Is anyone else bothered by people forcing others to use this word?

[ISNEKO]

This is the first time I've been made aware of this word and my ex-wife/best friend is Latina.

She probably doesn't know it either. So, I guess it's pretty much a non-issue for us.

But, I learned something today.

[audratki]

I feel like people are going to use whatever term they want to use and if they want to be called a different one, they will correct people.

I don't know, I'm just a half-white/half-native Canadian, so Latinas and Latinos really have nothing to do with me.

[DiegoPalacios]

what i find hypocritical about the "latinx" is referring to them in a certain way without asking their opinion about it and forcing them and everyone to change their language.

[fischhead]

This is the first time I've ever heard that term, but then again, political correctness and SJW terminology aren't popular in my neck of the woods. Regardless, you can't let some idiots on the internet tell you how to use your own language.

[A-weird-girler]

I'm not really angry as much as I am less angry? Frustrated? Sorry forgot the word. But it's not fair to police someone for something not being inclusive enough
@amortelito Exacto! Estas personas quieren que yo lo use no importa que! Tuve como siete respuestas diciendo me que yo era lo que estaba mal con el mundo digo??
@TimCaloweh that's my point somewhat. Why be so offended by a non inclusive word to the point of calling me nonprogressive?
@ISNEKO yeah it's pretty big on Instagram is what I observed from all the angry replies lol
@fischhead I was pretty close to being harassed jaja

[Hodge]

I've heard it, but in university so hear a lot of dumb things lol

[BobbyjoeX]

i do agree that people need to stop worrying about something being "too gendered".

here where i live, they even made it an option to not include a sex of a new born on a birth certificate for gender inclusion, in my opinion, that should be the person's choice to choose their gender, not their parents. All this is going to do is mentally confuse these newborns once they hit the age in self discovery

[A-weird-girler]

That's true! That's also why I'm against puberty blockers, gender neutral raising, and trans kids being trans at early ages. (nothing wrong with trans people tho, but you shouldn't decide something so life changing at an early age. This is why my sister recently decided to be lesbian at 15, almost 16.)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

@BobbyjoeXforgotensb
Oh lord...that's just frustrating. When are people going to learn that sex and gender are not the same thing? One is biological, the other is ideological. I feel like this started when people would use the word 'gender' in place of 'sex' because they were shy about using the s-word, and now a whole segment of the population doesn't know which is which...
I can understand having that not included on something like a drivers' license, when you're old enough to know whether or not it'll be a problem for you, but I don't see why one would exclude it from a birth certificate.

By the way, I just want to speak as an American who's seen a lot of the goings on: don't be too dismissive of our "gender-inclusion initiative". People seem to enjoy berating us and calling us SJW's for it, but (a) the crazy ones aren't the majority and (b) it's a well-intentioned movement. Exclusion based on gender and sex is a legitimate and widespread problem in our society, and apparently the popular idea is that we can make things better by changing the way we talk about people.
Personally, I think it'll take a lot more than that in the long run, but psychology supports the idea, and (as long as we don't try to mess with other languages) there's no harm in being more sensitive.

[Kura]

I have seen the word around but didn't realize the purpose was for gender neutral purposes? That's kind of interesting.

I'm actually a fan of using gender neutral terms, and I like seeing things start becoming more gender neutral, along side me just preferring it, it honestly it just makes things easier for me, English is hard enough as it is. That said I'm not going to police another nationality in regards to it, especially one that I'm not a part of (aside from being mistaken as Latino a lot because some people seem to think brown skin = Spanish or Mexican) it's not really something you should be harassing someone about.

It's kind of a iffy topic depending on where you stand nationality, PC wise, and even just in regards to ones understanding of language, I think a lot of it just has to do with language changing and evolving, which is what language has always done as long as language has existed.

As for the gender and trans gender topics brought up, that is a whole other debate that I don't think I want to get into in this thread and I don't want to start pushing this thread in a whole other direction.

[directorador]

I don't know how it is where you are from, or where anyone is from, or even what everyone experiences. for myself, I see a world ran by old rich people telling young poor people what to do and how to do it and when to pay for it, by that I mean, they control them and command loyalty with threat of punishment or they ostracize you from society.

Words themselves, are not the things for which is said their definitions. The obsession with definition and identity of a word, comes from wanting to continue understanding. We agree what a word means based on rules as a whole. And Language does evolve.

The world is afraid of change so much, that the wealthy tell the poor what to do, and I won't go into details about it, but how many poor people do you know suffer from lack of wealth?

