Will 2019 be the year when people stop using “Latinx” instead of the already gender neutral Latinos? You know the gender neutral word that exists and can actually be used in its own actual language?
One day…
As a Latino who speaks Spanish I am so sick of people using “Latinix”. 95% of the time it’s used by white people who don’t speak Spanish. It is not your job to make a “gender neutral” word for us just because you don’t understand our language. Latina is for just women, Latino is for just men, Latinos is for BOTH. It is GENDER NUTERAL. Just like Abeula is grandma, Abuelo is grandpa, and Abuelos would be the gender-neutral term for grandparents.
(This is ok for non Latinos/Spanish speakers to reblog)
Anyone who finds the entire idea of “Latinx” utterly annoying and useless can reblog this post.
Forcing a “gender neutral” pronoun into a language that already has a way to express that concept? That’s colonialism babes
TL:DR Spanish is a living language that’s constantly changing to better reflect cultural and societal values. Anyone who has a problem with using “Latinx” needs to examine their sexist and transphobic biases. Also, the Spaniards were colonizers that raped and subjugated the indigenous people of South and Central America and the Caribbean. It’s why we’ve referred to ourselves as “Latinos” and now “Latinx” because we are more than just the by-product of colonialism.
As a Latina, I use “Latinx” because the Spanish language, like many other languages, expresses gendered patriarchal biases in very subtle, insidious ways. For example, when you’re talking about your parents individually, you’d say “madre” or “padre,” but as soon as you refer to them as a plural unit it becomes “padres.” In general, with some exceptions, when you use the plural form in Spanish, the word takes on the masculine form which is assumed to be “neutral” because of patriarchal ideals that have shaped the Spanish language. “Latinx” represents a cultural and linguistic shift of inclusivity that acknowledges not only that masculine language and the masculine POV should not be the default, but it also acknowledges non-binary, gender-fluid, and transgender Spanish speakers. My younger sibling is non-binary and their Spanish teacher is actively refusing to use the pronoun “elle” and other conjugations that end in with the gender neutral “e” when referring to them in class. Yes, it’s weird at first, but we can’t dig in our heels and refuse to accept linguistic changes because it’s “easier” or “that’s the way it’s always been.” If anything, that reflects the attitudes of the Royal Academy of Madrid (a modern day hold out of Spanish colonialism) which decides what is and isn’t “proper” Spanish without taking into account the linguistic norms of other Spanish-speaking countries.
For those who don’t like the look of Latinx or are unsure how to pronounce it or use it, Latine or Latines is also a gender neutral word! And Spanish has used words with the neutral -e ending for a long time, so it might be easier to integrate into your speech and writing!
i’m watching a british youtuber’s birthday stream and an aussie viewer sent in a comment saying “why was he born so beautiful, why was he born at all? because he had no say in it, no say in it at all” which was received with confused existential horror, and this is how i just discovered that australian happy birthday songs are not universal
oops
do you not sing this in other countries?!?!??
NO we do not sing a lament for someone’s personal beauty wishing they’d never been born. That is some weird Greek tragedy shit.
Annnnd our parents and grandparents never taught us basic life skills because the baby boomer generation loved outsourcing easy work, like hemming pants and baking cakes. The generations before us glommed onto the fast, easy fix, and important skills have been lost in the process.
(And of course the generation who raised us loves to act fake shocked like “my grandkids don’t know how to boil water” like yeah, Janice, that’s because you took your kids out to eat 6 nights a week and baked Stouffers lasagna one night)
And now we are broke. And can’t afford to pay $60 to have every pair of pants we own hemmed (shoutout to shorties!). We are making yogurt because we can’t afford to pay $2.50 for one yogurt.
I’ve learned to knit to make myself wool hats and scarves. I’ve learned to sew so I can make items that would otherwise cost me 4x the cost to make it. I’ve learned to make yogurt because I would prefer to spend $2 for a gallon of milk and get 24 yogurts out of it rather than just one.
I’ve planted fruit trees in my yard so I can reduce the carbon footprint of the fruit I eat, and because produce is expensive.
I raise egg-laying chickens so I don’t contribute to factory farming.
My husband hunts deer so that we can eat lean, virtually fat free meat, and also not contribute to factory farming. The deer live happy lives and are not allowed to suffer. (Hey PS also, hunting up here plays an important role in ecology, as otherwise the deer population would explode, and deer would starve in the winter. Thanks for coming to my TEDta…)
My generation is going on YouTube to learn to change tires, bake bread and do their taxes because y’all sure as shit didn’t teach us.
THIS
Lets not forget the phasing out of the HomeEc class. Or the Shop Class.
Alleviating one’s ignorance of a subject should NEVER, EVER be looked down on! Learning and growing are never anything to be shamed of, or for!
I remember a DC comics “Superman” issue (either Action, Superman, or not sure what others.) Anyway, a secondary story was written about a guy on Krypton, who refused to take ‘citizen classes’ Thinking they was below him. Well turns out after he was an adult he had to do something he could have been taught in those classes, and didn’t know what to do. But he came though it, and asked for the class.
I’ve always thought that such classes should be taught in high school at least, and this post really shows that’s true. How many can sew? Hem? Can foods? Change oil, or a tire? Thankfully I’m old enough to learn that from early on, but also can do things with computers that people have forgotten! Know how to bring back a computer that’s running slow? Wipe and re-install Windows. Malware, and all the junk is wiped off. Reinstall Windows, then bring your files back. Boom. It’s like you bought a new computer. It’s not that hard!
Maybe it’s not the millennial generation, more like the ‘brainwashed’ generation. Thinking that they have to pay to do anything, anymore when little things cost nothing, and can be learned easily. Youtube? Best way to learn things. I learned quite a bit in the last little bit though youtube.
