U. Chicago Students Go Ballistic After Dan Savage Says 'Tranny'
Erik Abderhalden (Wikimedia Commons)Well known gay author and advice columnist
Dan Savage recently spoke at a University of Chicago Institute of
Politics seminar. Some students who attended the event denounced
him for repeatedly using the word "tranny," which made one
transgender person in the audience feel uncomfortable and "unsafe."
According to
The Chicago Maroon:
The incident occurred when, according to several sources, Savage and [IOP fellow Ana Marie Cox] began discussing his personal history as a gay man. According to a first-year student and member of the LGBTQ community who asked to be identified as Hex, Savage used the slur t—– as an example in an anecdote about reclaiming words. Cox then added, "I used to make jokes about t—-ies," audience members recounted.
"That was one of the most hurtful parts," Hex said, explaining the perceived insult was that Cox used the slur to refer to the group of people she joked about. "In that context, it was like being applied to all transgender people," it said. ("It" is Hex's chosen pronoun.)
In a statement, the IOP said, "A guest used language that provoked a spirited debate. The speaker was discussing how hurtful words can be repurposed and used to empower; at no point did he direct any slurs at anyone."
Hex saw matters differently:
Hex asked Savage and Cox to use the term "T-slur" instead of the actual word. According to second-year Sara Rubinstein, an executive director of QUIP (Queers United in Power), and Hex, Savage then named other slurs, asking if they were suitable to use instead. "Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful," Hex said.
By all accounts, Savage made no deliberate effort to threaten or perturb the student. Maroon columnist Anastasia Golovashkina investigated the accusation and determined that what transpired was nothing more than a dialogue over the acceptable uses of words like "tranny." And though Hex claimed that Savage and Cox repeatedly interrupted it, multiple students told Golovashkina that Hex was the one doing most of the interrupting.
Nevertheless, an activist started a Change.org petition to pressure IOP to issue some sort of condemnation of Savage. The petition also demanded that the University of Chicago vigorously police usage of "hate speech" in the future.
Ironically, Savage's entire purpose for bringing up the word was to discuss strategies for overcoming its negative and hurtful associations.
There is of course no better way to reaffirm a word's evil power than by making it unsayable. Many students, unfortunately, have committed themselves to the mindset that everything that bothers them should be banned—or at the very least, should come with a warning label so that they may avoid ever encountering a troubling word or concept.
I would say that people who feel existentially threatened by language itself need to get over themselves, but I would probably be accused of hate speech.
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I guess it would be inappropriate and tasteless to tell the outraged student to "grow a pair."
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Below or above the waist?
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of what? tits?
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Savage used the slur t—–
You mean I can't write out the word t_______ anymore? Like n_____ and f_ck?
Its like some sort of anti-memetic weapon is being deployed here.
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Sounds like Hex is an attention whore. Whore is an OK word to say, right? Especially when talking about nicole?
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Hex sounds like some kind of a nut.
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Nice one.
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It's all in your head, man...
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If you ever use "w-slur" instead, I will stab you.
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Nicole, you really are the w-slur. The other one.
(locks doors, puts on chainmail)
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But that's...not a slur...
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I'm going to keep using "W-slur".
I mean, otherwise I have to type out Warty's name. And that scares me.
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I think it's "attention sex worker" now. If you're hanging with lefties.
Or "attention sex trafficking victim" if you're hanging with righties.
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Close - its 'dirty whore who should be put in jail for the rest of her life' for the righties
and
'sex-trafficking victim who should be put in jail for the rest of her life' for the lefties.
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"I would say that people who feel existentially threatened by language itself need to get over themselves, but I would probably be accused of hate speech."
Check your sticks-and-stones resistant privilege.
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God I love this shit!
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Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful
Did he hurt your feels?
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It's quite a world we live in where someone doesn't feel like kind of a pussy when admitting that someone "threatened" and "made them feel uncomfortable" with...a single word.
I'm sure Hex has a lot of happiness in its future.
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And unsafe! UNSAFE! Un. Motherfucking. Safe.
At the U of C.
Take a walk west of Cottage Grove, It.
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"Unsafe" is just a conscious distortion of the language to make "uncomfortable" sound more serious and less like a rash. Because "unsafe" just means "uncomfortable".
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But being unsafe also actually exists, like...not that far away. Which makes this an insulting, bullshit lie.
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No, no, it really means "unsafe", as in the freaking word "tranny" would take corporeal form and beat Hex about the head until bloody.
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Well, to be fair - setting has a lot to do with it.
If I'm walking down the street and a group of Mexicans start following me and yelling gringo, honkey, pinche gabacho, etc - I'd feel pretty threatened.
Talking about slurs (with anyone) in an academic setting, not so much.
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Right. But this was in a crowded lecture hall. Was Dan Savage going to incite the crowd to lynch it?
Like Epi said above, it is a drama que-,er, regent that wants to make its own insecurities and self-esteem issues sound more dire and important so it can get the attention it craves.
