen times that this doesn’t bother me at all. Pay attention. The thing that bothers me is when ‘polite gestures’ are based on gender.
Then you’re arguing against something I didn’t say. I said that polite gestures should not be based on gender. My issue, as it has always been, is when the rules are different based on which set of genitals someone has.
If they would do the same for any able bodied man, I have no problem with it.
I want to change the attitude of ‘women and disabled men’ get the courtesy.
[/QUOTE]
So what you’re saying is that you’d like to be everybody’s thought police. That the gesture itself is meaningless to you, that it is what people are thinking when they do it? How fucking Orwellian is that? Real liberating, that idea. When exactly will we be getting our mind-control implants so that we can at last be sure that we are all truly equal?
Your splutterings about pregnant women not deserving a seat are also just as stupid. They don’t deserve a seat because they are somehow better than you, they could really use a seat because they are usually exhausted, have suffering ankles, and have gotten heavier faster than their bodies can comfortably adjust. Many people are aware of this and will extend the courtesy. Otherwise they ask for a seat because of social retards like yourself who can’t imagine a world large enough to fit more than their entitled selves. These women aren’t asking because they think they are more important than you. They are asking because they could really use it. You really are an idiot.
[QUOTE=Zoe]
Mishell, so sorry to hear about your mother’s side of the family. Bless your heart.
[/QUOTE]
My mother’s side of the family are decent, polite people. It’s the shitbags who use snide, condescending phrases like “bless your heart” that I have a problem with.
[QUOTE=Zoe]
Mishell, so sorry to hear about your mother’s side of the family. Bless your heart.
[/QUOTE]
I may be remembering the joke incorrectly, but isn’t “bless your heart” southern woman-speak for “fuck you and the horse you rode in on?” 
[QUOTE=Harborwolf]
I may be remembering the joke incorrectly, but isn’t “bless your heart” southern woman-speak for “fuck you and the horse you rode in on?”
[/QUOTE]
Not really. This gives a better idea.
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
With catsix around? Yes.
[/QUOTE]
Well, they don’t (usually) “breed” so maybe they are OK? 
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Not really. This gives a better idea.
[/QUOTE]
Ah. Thank you. Bless your heart.
[QUOTE=Harborwolf]
I may be remembering the joke incorrectly, but isn’t “bless your heart” southern woman-speak for “fuck you and the horse you rode in on?”
[/QUOTE]
Sometimes it’s meant sincerely.
[QUOTE=lisacurl]
Sometimes it’s meant sincerely.
[/QUOTE]
Hence the winky/smiley bit.
[QUOTE=Harborwolf]
Ah. Thank you. Bless your heart.
[/QUOTE]
Why you’re welcome, sweetheart. How are you and yours? Did your cousin Rampas ever get that get that neck rash cleared up, bless his heart?
[QUOTE=CarnalK]
I personally think little courtesies between the sexes could continue while still getting equality. It would be a shame if the custom of a woman fetching her husband’s slippers after a hard day of work were to die out.
[/QUOTE]
I know you were being funny there, but I’d like to point out that there is actually nothing sexist about that…so long as the husband fetches the WIFE’S slippers when SHE has had a hard day of work as well. It is common courtesy and doing something kind for someone you love. What’s wrong with that?
If, when I get to a door and open it, there are people just behind me? I hold the door and allow them to enter before me. It is just common courtesy, and I don’t care what gender they are. If one of them then offered to hold the door for ME, I would assume that they were being courteous, just like I was trying to be. So I’d say thank you and enter. If I was seated on a bus and someone came on who looked like they needed the seat more than I did, I’d get up and give it to them. Again, gender wouldn’t be an issue…looking like they needed it (for whatever reason) would be the issue.
Having a chip on your shoulder and looking for reasons to force someone to knock it off doesn’t advance anyone’s feminist agenda, or any other agenda. It just makes you rude. IMHO.
[QUOTE=catsix]
Would you actually call me ‘young lady’ to my face?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, he probably would. Because he is assuming that he is much older than you [sub]thus the “young”[/sub] and because you are female [sub]and he views women as “ladies.”[/sub]
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lady … “4. A woman, especially when spoken of or to in a polite way.”
Is it the “young” or the “lady” part that offends you?
[QUOTE=TVeblen]
So is your highly-principled stand against offering a seat to a pregnant woman ‘needless’ because the courtesy is gender based or because, after all, they chose to breed? You’re just as vehement about courtesy to visibly pregnant men, right?
You must have such fun, deciding exactly which total strangers really deserve basic human courtesy from you. But then I’m lazy and just assume that anybody–of any age, gender or physical capacity–probably appreciate being treated with a little consideration. It’s so much easier than all that judging, and the ones who don’t appreciate it are assholes not worth worrying about.
Hot damn, but your periodic explosions are hilarious. Takes all kinds to make a world and you’re a pip. Rant on, woman. Great theater.
[/QUOTE]
And I think I love you, TV!
having been pregnant three times, with the last one being high risk–I was exceedingly grateful for the courtesy with which I was treated.
How about we all are kinder to one another in public? Where is the harm or wrong in that? I will offer my seat to a man with children, to the lame and the halt, to pregnant women, to women with small kids, to the elderly. I don’t offer my seat to apparently able-bodied men and women–but if asked, I probably would. There is truly no agenda there, and no insult implied. Catsix is a demon for inference, though–she knows what others only speculate at (if that)…
catsix has the world’s largest chip on her shoulder about what I am not exactly sure: being female, having to depend on other people at odd moments, having to interact with other humans–whatever it is, I find I am amused at her vitriol and her intensity as well as TVEblen here. Rant on, indeed. You go girl-straighten out this fucked up world until it’s to your liking. Let us know when you get there.
It’s the fact that it’s commonly applied to elementary school age girls, particularly when scolding them. I’ve never heard it said about any adult woman in an even remotely respectful manner.
I really don’t like that term.
Horror of horrors! We would never say anything like that! We never mistreat our horses and we always spell Southern with a capital “S.” Besides, it’s not nice to make fun of Californians. They can’t help it.
Who said that? I didn’t make note. A pair of what? You don’t have to have ovaries to swagger, you know. Plenty of women with hysterectomies still swagger.
Ghanima, your theories about the protection of women sound hilarious to me. I taught in a school that some grown men were afraid to go to even in daylight. I arrived before sunrise and had to wait by myself outside for the janitor to get to school and unlock the doors. (No, he didn’t hold the door for me.)
No more Orwellian than those who hope that someday we will have seen the last of homophobia, racial bigotry, religious persecution, and political imprisonment.
catsix likes for people to be nice to her too. For her, “being nice” means showing respect for her abilities. That’s not hard to understand.
Wow. Imagine that! Which is more important – equality or etiquette?
Harborwolf, have attitudes changed all that much? When is the last time that someone asked you how you manage to juggle a career and family? When is the last time that someone asked your wife if she helped you with the housework? The old prejudices are still at work.
Sarahfeena, congratulations! I know you will bring this baby up to be strong and kind.
Pax