A Guide To Gender Identity Terms
June is the annual celebration of Pride Month. Over the years I’ve sometimes been confused about how to use correctly the applicable terminology. I’m grateful to NPR for putting together this glossary of terms relating to gender identity.
Proper use of gender identity terms, including pronouns, is a crucial way to signal courtesy and acceptance. Alex Schmider, associate director of transgender representation at GLAAD, compares using someone’s correct pronouns to pronouncing their name correctly – “a way of respecting them and referring to them in a way that’s consistent and true to who they are.”
Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From
“People tend to think of they, Mx., and hir as relatively recent inventions. But English speakers have been looking for better ways to talk about gender for a very long time.”
Michael Waters offers a history of the long search for language that steps outside the traditional, normative binary of man/woman, his/her.
Do you ever feel like an impostor — and did the pandemic make it worse?
“Experts say anytime you’re facing a new challenge or you’re out of your comfort zone, you’re more susceptible to impostor syndrome. Here’s how to deal.”
Imposter syndrome is a real psychological thing, the fear that you’re not really qualified to do something, that you’re just pretending to have knowledge and ability that you think you really don’t possess. When I was going through a particularly challenging time several years ago, I dreamed that I was trying to pass myself off as a flautist in a symphony orchestra. The trouble was, though, that the flute I was pretending to play was carved out of wood and have no moving parts at all. And, for the record, I have never had a single flute lesson in my life.
This article offers some advice if the pandemic has forced you to take on new roles or situations that you feel unqualified to handle.
Some medical devices don’t mean to be racist, but they are
As we’re beginning to face the necessity of confronting systemic racism, I found this article particular enlightening on just how easily we normalize particular assumptions.
How to Make and Keep New Friends as an Adult
When we retired and moved from St. Louis, MO, to Tacoma, WA, making new friends was one of the things I worried most about. This concern was one of the biggest reasons why we chose to rent in a retirement community instead of buying a house.
If ‘cave syndrome’ is keeping you from going in public, here’s how to combat it
How are you doing in the “getting back out into the world?” arena?
“After over a year of staying at home and following strict safety guidelines, many people are understandably reluctant to step out their front door and re-enter society.”
If this quotation describes you (as it does, at least a little bit, me), here’s some advice.
© 2021 by Mary Daniels Brown
Retreading for Retirement 