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Like Epi said above, it is a drama que-,er, regent that wants to make its own insecurities and self-esteem issues sound more dire and important so it can get the attention it craves.
Maybe once some of these shitlibs like Savage start getting burnt at the stake by the Church of Perpetual Grievance that they helped nurture, hopefully 1) this run of rampant PC crimethink will start to grind to a halt, and 2) college humanties departments, in particular, will undergo the massive cuts they deserve.
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Its choice of pronoun reminds me of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs: "It puts the lotion on its skin." A character who also made t____ look rather bad.
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Sure, it's Hex's right to feel uncomfortable. It's not the duty of society, or random speakers to change our speech to the liking of others.
Sure, it's Hex's right to feel threatened by this. However, feelings don't trump free-speech rights. It's just that simple.
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Sticks and stones can be arranged in the shape of a penis, and words can make me scared.
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Wait, if you're not allowed to say "tranny", how are high school dirtbags supposed to complain about the cost of repairing their shitty cars?
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Good to know that U. Chicago students are getting such educational value for their outrageous tuition dollars. Forty years from now, when they're still paying off those loans, they can take comfort in the fact that they got to see Dan Savage speak in person.
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Hex asked Savage and Cox to use the term "T-slur" instead of the actual word. According to second-year Sara Rubinstein, an executive director of QUIP (Queers United in Power), and Hex, Savage then named other slurs, asking if they were suitable to use instead. "Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful," Hex said.
Hex, by trying to control what words Savage and Cox could and couldn't use, was threatening them and making them uncomfortable.
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I remember when people lost their shit over Bart Simpson saying "hell" and "damn". If we have to have this sort of animistic censoriousness about words, I would prefer to keep our old obscenities rather than invent new ones, thank you very much.
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Eat my shorts, Warty.
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Don't have a cow, man.
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Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger®!
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B'oh!
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aye carumba! enough already.
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"Is there a Jass here? A Hugh Jass??"
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I'm Hugh Jass.
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Why doesn't Lisa love me? Is it because of my small calves? But they're the hardest place to add mass!
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I'm looking for Amanda Hugenkiss!
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I've never watched the Simpsons and I know all these.
WTF is WRONG with me??!
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For starters, you never watched Simpsons
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I, uh, um...
Uh, well, you know...
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When exactly did tranny become a slur?
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Actually, it's more of a slurry.
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Its always been a slur. just because its also always been the common word to refer to these people doesn't mean that there haven't been highly negative connotations to it.
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"It" is Hex's chosen pronoun.
What, not "T-slur"?!
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It? Hex wants people to think of Hex as a child killing space clown?
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"member of the LGBTQ community"
Well, there's your problem right there.
until they start charging fees in exchange for membership privileges like a fucking HOA, i say this 'community' bullshit is all in your head, lady/guy/person.
Your feelings are the problem. The world doesn't need to fix itself around them. You need to get your shit straight and quit playing St Fucking Sebastian because you think you can.
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"because you think you can"
is one big reason for people doing stuff.
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"I'm really a ____ trapped in a man's body"
If I were to use any other noun but 'woman' in that sentence, I would be labeled insane. But in that one case, I'm part of a protected class and am therefore entitled to bitch about your insensitivity.
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What Ricky Suave fails to mention is that Dan Savage deserves this kind of treatment.
You want me to weep for the Sorcerer's Apprentice? Maybe Savage shouldn't have lived up to his name so much by viciously denouncing just about anyone who isn't like him - which he does in the name of tolerance, of course.
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Might this have been a setup? Maybe Dan has been feeling a bit neglected lately?
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Are you saying he's some kind of attention-hungry self-promoter?
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He's jealous of all the mentions RuPaul got and wants a little tempest in a teapot publicity action too.
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Ex-fuc**ng-actly.
Savage is one of the folks taking the lead in rousing up the hurt and offended forces of tolerance against white, male, heteronormative, blah, blah, blah. That he's on the line to get skewered by those very forces doesn't bother me in the least.
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Just like Colbert - when your audience is trained seals, don't be surprised when you get bit.
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"In that context, it was like being applied to all transgender people," it said. ("It" is Hex's chosen pronoun.)
It puts the lotion on its skin! It does what it is told!!!
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"In that context, it was like being applied to all transgender people," it said. ("It" is Hex's chosen pronoun.)
"Stop saying THE WORD!!"
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+Ni
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+28?
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-no
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Hmm...I'd kind of wished this might be the Execution of Robepierre moment for this political correctness, but I suspect the Terror will continue.
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I wonder if Dan Savage will find that he's just a Girondin?
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"Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful," Hex said.
1) You're a fucking pussy - fuck you.
2) That is all. -
Fucking college students.
People like this make me embarrassed to be someone who went to college.
All I can say is that I'm very glad to be rid of such a foul institution.
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The student loan bubble can't burst fast enough.
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I thank god it wasn't like that when I was around (six years ago). At least, I didn't remember it being like that.
