Microaggression

Microaggression is prominent in society today. There will always be judgment and criticism due to human nature. Some naive people also known as the word police believe altering language is a key making change in our ways. They believe neutralizing language and using non offensive language is will slowly begin to unify. However, this is further dividing the people because there will be a clash in how they would want to express themselves. This form of unified language would most likely result in a depreciation in freedom of expression. At that point people would be conversing for the sake of needing to talk and discuss, not for the sake of expressing creatively to portray individuality. Books, poetry, and magazines would start to lose its purpose as the lack of expression continues to take over our society. School textbooks, documentaries, and encyclopedias will be the center of attention with regard to the limited speech. The "womyn" in our society will come to find using "ovarimony" less offensive and more relevant in comparison to "testimony." Little words and phrases will slowly reach the mechanical and robotic part of the spectrum. Appoint a Big Brother of our own  and we would have a dystopian world of our own.

Adjusting to a neutral or euphemistic type of language may appease the haters for the time being. The "fat," "stupid," and "poor" wouldn't have to worry about being subjected to microaggression. However, shifting our language wouldn't create a positive shift for those people. The "underhoused"  or "big-boned" people wouldn't magically change to a more preferable being. The root of this problem -- microaggression -- would not be solved. Our society would only digress farther from solving this issue.

Save our Language, Screw the Racism, Sexism, Prejudice

I'm just gonna put it out there to start off: humans are an ignorant species. Whether you agree or not, it's up to you. And I guess, in order to read on you'd need some level of open-mindedness. 

People always say "I'm fighting for a cause." How many of those people are actually helping to make change? Buying some tshirt that prints "I <3 Animals" or retweeting some post that says "Keep Calm and Save the Rainforests" are usually acts done to join the crowd or to pretend to be making a difference. You could probably wear it and post on Instagram to get couple likes and also get some likes for your retweet. Anything done otherwise to support this cause would be "uncool." Besides these bursts of social media, people refuse to take part and actually care for our Nature, our society, our world.

Save our Language, Screw the Racism, Sexism, Prejudice

Kakutani's piece does a great job in portraying another aspect of human ignorance. Racism has always been a center of debate -- before slavery was abolished and after. "Marked" woman are judged even more today than ever. Minority groups are silenced by the gratitude of minimal opportunity. What do we do to solve these crises? Oh sweet! "Superman(Superperson?) is reincarnated into four ethnically diverse clones"! People can now buy African-American ones, Asian ones, Caucasian ones, and Latino ones. Even Superman isn't discriminating anymore. That sure contributes to this dire issue of racism. Maybe the businesses should officially change the name to Superperson while they're at it. That would solve the problem of sexism too! People are so caught up in being"politically correct" and avoiding any offensive language. Euphemistic terms are thrown around to replace the once non P.C. language. Even a word police needs to keep us in check. Cause patrolling our language is as equally crucial as catching a murderer or tracking a thief. This overly zealous worshiping of the "talismanic power of words" is almost laughable. I can't say I'm not guilty of these acts at times because I am also human. I guess I'm more aware of the major ignorance levels in not only teens but the great population. I'm not sure of a good call to action, but at least spreading some awareness is better than nothing. 

Unmarked Territory

We had quite an interesting discussion in class about the "There is No Unmarked Woman" piece. One of the questions that were raised was whether or not Tannen's essay and topic is outdated. With society opening up to having more strong women and granting more equal opportunities for women, you would think that they are being treated on equal grounds in all aspects, that this controversial topic is no longer a major issue. However, this problem is actually more relevant today. Women have been and still are being subjected to judgment on a daily basis. Let's take the surname example. It is "traditional" to have the wife adopt her husband's surname. At the same time, some see it as the wife being "less herself" and more reliant on her husband's identity. On the other hand, there are cases where the husband adopts his wife's surname, possibly due to mutual agreement or because the wife comes from a more well-known family line. In these situations, the couple is likely to receive a lot of judgment. Because the woman didn't follow the "norm" she has people talking behind her back. "Oh, how disrespectful." "She's too ambitious for her own good." "Did she possibly marry someone less capable?" Due to the deviation from traditional standards and the change in status of women, it is more common to see a couple take the woman's surname instead of the man's. That doesn't mean society has readily accepted these changes and become open-minded as a whole. Women are slandered for trying to advance, for trying to live as an equal to the male sex, for trying to make their own statements. If a woman changes her surname she's viewed as weak and submissive. If a woman doesn't change her surname she's viewed as overly ambitious and disrespectful. Isn't this a lose-lose situation? Women will always be seen and treated as the marked gender. There is no unmarked territory for women. Women don't have the freedom to walk out without immediate judgment. For the men out there, if you acknowledge the fact that you are fortunate to be able to live unmarked by choice then alright. If not, then you need to open your eyes and be even more observant of the judgment directed at women that goes around because you may be judging all the time without even knowing it. Unfortunately, there is no unmarked woman.