The other half got a haircut yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019d think something as mundane as that wouldn\u2019t be fraught with controversy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019d be wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We live in a mad mad world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stylist was talking with another stylist about a customer she\u2019d had the day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The customer in question, was apparently transitioning from one gender to the other. “Okay, this is probably going to go off the rails,” I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the story unfolds, apparently the stylist referred to the customer as a “She”. OMG! The horror!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The customer corrected the stylist\u2019s use of pronoun defiantly proclaiming the proper pronoun was \u201cIT\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point in the story I\u2019ve got my \u201cWhat The Fuck<\/em><\/strong>\u201d face on. The other half ignored me and continued the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stylist, of course apologized explaining that she meant no offense. This wasn\u2019t good enough for the mortally aggrieved customer. (He\/She\/It\u2026 whatever) Continued to manufacture outrage over this insignificant incident, turning everyone\u2019s trip to the hair place into a crazed social justice nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A) How was the stylist to know \u201cIt\u201d was the preferred pronoun? The other half was laughing and said to me, \u201cAll I could picture as this story was being told was YOU sitting in a chair during the actual incident.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good Point!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wouldn\u2019t have been able to let it pass. I hate shitty behavior and the shitty people exhibiting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing that popped into my head was that since \u201cIT\u201d didn\u2019t have their pronoun tattooed on ITS forehead how was anyone to know? I\u2019m sure that my expressing that thought would have added fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second thing that popped into my head is that \u201cIT\u201d usually refers to an object. Then I remembered being a boy in the Deep South. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first word I ever learned to describe a Black person was the \u201cN-Word\u201d. But the context was that one went to get the \u201cN-Word\u201d to clean up a mess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Example: \u201cBill, please go get the broom to sweep up this mess on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My childhood memory has the statement from my Grandfather telling me, \u201cHey boy, go get the \u201cN-word\u201d to clean up that mess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my experience the \u201cN-Word\u201d was used to reduce a kind thoughtful human being, (Eddie would tell me jokes and ride me around on his shoulders and we\u2019d laugh the whole time<\/em>,) to nothing more than an object on par with a mop or broom. (For the sake of clarity, Eddie was an employee of my Grandfather, and I probably wasn\u2019t more than 5.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I thought about the implications of a human being demanding to be called \u201cIT\u201d I couldn\u2019t help but notice the similarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What completely astounds me, is that any human being would willingly demean & diminish their own humanity in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People like the aforementioned customer, would loose their shit if I, a white CIS male, were to refer to an African American as \u201cIT\u201d. They\u2019d be saying I was racist or any number of other ugly things. (Then again, most of the ugly words they\u2019d call me have lost much of their former impact and meanings.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then they\u2019d turn around and make a spectacle of themselves in a public place demanding to be called \u201cIT\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All the while annoying the rest of us \u201cnormal\u201d people who use pronouns based in history and languages dating back 5 thousand years or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other half is right\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a good thing I wasn\u2019t there for the incident itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Depending on how screeching they were, I could easily see myself leading off with, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody gives a fuck about your pronouns! Now sit the fuck down and shut the hell up. There are actual humans in this business, trust me they do not consider themselves the equivalent of a dildo or pocket pussy. Both of which, by the way, are ITS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, I don\u2019t think it would have ended well at all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The other half got a haircut yesterday. You\u2019d think something as mundane as that wouldn\u2019t be fraught with controversy\u2026 You\u2019d be wrong We live in a mad mad world. The stylist was talking with another stylist about a customer she\u2019d had the day before. The customer in question, was apparently transitioning from one gender to … <\/p>\n
B) The Stylist did the professional thing by apologizing.
C) The aggrieved customer had all the social decorum of a turd in a punchbowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n