The role of gender and words...

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Don't you have an interest in ANY sport whatsoever?

No, can't say that I do.

 

[Deleted member 28]

Sports days are boring.

Of course they're boring, so was the school play, or the Xmas Nativity or any of the Music things that our kids were involved in but we all went to show our support and that's what parents do, I did anyway.

 

[Deleted member 28]

No, can't say that I do.

It will be boring to you then, ever had kids that played anything or were interested in it?

 

[icowden]

About 15yrs ago at my kids school.

I actually sort of agree with you on this one @shep.

I loathe most sport, and I think the root of that was the way that I was introduced to it. Football, Cricket and Ruby for me were about bullying. About exclusion and derision. Either you could do it and you were "in" or you couldn't and were "out". The only sports I tend to have interest in are ones slightly disconnected from me or in which I could actively have a go. So I quite like the Tennis, the Snooker and the F1.

My daughters are very fortunate and go to a private school. They very much still have winners and losers. Where things have changed in that sphere is that the staff are very careful to include those who aren't great at sport. The age when we used to belittle the less fit, the asthmatic and the nerdy have all but disappeared as I see it. Which is for the better.

My oldest isn't sporty. She got a postcard from school last week as this term they have been doing football in Games - a sport that she had no interest in at the start of term - praising her performance and determination. She now really enjoys playing football!

As @winjim pointed out - this stuff starts early. I remember by younger daughter being upset because she wanted to be an astronaut but thought that was something only boys could do. We remedied that on a trip to Florida by going to Kennedy Space Centre where she met and chatted with a female astronaut.

 

[Pale Rider]

Has this happened? That's brilliant.

Hopefully they can stop sports days altogether.

You should remember the war was won on the playing fields of Eton.

 

[Pale Rider]

Context, as ever. There are various liberal and rationalist reasons for favouring gender neutral language, especially for describing things or for generic usages, which are sometimes persuasive and sometimes not, and there is the usual hysterical backlash whenever language change aimed at some form of equality is advocated. But much more interesting is the fact that we can choose our words, and therefore we have the power to make interventions in meaning, especially by choosing words that draw attention to themselves. Shep intuitively grasps this with her use of 'bird' above.

A good example of meaningless faux intellectual drivel designed to appeal to the gullible.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

You should remember the war was started on the playing fields of Eton.

Minor correction.

 

[newfhouse]

You should remember the war was won on the playing fields of Eton.

The war isn’t over yet.

 

[winjim]

A good example of meaningless faux intellectual drivel designed to appeal to the gullible.

I dunno, it's a fairly standard structure of a setup followed by a punchline, with a callback.

 

[swansonj]

You should remember the war was won on the playing fields of Eton.

Wow. I was aware that your attitudes were in some respects more at home in former times, but I didn't realise that for you "the war" was still the Battle of Waterloo 😀.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Of course they're boring, so was the school play, or the Xmas Nativity or any of the Music things that our kids were involved in but we all went to show our support and that's what parents do, I did anyway.

I was speaking from my experience as a child, having to participate in a wasted afternoon of sport when I would have much rather been doing pretty much anything else.

It will be boring to you then, ever had kids that played anything or were interested in it?

Thankfully, no and I won't be encouraging it anytime soon.

 

[qigong chimp]

Of course they're boring, so was the school play, or the Xmas Nativity or any of the Music things that our kids were involved in but we all went to show our support and that's what parents do, I did anyway.

By now I think we all get that there was a time when your sperm was motile enough to stir itself in the direction of an ovum, but need you lever reference to your then fertility into every thread?

 

[qigong chimp]

A good example of meaningless faux intellectual drivel designed to appeal to the gullible.

What would a Venn diagram of the relationship between the sets 'things you understand' and 'things that can be understood' look like?

 

[FishFright]

What would a Venn diagram of the relationship between the sets 'things you understand' and 'things that can be understood' look like?

Scale may be an issue

 

[Pale Rider]

What would a Venn diagram of the relationship between the sets 'things you understand' and 'things that can be understood' look like?

You really have fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.