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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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So I recently noticed that my state has quietly removed the word "mother" from every official documentation I've seen, replacing it with "birthing parent" or some other euphemism. Iirc Colorado has already switched its language the same way, as have most Dem-run states.

Wasn't it only a few months ago we were told this was an insane conspiracy theory and only a few weirdos would ever try to abolish "mother"? Now it's been done so neatly and without fuss or any sign of resistance. Things that only last year would have sounded like insane paranoid delusions just... Happen with unanimous support.

What is there to even say? The insanity keeps coming so fast they hardly need to gaslight you any more. Has anyone here been "corrected" for saying the M-word yet?

Wasn't it only a few months ago we were told this was an insane conspiracy theory and only a few weirdos would ever try to abolish "mother"?

To be clear, nobody actually wants to abolish the words "mother" or "woman." They want to use them in what they assert is "correct" manner, i.e. to refer to parents or people who personally identify as women, irrespective of sex. Conversely, terms like "birthing parent" and "people with uteruses" are used specifically because they include trans men, and are intended to be used only in contexts in which those characteristics are relevant.

For example, "Birthing Parent's Day" is mostly a GC meme. Trans activists are, to the best of my knowledge, not particularly interested in renaming Mother's and Father's day, because they still see "Mother" and "Father" as totally valid terms as long as they're used in a manner consistent with self-ID and not with biological sex. Trans men who have given birth would, for the most part, rather be honored on Father's Day than on a renamed Mother's Day, and vice-versa for trans women.

If you ignore the ideological aspect and the silliness of the phrasing, there's a certain set-theoretic elegance to it.

They don't want them abolished they just want them replaced.

and are intended to be used only in contexts in which those characteristics are relevant.

I think this is actually, factually, wrong in the real world. It is used in all contexts because it is (incorrectly) seen as less offensive to call a woman a chestfeeder than to remind a man that he doesn't have breasts, and cannot breastfeed. Plus, when you're printing pamphlets, you don't print out one for the normies and one for the weirdos, you set your standards of language and then you print one pamphlet, and those are the words everyone sees.

By the way, this is similar to how Pride and Juneteenth are being used to unseat the 4th of July here in America. I'm not happy about it, and I won't be lied to about it happening in front of me.

I don’t think Juneteenth is unseating 4th of July. I think it’s unseating Father’s Day, cue jokes about blacks needing something to celebrate too, but Juneteenth isn’t a July 4 tier holiday and the two are in close proximity in a way it’s not near July 4.

Father's Day isn't a federal holiday. Nobody is getting a day off work for Father's Day, but they do for Juneteenth, and in the corporate world, that means it usually unseats something else. I get MLK Day off, but not George Washington's birthday, as another example.

What workplace gives Juneteenth off instead of July 4?

None, yet. I don't think they started with MLK day, either, but it sure did turn out that way eventually.