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http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-are-zee-ready-for-the-dictatorship-of-the-gender-warriors
In the world that exists outside the leafy confines of university campuses, with their tenured professors on comfortable salaries and student agitators in search of a utopian culture, the fevered debate taking place over the use of gender-specific pronouns must seem more than just a little ridiculous.

Who cares about a stupid pronoun, you may think. Just what is a pronoun, anyway? For most people, grammar studies ended somewhere around the sixth grade, along with phonics. (And anyone who can remember what phonics was all about, drop me a line). Anyone for a dangling modifier? Care for a conjunctive adverb? Or would you prefer to share a gerund? (You can have the reds, but save the black ones for me).

A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun. Him, her, he, she, they, it, I and you are all pronouns. Boys are him, girls are her. No controversy there, right?

If that’s what you think, you haven’t been on a campus lately, and lucky for you. University Of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson has been engulfed in a raging controversy because he objects to being ordered to use whatever pronoun his students may demand, even if it’s not one 99% of Canadians would recognize. If a student wants to be identified as xe (or ze, or zee), Peterson is supposed to refer to him as xe. If an individual demands to be identified as “they,” Peterson is supposed to say “they.” “Hir”, pronounced “here” can stand in for her, him, his, they or theirs. He’s supposed to memorize all the options, note each individual preference, and alter his vocabulary accordingly.

Tyler Anderson/National Post
Tyler Anderson/National PostQuinn Valkyrie holds a sign at a protest against anti-political correctness professor Jordan Peterson at University of Toronto on Oct. 5.
The aim of the exercise is to remove any hint of gender from the language. It’s the goal of people who feel that being identified as male or female is a trap, or a prison, and wish to break free. They do not “identify” as either of the conventional genders, and feel their perspective should be recognized and respected by others, and that the language should be adapted to suit their needs.

Peterson objects. He says 98% of males “identify” as males, and 98% of females see themselves as females. He notes that New York City’s Commission on Human Rights has recognized 31 gender identities, from Femme Queen to Non-Op, to Hajira, Pangender, Gifted Gender, Butch, Two-Spirit and Person of Transgender Experience. “Man” and “Woman”, thankfully, made the list, but there are any number of others that could be added, such as cisgender, bicurious or variant.

Memorizing and correctly using whatever pronoun any adherent to any of those options demands — plus whatever others may crop up in the future — strikes Peterson as impractical and unrealistic. “We’re going to have 31 different classes of pronouns?” he asked Postmedia’s Christie Blatchford. “It’s just not possible. People can’t do that. Our language doesn’t allow for that; we can’t remember that; what if we make a mistake?”

U of T professor attacks political correctness, says he refuses to use genderless pronouns

“The pronoun issue is straightforward,” added Peterson. “I won’t mouth the words of ideologues, because when you do that you become a puppet for their ideology.”
Peterson, predictably, has become the target of social justice champions intent on imposing their views on anyone who dares to disagree. This has become commonplace on campuses, where the notion that education involves intellectual tolerance, the free exchange of ideas, and openness to debate and dissent, is being crushed by fear of reprisal, the threat of ruined careers, and the quisling response of terrified administrations blind to the idiocy of their positions. Peterson has already received two letters from the university warning him to cut it out, charging that his refusal to adopt gender-neutral terminology is “contrary to the rights of those persons to equal treatment without discrimination based on their ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression.’” People are calling for his head, and holding protests against him.

The reason this is pertinent is that the federal Liberals are proposing a bill to amend the Human Rights Act and Criminal Code “to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.” Once it passes, Prof. Peterson’s problems may just have begun.

Goings-on on campus may seem distant to the life most Canadians know, but if university profs are expected to memorize and utilize whatever term of identity an individual chooses to adopt, will it be long before the same expectation is extended to, say, high schools, grade schools, business offices and any public place in which human interaction takes place? Ottawa is already contemplating gender quotas on corporate boards; does anyone doubt it will come under pressure to extend that to include the genderless?

If the language can be bent to suit every individual preference, it ceases to have rules and becomes yet another victim of political purity, as dictated by whatever identity group has the megaphone today.
Certainly it couldn’t be long before government offices would be expected to comply with gender-neutral regulations. Some poor civil servant, asked who’s next in line, could be chastised on human rights grounds should he be dumb enough to respond, “it’s her.” God knows what would happen if he (or hir) made the same mistake twice. A disciplinary hearing? Sensitivity training? A crash course on pronoun correctness?

Peterson doesn’t object to using he or she, they or it, which is what the language stipulates. He objects to mangling the language to satisfy an ideological agenda. If the language can be bent to suit every individual preference, it ceases to have rules and becomes yet another victim of political purity, as dictated by whatever identity group has the megaphone today. If a reluctance to do so can result in charges of abuse, public denunciation and a loss of livelihood, the right of free expression doesn’t exist.

It may be that this latest example of human rights hysteria is already too far along to stop. Politicians are second only to university administrations in their refusal to resist any small group that shouts loud enough long enough. Before it gets much farther, however, here’s a proposal: all Canadian legislatures, provincial parliaments and town halls should be first to comply. All MPs, MPPs, MLAs, mayors, reeves, councillors and trustees should be required to memorize and utilize whatever pronouns a committee of the most committed gender-neutral advocates in Canada can compile, with failure resulting in the sort of public censure Peterson is now experiencing . Once elected representatives have complied, and a study undertaken, implementation by the rest of the population may be considered. But not before then.

National Post

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