Political correctness has gone WAY TO FAR

[CensoredAlso]

There everywhere and I don't even follow them they pop up on every social media platform I know of. And it's conor just in case you got confused

Well yeah social media tends to serve that function for people who want to find their crowd and can't find it on hand in real life.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I'm not bothered by all of this.

 

[Censored]

Yep 20:13 now

My but time flies.

 

[BlakeConor14]

Your probably in America I'm in England

My but time flies.

 

[Censored]

Your probably in America I'm in England

That explains it. Just goes to show there are different forms of truth on some things.

 

[jvcarroll]

Honestly I just wish people would shut up about the gender vs sex deal and just let those live the life they want to live.

I'm far from perfect, as we've noted, and I've messed up a lot in my life with people. That's how I know that it's easy to tell people to shut up about about a problem doesn't impact me personally. I don't really do that anymore. We've lost much reason and compassion as a culture. That said. There are plenty of trans and non-gender-conforming people who are jerks just like any other person because they are people just like the rest of us.


One difference is, they're commonly treated much poorly than you and I and then, on top of that, are told to shut up about it. That's not okay. It's also not okay when a trans or non-gender-conforming person is innocently misgendered by someone who doesn't know and they immediately snap and shame somebody for it. It's a two way street. Coming out as a gay teen was not easy. I had many friends with much worse lives than I had that were made soooo much worse by reacting negatively to everyone. They wore their heart on their sleeve and created friction with every misunderstanding. That only served to make their lives worse.


Right here, on Muppet Central, I've had heated discussions with people for nearly two decades now. Some of these people had never met a real life gay person and talked with them. While their religion and politics haven't really changed, their outlook on LGBT people has and I count these people among my very best friends that I've had for years. These message board and internet friends turned into real life friends I see in person, we've sent each other lucrative clients and exchange holiday cards with all of them every year. None of that would have happened if I'd just let them say what they were going to say without talking with them about it, nor they with me.


In the end, the difference between gender and sex isn't just important to these people - it's fundamentally self defining. Imagine if half the world wanted to call you by a different name than the one you had or referring to you as HE when you're a SHE and told you to stop complaining about it. It would feel pretty crummy. That's what it's about. It's not special treatment. It's basic humanity and empathy.


I'm just kind of kind of bewildered by that statement. Not upset. The thing I encourage all of you to do, and I'll take the challenge too, is to try to connect with a trans person (or some type of person you've never quite understood) and talk with them. Some will be kind. Some will not. Some just won't care. That's because "peoples is peoples", but continually taking that effort it what enriches our journey and nothing is more Muppety than that.

 

[jvcarroll]

The freedom to identify as whatever one wants is the most important thing.

THIS! One billion times this!

 

[jvcarroll]

I agree they can be only which ever gender they choose but it's a choice of two not 76 or how many there apparently is

I'm going to be bold and just ask this - even if there were a million terms, how does this impact your life personally? So many people claim not to like labels, but everybody wants to be understood. Using self-defining words are a way to do that. As for the rest of it - it all comes down to pronouns. He, She, or They. With all of the hundreds of names of Muppets we can all remember, how is it that hard to use the pronoun a person prefers when speaking to them or about them? There will come a time when the argument against using preferred pronouns will look just as silly as the argument against women wearing pants. It's about empathy and connection to other people. While we are all unique, we're not really snowflakes. Underneath it all, we are all basically the same. Navigating the initial differences we have with other people, the pettiness, is the way to get to that underlying sameness. That should always be the goal for humanity.

 

[jvcarroll]

Eugh. Making it through this slog was tough. I had to catch up because I only have a little bit of time between my 2.5 jobs, my holiday plans and my friends that would like to see my face. What the hey with this discussion? This is really all I have to say:

If you think that being gender-non-conforming is like being a toaster or that being transgender is like being an amputee: Put down the remote, close your laptop and go outside to actually meet some of these real life people in the real world that y'all are assessing from afar. MEET SEVERAL before you come up with so many opinions and theories. I don't usually say something about any type of person until I've met enough of them and even then, I will try to avoid stereotypes. Nobody's perfect, and I'm example A, but we can all be better. The only way to truly start connecting and understanding anyone, be they a trans person or Trump voter, is to friggin' meet them and to talk with them and to try to listen more than we talk. That's not an easy thing to do. That's why I know it's really right answer here - no matter what subject we're talking about.

I gotta kind of take a shower after some of this and then I'll go back to work. Just gah! I am grateful, however, that there's at least talk that's happening. That's encouraging. Friction breeds progress. It's just been a while since I've read so many odd and inflammatory things and I talk to staunch republicans on a daily basis. Eeep! Peace all!

 

[CensoredAlso]

You know what's an awesome movie, You Can't Stop the Music, starring the Village People. That's what my avatar is from, in case anyone didn't know. It co starred Bruce Jenner, later Caitlyn Jenner. Randy Jones (the VP cowboy) was asked about working with him and about his announcement of being trans.

"Bruce Jenner was just a great guy. He was nothing but the best. He was the nicest, the most American, the purest-acting human being. He was polite, he helped me rehearse my lines, he was sexy, he was handsome, he was married, he was young, he was enthusiastic, he was cooperative. I never saw him get angry with people, I never saw him get frustrated. He just appeared to be the absolute perfect person to be on the front of a Wheaties box. And he was very kind to me, very generous.

I honestly think that — and this is just my take on it, perhaps — that he didn’t feel like he was treated right, or he was maltreated or beaten down. And when you’re one of the only men in a house full of women [on Keeping Up With the Kardashians], maybe he felt like he was being overpowered. But he’s a very smart man. He saw everything, he observed, he got the numbers of their stylists, of their makeup artists, of their hair people, of their designers — he kept a record of it, and when he finally had enough, he said, “Well, all right, I’ve had enough. F-U, I’m going to do this better than you’ve done it!” And so he took all of that, and maybe that’s what pushed him over the edge. Who knows?

I met Caitlyn at the GLAAD Awards this past May in New York City for the first time. I’d known Bruce for all those years, but I’d never met Caitlyn. It was the pivotal moment for me that helped me to understand, when I looked and saw that three things were the same: the eyes, the voice, and to hold the hand. I knew that was the person that I know."