Dehumanizing
Feb. 9th, 2021 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormThe tree of life with humans as the pinnacle of evolution is basically just an iteration of "[humans shall] have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Assuming a single instance was the initiation of life, the lineage of every thing now living has made it through the same number of years through a variety of methods. There's no pinnacle. There never has been.
But apparently this worldview runs deep. Even the folks who claim to hold animals equal to humans usually do so only when anthropomorphizing those animals. And.
The other day I got involved in an online comment thread. It's a well-moderated space that makes efforts to be inclusive. The subject was pronouns. Of course someone said, as they always do, "of course you should call people 'they' if they want, as long as [you're not calling them/they aren't asking to be called] 'it'."
For the first time somewhere public, from the cover of deep anonymity, I replied something like, my pronoun is 'it' and while you should never call someone that who doesn't want you to, and while I don't really think I can be out about it, there is a time and a place for that pronoun.
It's a friendly space. There was a little concern trolling and some questions I could answer pretty easily. The concern trolling often looks like this: that's dehumanizing and it'll lead people to think less of you or other, generally, of people who use different pronouns or have different gender presentations.
Even someone I know well once tried to reassure me that I was very human.
I've been chewing on that today I realized: it's because in those people's minds, God put humans at the pinnacle. It's because so many people believe that dehumanizing is the same as demeaning, of falling down off that pedestal of dominion.
It's not.
There's no pedestal.
And that probably begins to get at one of many reasons why that pronoun feels more comfortable for me.
But apparently this worldview runs deep. Even the folks who claim to hold animals equal to humans usually do so only when anthropomorphizing those animals. And.
The other day I got involved in an online comment thread. It's a well-moderated space that makes efforts to be inclusive. The subject was pronouns. Of course someone said, as they always do, "of course you should call people 'they' if they want, as long as [you're not calling them/they aren't asking to be called] 'it'."
For the first time somewhere public, from the cover of deep anonymity, I replied something like, my pronoun is 'it' and while you should never call someone that who doesn't want you to, and while I don't really think I can be out about it, there is a time and a place for that pronoun.
It's a friendly space. There was a little concern trolling and some questions I could answer pretty easily. The concern trolling often looks like this: that's dehumanizing and it'll lead people to think less of you or other, generally, of people who use different pronouns or have different gender presentations.
Even someone I know well once tried to reassure me that I was very human.
I've been chewing on that today I realized: it's because in those people's minds, God put humans at the pinnacle. It's because so many people believe that dehumanizing is the same as demeaning, of falling down off that pedestal of dominion.
It's not.
There's no pedestal.
And that probably begins to get at one of many reasons why that pronoun feels more comfortable for me.
