They/them pronouns are important in the discussion of language and gender.

He/His. She/Her. These pronouns are used every day. However, with growing recognition of those who identify outside of the gender binary, more and more people have begun to use the singular pronouns they/them. Some may call this additional pronoun “confusing” or “grammatically incorrect,” but is that really the case?

They/them pronouns are not a new social fad. Singular “they” is seen in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which solidifies its status as grammatical correct. According to Ian Sample of the Guardian, the use of “they” as a singular pronoun appears back as far as 1375. The language is not new. Yet, it may be on a bigger stage than it ever had been before.

Pop star Sam Smith announced their pronouns are they/them in September. With a well-known star using they/them pronouns, Tampa Bay Times writer Ashley Dye expected educational discussions on gender. What they got instead was an Associated Press article mis gendering Smith for its entirety.

Dye was frustrated. The AP stylebook had updated to all the use of they/them in 2017, yet the article had blatantly ignored it. Dye saw the article as a missed chance to educate cisgender individuals (people who identify as their birth gender) on gender.  

The inclusion of they/them pronouns opens up the discussion of gender. According to Dr. Valerie Hennings, language and gender impact each other like a circle.

Dr. Hennings is an associate professor at Morningside College. She teaches the Gender studies course and is the faculty advisor of the student group Gender Undone. Dr. Hennings has a background in political science and women/gender studies.

“There has been this push to have the singular they accepted because we’ve had this binary.” said Dr. Hennings, “This inaccurate binary.”

She calls the binary “hierarchal.” She explains it sets the man as the default, which is a problem for those who do not fit into that category. The effort in acknowledging the assumptions about pronouns is an important step. The inclusion of they/them can curb those assumptions.

Brenda Crawford

• Licensed Psychologist and health service provider
• Provides therapy
• Early graduate school, respecting pronouns was taught back in the 90s, engrained in counseling psychology for the better part of 25 years.
• Language impacts people on multiple levels, an easy way to show respect, easier change for individuals
• We can’t assume gender on what we see
• It’s important to practice, it’s about effort

Melanie Enloe is Thursday afternoon so I’ll add this later

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2019/09/16/aps-transphobic-sam-smith-story-exposes-journalisms-failings-ashley-dye/

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/05/he-she-or-gender-neutral-pronouns-reduce-biases-study

https://abcnews.go.com/International/started-painting-wall-blood-inside-chechnyas-reported-torture/story?id=66163773&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_twopack_image

 James Longman, Patrick Reevell, John Kapetneas, and Eamon McNiff report on the torture of gay men in Russia. The torture of gay men in Russia has been reported since 2017. Those who have left the region report that there has been little change. The article has insight from a man that experienced the torture in 2017. Amin Dzhabrailov was in Chechnya, Russia when he was thrown in the trunk of a car. He recalled his painful accounts of torture and how he was pressured to reveal other gay men’s names. Dzhabrailov continued to give his personal account with how he had to live through a staged execution. Even with 200 horrific reports, only two have spoken openly about it, Dzhabrailov being one of them.

The article has some issues with repeating. “Put in the trunk of a car” was repeated twice. While it’s good to reemphasis, in this instance in felt like they just repeated a small detail they didn’t need to. The short article works well with the topic. The short length allowed a sort of urgency to come through the quick story. It got to the point. Dzhabrailov experience was split up strangely. They included his recount as the opening of the article, then split it up with a picture. The split feels strange because they repeat the beginning again. It’s shorter, but they could have included more details if they wanted. The ending “Chechen authorities have denied any wrongdoing.” Is chilling. It communicates how the authorities see themselves in the right.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/support-fathers-mitigate-heart-disease-risks-lgbt-youth/story?id=65997435&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_headlines_hed

Dr. Danielle Weitzer reports on the impact of fatherly support on LGBT health. The story is about new research from New York University. Discrimination faced by LGBT young people can lead to higher risks of a heart attack, while fatherly support can remedy that risk. Dr. Stephanie Cook, senior author of the study and assistant professor of biostatics and social behavioral sciences at New York University, says support from fathers in the lives of LGBT people should be more focused on. The research studied CRP, which can be measured in the blood to find out heart risks, while observing discrimination and support. Connections were found between discrimination and inflammation. Support from the father buffered the effects while maternal support did not.

The story is strangely ordered. The article begins with quotes by one of the researchers from New York University, before moving into background, then moving into more quotes about the importance again. The quotes by the researcher are split by the background. It seems like it would have made more sense to start with the background then move into the quotes all in the same section. The article uses the term “sexual minorities” to describe people who fall under the LGBT umbrella and it makes my skin crawl. The term feels like the word “homosexual,” which has a connotation of abnormality as that is how it was referred when it was considered a mental illness. Weitzer uses LGBT youths in the title, so she had another option. The usage of “sexual minorities” makes the article feel like it is not for anyone who is LGBT.

