For anyone hoping to maintain even a shred of political correctness and thus avoid having an angry mob of protesters assemble on their front lawn, or worse, their Facebook page, keeping current is a full-time job. To that end, in the timeworn tradition of Henry David Thoreau, J.D. Salinger, and Maine's own Hermit of the Woods, I practice a form of semi-reclusivity. This makes it almost impossible to say the wrong thing, since my trips to the supermarket or the CVS rarely require any conversation.
The down side is that it makes me clueless, which is sometimes frustrating and a little embarrassing, and may be the root of my son's calling me "out of it." For example, this morning I spoke with a friend whose daughter is pregnant. She mentioned that this weekend she will be hosting a Reveal Party for the family. I asked what they were revealing: the new addition to their home, or did someone lose a lot of weight or have a facelift? What, exactly, would be revealed? Turns out it's the gender of the expected baby. WTF?
Apparently, gender reveal parties are all the rage among the very same generation that is undergoing sexual reassignment surgeries, demanding to be called "they" instead of "he" or "she," and rebelling against any stereotypical behavior aimed at children, such as dressing girls in pink and boys in blue. In fact, gender neutrality is where it's at, and anything less makes you an irrelevant Cro-Magnon.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject: "Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another."
But don't tell this lady, who joyfully describes her own Gender Reveal party in an article in "Parents" magazine: "We hosted the party halfway through my pregnancy. A bakery was told what sex our future child would be, and filled cupcakes with colored frosting to match: pink for a girl, blue for a boy. As I prepared to take a bite of the cupcake and learn (as well as reveal) the gender of our second baby, I was happy that my friends and family were there to experience the anticipation with me. It was such a joy to show off the pink frosting—it's going to be a girl!"
Maybe, if it isn't an "it" or a "they" or possibly a genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, pangender, trigender, genderless, genderfree, agender, other-gendered, third-gendered or neutrois bundle of joy, in which case, "Oops!" See, this is why I stay home a lot. And don't ask me, I have no idea what a "neutrois" is or how to spot one.
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| "Circus" by Mark Ogge |
Apparently, gender reveal parties are all the rage among the very same generation that is undergoing sexual reassignment surgeries, demanding to be called "they" instead of "he" or "she," and rebelling against any stereotypical behavior aimed at children, such as dressing girls in pink and boys in blue. In fact, gender neutrality is where it's at, and anything less makes you an irrelevant Cro-Magnon.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject: "Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another."
But don't tell this lady, who joyfully describes her own Gender Reveal party in an article in "Parents" magazine: "We hosted the party halfway through my pregnancy. A bakery was told what sex our future child would be, and filled cupcakes with colored frosting to match: pink for a girl, blue for a boy. As I prepared to take a bite of the cupcake and learn (as well as reveal) the gender of our second baby, I was happy that my friends and family were there to experience the anticipation with me. It was such a joy to show off the pink frosting—it's going to be a girl!"
Maybe, if it isn't an "it" or a "they" or possibly a genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, pangender, trigender, genderless, genderfree, agender, other-gendered, third-gendered or neutrois bundle of joy, in which case, "Oops!" See, this is why I stay home a lot. And don't ask me, I have no idea what a "neutrois" is or how to spot one.
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