Happy Monday everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and you’re work week is starting off well today.
I am inching closer and closer to actually getting to the end of the third book in The Seasons Mystery Series, Desperate Season. Last week I got the last three chapters roughed in, and I’ve been spending more time in the last few days smoothing out those rough edges and writing the transitions. My goal was to have this book finished by the end of January, and I just might make it.
One of my stand-alone mysteries, Boxes For Beds, is being featured this first give-away of the year.
Well, first for me to sponsor this year.
I’ve teamed up with 30 fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Crime Fiction & Thriller novels to 2 lucky winners!
The contest starts today, January 27 and runs through Wednesday, February 5.
In addition to all the great books, the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader.
How cool is that.
You can win my novel Boxes For Beds, plus books from authors like David Bishop, Allen Kent, Kathryn Lane and Tikiri Herath
Good luck and enjoy!
On another note I have two grandchildren who have decided that they would prefer gender-neutral identities as opposed to their birth gender. I won’t use names here, as they may not want to be fully outed here on Grandma’s blog. 🙂
Being very open minded about most things, I have no problem with accepting whatever gender or sexuality these young people choose to identify with. However, I am struggling with some of the language. Referring to them using plural pronouns as opposed to singular pronouns is tying my tongue up in knots.
I had an interesting discussion about this word-usage with a friend last week, and she pointed out that gender-neutral pronouns had been used quite a bit throughout history, even back as far as the 16th century. I had no idea. but then that was not a topic that ever popped up in my ancient history classes. 🙂
The main problem that I’ve had with using the new terminology they/them as opposed to he or she, is the fact that I was taught in English classes that you used a singular pronoun when referring to a single person. So if you were referring to a woman it was a she or a her not a them.
In my efforts to be sensitive to my grandchildren – and certainly not judgmental – I’m trying very hard to change this old English habit; and it was refreshing to find out that this use of the plural pronoun had been widely accepted in many parts of the world for quite a long time. I just won’t tell my former English teacher that I’m working hard to break her rules.
To understand a little more about this – beyond just the use of words, I did some research, and much of the information I gathered came from this very interesting article at the website, Very Well Mind, What does it Mean to be Non-Binary Gender.
I’m paraphrasing some of the material I found:
This new way of looking at gender is called non-binary gender identity, and it’s used to describe people who are neither exclusively male or female. I’ve also heard the term gender fluid applied to the people who may move between male and female in their identity.
A person’s gender identity is their internal sense of themselves as male, female, or alternative gender. Gender is also different from sex and sexual orientation. Sex refers to a person’s biology while gender is a socially, culturally, and environmental constructed term.
Cultures around the world have recognized genders other than male and female throughout history. It is only more recently that we are developing an English language that can describe the spectrum of gender identity.
This is all new territory for this old lady, but just as the gender-neutral language has been around for centuries, so has gender identification differences.
Very interesting, and if you are curious to find out more, I recommend that article I read.
If this is something you’ve encountered in your family or with friends and you’re comfortable sharing, please do leave a comment.
That’s all from me for today, folks. Whatever you have on you agenda, I hope it is fulfilling and fun. Be safe. Be happy.