Sunday, October 09, 2016

COMMON SENSE has abandoned the gender ship at Princeton:
[W]hat if someone falls off a ship during a Princeton cruise? “Man overboard!” wouldn’t do. Instead, a quick poll among people on deck could settle whether most observers thought the unlucky person was male or female. In cases of a tie, be fair and just leave the person in the water. Couldn’t everyone just yell, “Person overboard”? No. A generic shout like that could be taken as a subtle rejection of the falling person’s private gender choice. “Possible female or male overboard” wouldn’t work either, since everyone knows that there are somewhere between two and 32 genders, and failing to acknowledge them all before attempting a rescue would surely be seen as non-inclusive and therefore micro-aggressive. So, what to do? Committing a gender gaffe would be just awful. So it might be best to let the individual drown and get the gender right later at the autopsy.
Linked from here.

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