Everything is Simple

failed rebellions: the-trapeze-swinger: failed rebellions: Sasha Greytsaritsaofsalt:...

the-trapeze-swinger:

failed rebellions: Sasha Grey

tsaritsaofsalt:

the-trapeze-swinger:

So, I may have just commented on a Facebook status update from Sasha Grey— attempting to give her a linguistics history lesson.

My response was: 

Here’s the link to her status if you want to go and like my comment where I attempt to teach a former porn star some linguistics. My comment is the 14th from the beginning — I believe.

A) gross that sasha grey made that comment. like, eurgh, can we just not.

B) but why didn’t you just tell her ‘hey it’s gross to judge people’s language like that’ instead of giving the lesson on linguistic history…? ‘aks’ should not be judged and the ‘aksion’ bit is honestly kind of irrelevant? like, her status is problematic no matter the linguistic history, so

C) ‘where I attempt to teach a former porn star some linguistics’ oh jesus fucking christ shut the fuck up with that phrase and all its fucking implications

First of all, thank you for being the first person to be personally offended by one of my posts. I suppose I knew it was going to happen one day or another, but I’m glad to have finally reached that milestone.

Second, I completely empathize with your standpoint. It’s pathetic that someone of such fame is willing to poke fun and passively humiliate someone based on their cultural upbringing. We don’t disagree, there.

I think where we differ is how to go about addressing the issue. Where you would blanketly say, “Don’t judge people, period,” I would prefer to dig a little deeper and show someone (such as Sasha) just how uneducated their standpoint is. Her motivation in posting that status, I assume, was to poke fun at someone she felt was inferior based on a perceived educational difference. What I find validating is to show someone that their point of view is just as uneducated, if not moreso, because they attempt to occupy some form of cultural high ground.

Growing up in Texas, I’ve experienced a lot of cultural superiority — especially when it comes to language. I remember my first grade teacher humiliating one of my classmates because he said “da” instead of “the.” She instructed the entire class to stick their tongues out at him whenever he said “da.”

Now that I’m about to begin graduate school, one of my major areas of study is linguistics and the language sciences. I find the science and history behind words fascinating and will jump at the opportunity to correct a misconception (such as “aks” is so blatantly wrong) whenever I can.

I suppose you could say it’s my own personal way of nerding out.

Thank you for reading! :)

I just don’t see the merit in showing someone how ‘uneducated’ they were being in this situation. Your desire to show her up as ‘uneducated’ strikes me as being problematic; ‘judging people for being ‘uneducated’ is even more uneducated!!’ does not sit with me nearly as well as ‘judging people for being ‘uneducated’ is wrong’; however, I’m guessing you’re probably pretty set on that so I doubt I will be able to convince you of the position’s hypocrisy. I continue to be highly uncomfortable with your ‘where I attempt to teach a former porn star some linguistics.’