I don't identify or have known heritage to Latin nations or even Spain. I honestly think that I don't know enough about your culture to say anything regarding it being correct or not. only to comment on the use of language as a form of communication and control. People are and were tortured for words before, you have manifest destiny and the acculturation of first nations people. But I mean, those who descend from people who wronged them make their own words to add to a language. They do it as a community. So I don't know if "Latinx" is something from within a particular culture or not. And I don't mean to say a polarization of a side is particularly a culture, as so much a topographical category which promotes us v them.

I feel this should be discussed understanding that language isn't as it was in medieval times for instance.

[DiegoPalacios]

While i can see the problem with exclusion based on gender and sex, i don`t think getting rid of gender in the rethoric will help.

The first step to accept our differences (in sex, gender, race or any kind)is not pretending they don`t exist, is accepting that our differences are a good thing. That is how we start seing people as people instead of a bunch of tags with sociodemographic categories. When we achieve true respect, we dont get annoyed over subtle ways a word is said, because we focus in the meaning behind, instead of getting stuck in the surface aspects of the rethorics.

[A-weird-girler]

That's true, and while I believe non-binary people should be addressed, don't change a language that was already inclusive to begin with! Latino is Latino no matter man or woman or anyone.
@directorador I'm from a poor community. I'm lucky to have a 500 quetzal chromebook and an iphone that my aunt sent me and a decent house due to my dad paying my mom money to make up for his absence and that he already forgot us from his life and the little money I make from my job. I've seen how poor people suffer each day and I do try to help out. But the Spanish language is important to us because it ties us together and many don't want it to change. Plus, the language was already inclusive. The o ending doesn't mean man or woman and it's not really gendered. Why should something change when it doesn't have to?

[Merle]

I understand frustration with this to a certain point.
The articles in german are gendered, but every so often, the male gendered one is used without a gender. Since it´s generally understood you are not excluding anyone when you talk like that (it even took me a while to figure out what the problem was about, you really have to think about what you´re saying), I don´t see a need to change it, at all. Also, if I follow that logic trough, everything in German that is plural is female, which it is just not, the same word is just used.
Btw, I was very suprised how much spanish I understand, in comparison to not being able to speak more than two sentences.haha

[A-weird-girler]

Wow, good job! Spanish is a very nice language to know if I do say so myself and I studied German for a year but that was almost 6 years ago and my memory is trash so I do not understand so well

[bakasama25]

It does sound like bunch of Chicanas complaining about first world problems. From I understand "x" is suppose to be feminine suffiix like in "dominatrix". It's seems to be part of some gender identity politics.

[fischhead]

This may be the old man in me talking, but I don't believe we would be having this kind of discussion if parents were more strict when it comes to raising their children. I think we would all be better off if we prioritized teaching and reinforcing simple values like kindness, honesty, and a solid work ethic over inclusion or preferred pronouns.

The internet is also a huge factor in all this. You can't give people the chance to anonymously say whatever they want in front of the entire world and expect things to go without a hitch. People bullying someone for the sake of their own egos is what started this thread in the first place.

[ar-ninetysix]

But the Spanish language is important to us because it ties us together and many don't want it to change. Plus, the language was already inclusive. The o ending doesn't mean man or woman and it's not really gendered.

That o ending literally makes it masculine though, and you say it's gender neutral but if that were the case, why does the a ending even exist? Even then, you don't hear people saying Latina nearly as much because Latino became the default "gender-neutral" word. If it was so inclusive, those gender specific endings wouldn't even be there. Wouldn't adding "Latinx" make it even MORE inclusive for others who prefer using another term that fits their gender identity?

Why should something change when it doesn't have to?

Why can't it change though? Far as I understand it, language evolves and adapts over time. Americans don't use that Old English anymore with the "thees" and "thous", I'd think that that was just as much of an issue back then as it is with Latino culture using a word like Latinx. In order to make the language more progressive and more accessible to everyone, I think this word would be the least of your worries as it doesn't change the entire language, but just adds an extra word to the Spanish lexicon.

[joannekwan]

I've been aware of 'Latinx' for the past couple of years. I just figured the 'x' is a placeholder for 'o' or 'a', whichever one wants to identify with, like it's quicker to type 'Latinx' than 'Latinos and Latinas'.

I know 'Latino' does encompass all people who identify as such; but it begs the question, whenever it was decided upon, why wasn't 'Latina' the all encompassing noun?

I'm sure this current 'Latinx' situation has a similar correlation with the whole 'mankind' thing, and how some women like to use 'womenkind' and 'herstory' and all that. Some people just want to put emphasis on the other 50% of the globe when the basis of these words were set thousands of years ago by men (at least in the western world).

And languages are always evolving. It's not like there is a standard that is set in stone. New words are invented or reassigned meaning to everyday.

[mrtoontastic]

Never heard of this word, but it sounds like some hackjob attempt to neutralize people's own personal natural-born distinctions.