Alex Watters is the Career Development Specialist at Morningside College. Watters was born in Ocheyedan, Iowa before moving to Okoboji when he was in the eighth grade. He attended Morningside College on a golf scholarship with the intension of becoming a teaching pro. However, everything would change the 2^nd week of his freshmen year. Traveling up to lake Okoboji with some friends, Watters unknowingly dove into 18-inch-deep water, snapping his neck. The accident caused Watters to lose mobility in his legs after breaking his C5 and C6 vertebrae. Watters had to go through six months of rehab, which he did in Colorado. He then returned to Morningside, finishing his schooling in nine years. Watters spoke about the accident calmly, jokingly saying, “I’d never broken a bone before so go big or go home, I guess.”

Watters expressed how his disability impacted his life. Watters talked about how his father’s coverage paid for his accident, but there are so many other people who can’t pay for healthcare. He said Iowa’s healthcare system is a broken, for-profit system that cuts corners. He fights for better healthcare because he is in a position where his voice is heard. While he lobbies for better healthcare, Watters is also involved directly in politics, such as his involvement in Obama’s 2012 campaign and his current status as a councilman.

While working for the Obama campaign in 2012, he worked with a woman who used a walker. Watters said she felt depressed and thought she lacked value because of her inability to contribute. Watters created the position of office manager for her, so she could greet people while he worked. The woman later expressed how grateful she was that her life was given purpose. Watters said that moment was a “wow” moment for him. “Everyone has value,” he said.

Watters wants to keep making an impact and working with others with disabilities. He worked with the Miracle League in Sioux City, a program that provides opportunities for children and adults who are disabled. Watters hopes to inspire others to see themselves as more than people with disabilities. “You determine your destiny,” he said, “We all have the same time of day.”  

https://abcnews.go.com/US/humiliated-chanel-miller-survivor-brock-turner-sex-assault/story?id=65821466&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_sq_image

Emily Shapiro of ABC News writes about the story of Chanel Miller. Miller, the previously unnamed survivor of the Brock Turner assault case of 2016, revealed her name and her story in her memoir “Know My Name”. Shapiro summarizes the sections of Miller’s memoir, going from the assault to the aftermath of the nationally covered trial. Miller chronicles her trauma, giving new details from her waking up in the hospital after the assault to the impact her statement had on unifying other survivors. Her statement, “My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition…I became closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty” spread across the world, sparking a unity of survivors that helped Miller’s own healing. Miller urges that people who’ve experienced sexual assault should be thought of as people, not victims.

The story the Emily Shapiro writes is not presented as a sad story of a victim. Her article is a recollection of a woman how was at the center of a national story with no name. I noticed Shapiro avoids calling Miller a victim in the title of the story, instead using the word “survivor.” The word presents the whole story with a frame of Miller’s continued life with the experience. The word victim is used in the story, but only in the summary of Miller’s memoir. The story begins with the important piece of revealing Miller’s name, but it stops being invert pyramid after that. It benefits from moving into time order as it chronicles Miller’s experience. The story about Miller’s experience is newsworthy because of its rarity. From my perspective, stories of men who harm women often leave the women in the background. They are numbers on a statistic or side characters to a glorified murder story. Miller sharing her story is important for anyone else with a similar experience and for those who haven’t.

Pirouline

Holding the Pirouline makes me feel like a 1950s detective working on a cold case in the dead of night. It’s heavier than a pen, but not much bigger so it caught me by surprise. The density of the chocolate makes the snack a solid object. The chocolate is the strongest smell, surrounding the whole treat. Bringing the Pirouline to your nose allows the cracker smell from the wafer to come through. The casing is almost a drumstick with ridges, the tan color reminiscent of cheap wood. The dark brown spiral climbs the snack as it rolls.  

As part of the News Writing class, I had to find a favorite Morningside memory and a knock-knock joke. I received the favorite memory from Dr. Ryan Person. He’s only been at Morningside since last year, so when I asked for a favorite memory, he first said, “Oh my gosh, you totally put me on the spot.” He thought for a bit, looking at the wall as if it would jog his memory. The memory he ended up choosing was last year’s Christmas at Morningside Performance. He said he loved the collaboration of Morningside’s musicians.

The second item I needed was a knock-knock joke. Turning the corner, I ran into the perfect person: John Kolbo. He seemed a little confused by my request for a knock-knock joke. He seemed to believe I was giving him a joke before he understood I needed one him. The joke went: Knock-knock. Who’s there? Dwanye. Dwanye who? Dwanye the bathtub, I’m dwowning. We laughed. “Put my name on it,” Kolbo said, “everyone will understand.”

