I did get the funding for the conference in Texas. But then I got an email from the organizers that address the participants as “Estimadxs colegxs.” The dumbness of this is hard to explain to anybody with a functioning brain. The “x” is used these days (by brainless freakazoids, of course) to avoid using either the masculine form “estimados” or the feminine form “estimadas.” The really ridiculous part, though, is that the “a” in “colegas” is immutable. It does not depend on gender. So substituting it with the terrified, PC “x” serves zero purpose, even within the diseased logic of the estimadx-ers.
Now I don’t even want to go.
Clarissa's Blog 
“Now I don’t even want to go.”
How long have I been telling you that mainstream feminism is intellectually dead?
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Feminism has given itself to fluidity so it has no principles beyond feel good mantras of the moment.
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Why not using the feminine Estimadas?
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Because they are freaks?
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Since when is a “feminist” conference non-gendered???
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Since feminists decided that the word “woman” is offensive. 😭
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By the way, I find that the work of Toril Moi is a refreshing feminist response to so-called feminist criticism of the word “woman.”
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You should go. You have the funds and the conference needs a voice of reason.
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Yes, I’m going. But it irritates me that academic conferences in my field are increasingly overrun by such people.
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“academic conferences in my field are increasingly overrun by such people”
What do you expect? Fluidity cannot produce rigor or discipline or insight, it simply drifts along as the emotions flow.
Fluidity is the real Soma – not a mood altering substance but a way of giving oneself up to ever changing emotional currents, or as someone else once said:
“Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. The light shines through it, and the dark enters it. Borne, flung, tugged from anywhere to anywhere, for in the deep sea there is no compass but nearer and farther, higher and lower, the jellyfish hangs and sways; pulses move slight and quick within it, as the vast diurnal pulses beat in the moon-driven sea. Hanging, swaying, pulsing, the most vulnerable and insubstantial creature, it has for its defense the violence and power of the whole ocean, to which it has entrusted its being, its going, and its will.”
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Great point about the flow of emotions sweeping away everything that is solid and reasonable!
We will soon all become non-verbal because everybody will be afraid of saying anything untoward. We’ll just sit there and gush with emotions.
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“the “a” in “colegas” is immutable”
Yeah, if a person really wanted to create non-gender specific adjectives couldn’t they at least use -e- which already exists in the language? That is, treating adjectives as if they ended in consonants, mejor – mejores)
colegas estimades (or even colegues estimades) look a little weird but at least they’re pronounceable and doesn’t feel like somebody sticking pins in my eyes like estimadxs does.
But I suspect the real agenda is to draw attention to the user (and their gooey, self-righteous goodness) and not to communicate in a non-sexist ways at all.
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Absolutely, it’s all about signaling “I’m a good girl/boy! Please approve of me!” So annoying.
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