Nina discusses how she manages rage with the heat of a thousand suns triggered by Internet bullshit she shouldn’t care that much about. Corinna confesses to some high-running emotions after an encounter with other bullshit on the new app Clubhouse. At 27:35 Nina mis-sexes a male who is definitely not a pedophile, and at 32:00 she goes on an important rant against coerced pronouns. Finally, she declares a new identity as a CERC (pronounced “curse”).
Graham Linehan’s substack: https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/
Nina’s argument tweets: https://spinster.xyz/@ninapaley/posts/A5jcIonm22fqw6apVo
MAD respect for the way in which you approached this topic! Nina, I saw your response to Katie and I was a little surprised – mainly because I also, like Corinna, did not feel super angry about K&J’s thoughts about GL. I loved what you said on your Spinster thread; how you approached it by being curious about your anger really really spoke to me. I have more to say about the episode but I’ll leave it here and then come back later if I have some time.
Why would I ever use pronouns for a person I am directly talking to. And if I am talking about to someone else but in their presence I can just use their actual name instead of pronouns.
Ok, I want to comment on pronouns. I disagree with you, Nina. Much like what happened in the podcast with you once calling Aimee “she”, I don’t believe it’s necessarily dishonest to use preferred pronouns. I think our brains just can’t handle trying to switch back and forth and THINK about our use; therefore I think it’s important to CHOOSE whether or not you’re going to use preferred pronouns so that your brain can remain somewhat consistent and focused on the ACTUAL issue being discussed. I do not think J&K use preferred pronouns nefariously. I think they’ve made this decision and for the ease of creating a podcast and talking about all sorts of issue, their brains don’t get tripped up all the time. That’s a long way of saying: I have heard all the arguments about the pronoun business and what actually bothers ME most is when someone stops me while I’m having a discussion (whether it be in person or in text) to CORRECT my pronoun (this usually is done by RF/GC women) and completely derailing what I’m talking about. I don’t like when anyone polices my language and I find it hypocritical of a lot of RF/GC women to do that when they are forever going on about TRAs policing language! Like Corinna mentioned, I think the issue a whole lot less important than so many other issues we face as women. I also want to say that I was actually more unhappy about J&K’s coverage of the Aimee Challenor issue than the issue of GL. I felt like it was a good opportunity to bring a lot more nuance to the issue of grooming and cPTSD/trauma. When Corinna mentioned how often the word pedophile was used when talking about Challenor, I have to agree. While they J&K did not outright call AC a pedophile, they did not discuss the very important topic of what it must be like to be a person who is subjected to a monster like AC’s father. AND I think there is a LOT of conflation about transwoman as predators in GC spaces. I see SO LITTLE mercy given to AC as a person who probably has had a lot of trauma. And for that I’ve been called a lot of names; but I thought I’d mention it because I think it’s not only important to how J&K reported on it, but how MANY report on it. Maybe I’m totally off base because perhaps there is some evidence somewhere that Aimee is predatorial, but I haven’t yet seen it. In any case, I really love how the two of you dissect different issues. You have a really good balance between the two of you. After this many episodes I’m finally sometimes figuring out when Corinna is being dryly sarcastic – but still am not sure at LEAST 50% of the time. Best to you both! 🙂