On
Saturday, my sister got married at Snowbird, in the Cliff Lodge
Restaurant. She looked beautiful. He looked handsome. The scenery?
Breathtaking, of course. With a light dusting of snow and the
brilliant fall foliage all around, the guest we're thrilled to be
there. At least that's what I heard. You see, I wasn't invited. One
day hurt feelings will mend and I will meet my new brother-in-law.
I
believe in love. True love comes in all shapes and sizes. It also
comes in genders. The world we live in is changing at break-neck
speed and affecting how copywriters and editors do their job.
I
found a few AP Stylebook guidelines that surprised me. New changes are
removing gender from our sentences. For example, according to the AP
Stylebook on page 117, it says, “Gender refers
to a person's social
identity while sex refers to biological characteristics.” Instead
of saying Chairwoman, it's now Chairperson. Mailman is now mail
carrier. Even the pronouns of he, she, his and hers must take
center stage to indicate a person's gender. And don't get me started
on a cisgender. This new word for transgender feels a little strange.
I
fear that one day all gender will disappear into a bunch of its and
theirs. So, embrace and celebrate your gender in the written word. It
might be gone before you know it.
I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you! I hope that with each passing day your relationship heals. Concerning using gender neutral language, I always find the conversation of the singular "they" to be interesting. I think we should find a new, gender neutral pronoun like German, but that's a whole other topic.
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