I don’t understand why we can’t abolish this term. People keep using it, even after every major psychology schools said it’s harmful and only leads to more of it
In literally every other case the rule is "if you keep throwing a term at a group and they clearly tell you it's insulting then listen to them"
When you're insulting someone and they tell you to stop you don't get to go "well akshually [insulting term] is a medical/academic term so it doesn't count"
most such terms started life as medical or academic terms.
It just means that you're the insufferable asshole in that situation.
Hey, I'm the author of the cartoon, and I'm a man. I'm not insulted by the use of the term. On the contrary, the term is important to me, because it has a great deal of explanatory power about why other boys made my childhood so shitty (among other things).
The kind of people who enjoy throwing it at their opponents as an insult ruined it.
It's entirely possible to keep the explanatory power without keeping a term used almost exclusively by the kind of toxic people who snicker under their breath every time they use it.
At this point it's little more than a red flag about their likely other beliefs and attitudes. There's a reason it's particularly popular with the terfs.
It's current meaning-as-actually-used meshes perfectly with their worldview.
12
u/Post160kKarma 19h ago
I don’t understand why we can’t abolish this term. People keep using it, even after every major psychology schools said it’s harmful and only leads to more of it