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/bachelor-paradise-finale-marks-sex-engagement-franchise-history/story?id=65686718&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_bf_hed

Leah La Rosa writes about the first same-sex couple to get engaged on “Bachelor in Paradise”. The article highlights the engagement of Demi Burnett and Kristian Haggerty. The engagement was a historical moment for Bachelor as it is the first of its kind. The two proposed to each other in the show’s season finale, both Burnett and Haggerty saying yes. GLAAD the proposal groundbreaking, as it presented the love between LGBTQ couples as having just as many ups and downs as any other love. Their statement continued “Seeing two women get engaged on ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ is a groundbreaking step forward towards including LGBTQ couples across reality television. Reality TV is finally moving towards storylines that LGBTQ audiences and allies have been craving for quite some time.”

This story is obviously for people who are LGBTQ. While the lead gives the names of the women who got engaged, it’s the “first same-sex engagement in the franchise’s history” that draws the attention. I find it newsworthy because I fall into the LGBTQ community, despite not watching the Bachelor. With the GLAAD comment, it seems like the story would have more about LGBTQ people and reality television, but the article doesn’t go any further into the history. The word “said” is only used once for one quote. The most phrase used for quotes was “told ABC News.” This implies that the story was for ABC News, and puts their name into the story more times. This phrase: “As it would turn out, Haggerty still had feelings for Burnett — that’s when she joined the show to fight for Burnett” uses two dashes as a punctuation to connect the two parts. The use of the two dashes creates a sense of anticipation, but I’m not sure if it’s correct punctuation.

1. I probably put the most time into the drafting and revising part of Article #1. I like writing and getting into actually writing more full pieces and less in-class work is what I was looking forward to. I wish I had put more time into the readings on Moodle. It would have made me more prepared for class activities. At the same time, I don’t retain information very well through just reading it. I would need to write it down.

2. I had the most trouble getting a groove when I started writing. I kept getting stuck while writing the draft because I didn’t really have a set focus on what I was writing on.

3. My biggest problem was writing like I was doing a research paper. Research papers are the papers I wrote the most so I immediately shift into that mode. After getting the draft back, I solved the problem by finding a focused topic within the three articles and recording the information. I managed to focus on the most important material better than I did at first.

Gender-neutral language can impact societal gender biases, says new study.

The study revolves around Swedish gender-neutral pronoun “hen”, which was adopted into the language in 2015. Results from the study insinuate including a third pronoun can expand people’s view on gender.

Adam Rogers of Wired reports that the new study investigates the impact of the word “hen” a gender-neutral pronoun of the Swedish language. Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study suggests that the included nonbinary pronoun introduced new ideas of gender to people and increases inclusivity.  

Rogers explains that “hen” first appeared in the Swedish language in 2012 in the children’s book by Jesper Lundquist. Lundquist worked on an editorial explaining how “life should imitate art.”  However, the word caused a controversy, says Rogers. The Swedish Language Council, an authority on the Swedish Language, was against the new word. It was not until 2015 that the council reversed the decision and accepted “hen” into the Swedish language.

Now, four years after that decision, UCLA political psychologist Efrén Pérez and Margit Tavits of the Washington University in Missouri, ran the study on more than 2,000 native Swedish speakers to test if the inclusive language had impacted culture. Pérez and Tavits believed that the inclusion of the third pronoun could result in more visibility for women and LGBT people.  

When Pérez and Tavits finished the study, they found it support their idea that the additional pronoun had removed the male default, giving more visibility to women and LGBT people. The results also added to the idea that the words available to a person determines how they view the world. With an additional pronoun, it’s possible that the Swedish people have become more open to non-binary genders as the newness of the word has worn off, says Peréz. 

Ina Sample of The Guardian provided comments by other researchers about how the results of the study present evidence about the connection between language and gender. Sabine Sczesny, social psychology professor at the University of Bern considered the study as evidence of how nongendered language could promote equality and reduce bias. Laura Russell of Stonewall said: “The language we use is important, especially when it comes to describing or referencing someone’s identity.

Research from Bustle shows how language demonstrates power dynamics within societies. This dominance can affect people’s perception in their everyday lives. Jay Polish of Bustle reports: “This kind of linguistic sexism is even reflected in the supposedly benign process of naming hurricanes, with hurricanes that are assigned traditional women’s names being perceived as less serious. This perception leads to lower evacuation rates and higher death rates associated with hurricanes with traditional women’s names.”

A small change in language is a step toward a more reduce gender bias in society, says Jay Polish of Bustle. Polish continues, explaining how the study provides evidence that using a gender-neutral pronoun decreases gender stereotypes. One example is it can reduce male gender bias in hiring practices. Another is that those of unspecified gender can be referred to with neutral language, decreasing gender association with certain careers. Not only are gender-neutral pronouns valid, states Polish, but vital to social equality.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/05/he-she-or-gender-neutral-pronouns-reduce-biases-study

https://www.bustle.com/p/gender-neutral-language-reduces-sexist-bias-a-new-study-says-18551594

https://www.wired.com/story/actually-gender-neutral-pronouns-can-change-a-culture/