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College is pretty well siloed. Unless you're actively looking for it, the stupid will stay out of sight, mostly.
Just don't read the student newspaper.
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T-slur, please...
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I believe Savage has repeatedly failed to check his cisgender privilege. This is far from the first incident.
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At least he didn't get glitter-bombed this time. That shit's impossible to clean up.
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*jazz hands!!*
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Yes, apparently so. From the comments:
Bringing in Dan Savage was as negative as bringing in a member of a Hate Group. He is Transphobic, Biphobic, and says very questionable things about Sexual Assault. Bringing him to our school is harmful to trans* people's, bisexuals's, and survivors's feelings of acceptance at this campus.
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Savage derides asexuals as well.
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Does trans* indicate a footnote, or is it being used as a shell wildcard to cover all possible gender identification?
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Would it be inappropriate to laugh in this person's face? Because if not, I'll need to think of something else.
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How is tranny a slur but queer is not?
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You are making the mistake of applying 'reason' and not 'feelings' to this issue.
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Queer has been adopted by The Community.
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I thought that show got cancelled.
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*** rising intonation ***
I think I see a solution to the "tranny problem" ....
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Nobody ever sent me a ballot for that one.
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The same reason nigger is a slur if I say it, but its not if a black person says it.
I don't know man - honkey and cracker are slurs no matter the color of your skin. White privilege.
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I've long thought that one of the major problems of blacks is that they don't have any good slurs for whitey. Honky? Ha! Cracker? Pitiful. The only halfway decent one is peckerwood, and that's more funny than hurtful.
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Peckerwood is a racial slur? I had no idea!
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It sure is!
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I can probably retire on the damages I'm going to collect for the trauma of hearing the words "Whig," "Tory" and "Quaker."
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LOL
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Does no one else find it ironic that people will band together to BAN FORMS OF SPEECH and accuse people who refuse to comply as being 'oppressors'?
THEY USED THE WORD!! THEY'RE OPPRESSING SOMETHING!!
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When you try to stop people who are initiating force from using force, then you are using force! That's tyranny!
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You can't spell "tyranny" without "tranny"!
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I was under the impression that calling someone an "it" would be offensive. If Hex is reclaiming the word "it" I find its reaction to Dan Savage quite amusing.
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CAN AN IT GET A TRIGGER WARNING, PLEASE?
*cowers in corner*
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"Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful," Hex said.
IOW, the T-slur became a T-rex.
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It is interesting that some people seem to feel "unsafe" whenever they aren't being deferred and pandered to. When in reality, it is their need to be deferred and pandered to that makes them unsafe, because it cedes power over their psyche to someone else, leaving them vulnerable, dependent, and easily manipulated.
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Tranny is bad, but tyranny is grand!
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y, yes!
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More of this, please. Dan Savage routinely uses bad-faith arguments and cheap bullying tactics to shout down people who stand in the way of his political agenda. I don't believe that Hex really felt unsafe, but making the claim chills discussion, which was the real intent. Too bad "Savage" already is a word, or else Hex could have mounted a campaign to turn it into a foul sexual term.
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You thought the Santorum was bad - you should have seen the SAVAGE those people left.....gross!
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Well Santorum deserved it, I have no problems with that.
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Santorum is an ignoramus, and maybe even a jerk. There's a name for the kind of behavior that Savage engaged in, though -- the kind of behavior where you single someone out for harassment and humiliation because they're unpopular. That is bullying, which, I am assured, Dan Savage is totally against.
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You don't get it, do you? He's not against generic bullying, any more than a nationalist is against generic "invasion." Just like a nationalist is against invasion of *his own country* while reserving the right to invade other countries, so Savage is against bullying of people he likes while reserving the right to bully people he doesn't.
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At least we should be grateful to Savage for giving everyone a mental image which can only increase their favorable impression of sodomy!
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I am aware that, as a non-trans individual, I speak from a position of cisgender privilege. More than anything, I applaud students for speaking up for their principles. It is neither my place nor intention to dispute how Savage’s choice of language may have made some students feel, or to question the genuine hurt or distress they may have felt as a result of this experience.
Does someone think this is journalism?
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Don't you oppress me!
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Check your cisjournal privilege.
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Checkez votre Anglais privilege
/Quebec Libre
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It's a college paper. It was either this or a story of the faculty parking lot getting repaved.
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Check your non-pedestrian privilege.
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+1
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Sadly, yes.
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In the not too distant future, MMA will be replaced with two 20 something college students who simply listen to mild insults through headphones (one must protect the audience, after all). The loser will be the one who cries, collapses to the floor and curls into a ball, or runs out of the arena first. Luckily, their PTSD and psychological concussions will be covered under Obamacare.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2b21yAeEpQ
like this? (sorry about the poor quality)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEBBwJdjhQ
better quality word association
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But reason told me there isn't a gay agenda.
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But we're still allowed to use a spork, right?