Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Xe/Xem/Xyr: Thank You Vancouver School Board Now I/xe Am More Gender Aware/Confused

According to this story in the Vancouver Sun, the local school board has gone beyond bending over backwards in support of "modern sexual speak." I/xe present the following excerpts,
"VANCOUVER -- Grammar teachers may need to amend their lesson plans after the Vancouver school board approved Monday a policy change that welcomes a brand-new string of pronouns into Vancouver public schools: 'xe, xem, and xyr.'
The pronouns are touted as alternatives to he/she, him/her, and his/hers, and come as last-minute amendments to the board’s new policy aimed at better accommodating transgender students in schools."
I/xe know, "It" might sound insulting, but "them/they", "you/yours", and "ya'll/yous guys" should all be acceptable with the possible exception of French class where the masculine and feminine classification of words might make things shall we say, un(e) petit(e) peu plus problématique (m+f).

And to think it started over a bathroom issue,
"The vote may be the knockout blow in a bitter and protracted fight over the controversial plan to put gender-neutral washrooms in schools and support students in expressing their preferred gender identities.
'We’re standing up for kids and making our schools safer and more inclusive,' board member Mike Lombardi said in an interview just before the policy was voted in." 
 I/xe don't know about making the schools safer. When I/xe was in school, the bathrooms were the last places on campus that I/xe would have considered safe places to go. I/xe entered our smoke filled bathrooms with great fear and trepidation (mostly about getting beat up). I/xe have a suggestion: schools should be required to make all bathrooms (who takes a bath there anyway?) single occupant, one hole jobs like they do on airplanes. I bet they/xem won't because that might offend someone/xyr whose sexual preference is to share the experience with others.

Vancouver parents are not fooled by any of this,
"Scores of angry parents and community members had attacked the plan during the first two meetings. Some said it could lead to teachers pushing an agenda on children without their parents’ knowledge." 
I/xe guess they will have to vote Xem out with the next school board election, but policies like this tend to be even harder to get rid of than they were to push through in the first place.

No comments:

Post a Comment