@audreygwinter@dice.camp as usual with these things, I stop and think back “why do I have this expectation?” Must people be this way, must they sound this way? Where does this come from?

I think much it comes from a desire for control, for my experience and vision of the world to be some way comfortable to me. But by what right? I can’t reasonably claim it’s harming anyone, or that the world would be a better place without it, not without reverting to some subjective take.

Really it’s just an irrational urge to assert ownership over something neither I nor anyone (not even everyone) owns. It’s ok to have these thoughts in your head as long as you don’t actualize them, but when I realize how absurd I am being, the annoyance or anger just kinda melts away.

I admit to having some thoughts similar to yours upon a time, but after going through the process above, I realized that introducing new words for structural ideas like gender is going to violate the norms (the programming) the language has put into us, and will never sound fully “right” to us. That’s ok. Someday people will be born who will never know any different.