“Even then, Canadian, gay, whatever, you’ve marked yourself as kind of prissy.”
This line reads as bigoted, and poisons whatever other point you were trying to make.
Powers &8^]
So, if thou hadst thy way, thou wouldst need to decide whether to say “thou wast trying to make” or “thou wert trying to make” in that last sentence. Fortunately, other speakers of English have agreed that it’s not worthwhile to have to remember all those extra irregular verb forms. Thou mayst thank thy god for that.
I’m not seeing it. Can you explain further why you think it’s bigoted, bearing in mind that tapu is, I believe, a lesbian?
Yeah, but that sucks.
We already remember multiple verb forms for each verb; what’s one or two more?
Powers &8^]
Leaving aside the question of how I was supposed to know that, painting both gay people and Canadians as nigh-universally “prissy” strikes me as quite obviously problematic.
Powers &8^]
There’s already a meme “Gay, or just British?” Seems a variant. “Gay, or just Canadian?”
Or a reference to the fact that the former group is known for using female pronouns regardless of sex and the second is famous for a higher than normal standard of politeness.
Hardly an improvement, implying that politeness is “prissy”. Also, it makes for an odd definition of “normal” to imply that an entire country is on one side of the dividing line. The only context in which I could possibly view Canadians as overly polite is in comparison to certain elements of U.S. culture.
Powers &8^]
Well, uh, ok then. I’ll alert everyone who makes jokes about Canadians being polite that Powers doesn’t think it’s a real stereotype.
It’s called parody, or humor if you prefer… Actually never mind. You don’t have it.
Yes! That. It’s a form of humor–parody-- that is sophisticated, and really anti-bigotry. It says we all know these stereotypes exist; let’s acknowledge them, show our power over them, and move on from there.
I find there are very few who don’t get this. But once they don’t, they won’t. I’m not sure what the determining factor(s) could be…
Insulting stereotypes are still insulting. And I’ve never heard this “Canadians are prissy” one before.
I’ve found that “I was just joking” and “Can’t you take a joke” are the last refuges of the boorish.
Powers &8^]
Eh, bite me. Humor is a matter of taste.
Well, that’s at least an improvement over your previous statements on the topic.
Powers &8^]
Honestly, I would assume that the fact that it is his neighbor’s wife being mentioned in such a way that there was some significance to the relationship. Like a man was secretly involved in a homosexual relationship with his neighbor. His neighbor’s wife found out about the relationship and put an end to it. The man went berserk and killed his neighbor’s wife.
No they are not: They/their/them is proper English when you don’t know the gender of the singular agent. But alas, most americans don’t believe this as their schoolmarms have told them something else.
As a Finn I personally use she/hers/her reflecting the Swedish use. We in Finland don’t have the problem as our version (hän, etc.[1]) isn’t gender specific at all.
[1] The list of various declinations is long and even controversial so I’m not going to present it here.
Yeah yeah yeah. To the extent there is such a thing as “proper” English, the idea that “they” is singular is only gaining the barest of acceptance for formal writing. It grates not because “schoolmarms” took a silly and unnecessary stand against it, but because they scan to most native English readers as plural.
“You”, another plural that has acquired the singular sense as well, has had centuries of steady use and disuse of its antecedent (“thou”). “They” has had centuries of singular use, but not exclusive and not steady. We still have “it” and “he” and “she” and all three are still in use, unlike “thou”.
Powers &8^]
It scans that way because of schoolmarms.
That’s so unfair. Females have their own pronoun, why can’t We males have one too?
‘We’? That would be…?
Since You are a Finn Your assertion is quite bold, I should imagine.
True, but in informal language the word ‘se’ is used mostly ( meaning ‘it’ ) and it indeed is the original word. ( ‘Hän’ was actually used when a person spoke about a third person speaking about oneself ( like in ‘it said he wouldn’t come here’ ).
It’s pronounced like ‘hand’ without ‘d’, so let’s all start using 'han’ and maybe in a few decades there won’t be any problems…
( Also, I’m not aware of any controversy or at least can’t remember any at the moment ).