I think there's a big difference between Jo's comment and the others. She's simply saying that it's something she doesn't understand - what's ignorant about that? That's incomprehension, which is different.

Comforting that the others are red-arrowed, though.

Because she is classing gender reassignment surgery as some form of plastic surgery, saying he is an attractive man, and therefore should be happy as he is.

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i do see the problem there, it's somewhat the same mindset as littlejohn whenever he states that he doesn't know what intersexed means. there are two reasons for commenting on a story you knowingly don't understand, one is to learn and the other is to parade your ignorance, and i'm not convinced jo is interested in learning anything.

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Pretty much this.

The way the DM reports things isn't helping, too. This is what Rolling Stone went for on their cover when reporting the same story:


I've not read the article in question, but I've not seen it mentioned in any negative way so I assume it's fairly respectful.

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Changin' avatars like there's no tomorrow

here tis, i read it a few days ago (a friend is a big fan of the band in question and had it on his facebook page*) the tone is very respectful, correct use of "she" throughout. sadly, internet comments are...well...internetty, but the piece itself is well done.


*his own reaction btw, was surprised, but respectful.

edit: ok that's just the same outlets news report of the story, seems like the full article it longer and either paywalled or won't be avaliable till after that issue of rolling stone is out of date.

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double blog! what does it mean?

I think that\s a bit like expecting Wittgenstein in a Tweet, if you get my drift. She's saying she finds him attractive - and what is wrong with that? She says she doesn't understand his/her motivation - I suspect many people wouldn't. I think you are raising the bar too high.

It's no different in practice to the Mailite view of "get over it" with regards to mental issues, as it's "well I don't get it therefore they shouldn't do X, Y or Z" or "well they can still do X so they should be able to do Y". The fact she's window dressed it and put out doilies before asking the question doesn't remove the profound ignorance behind it.

Not to mention her linking the singer's attractiveness with Gender Identity Dysphoria being majorly fucking stupid, of course.

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OK.

But if you aren't prepared to understand her, why do you expect her to understand you?

I understand that people don't 'get' GID and gender variance as a whole. I don't get it and I believe I have it, so to expect the layman to wholly get it is quite the undertaking.

But it's still ignorance. It's ignorant to suggest that this person shouldn't make a decision because of what they look like. If the singer - when presenting as male, as she has done for most of her life - was unattractive, would this commenter be saying the same? No, she wouldn't.

Instead of saying 'I don't understand it, but I wish them luck' as any sane person would, she's instead tried to pass judgement on what this woman should do with her life and her body.

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Changin' avatars like there's no tomorrow

So not understanding something is 'ignorant' - well, of course it could be, but there are less judgemental ways of putting it. Is it helpful, when faced with someone who doesn't understand something that you wish they did understand, to use pejorative terms? Or is it better to educate them?

Like the success of a joke, it's all in the delivery. You can not understand things and not appear to be ignorant, or even apologetic for one's ignorance on the subject matter.

"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand. Could you explain it to me, please?" is acknowledging one's lack of understanding, but does not come across as ignorant.
"I don't get it. Why would someone do that?" is acknowledging one's lack of understanding, but is - in this context, at least - ignorant.

The commenter in question explained they didn't understand it, yet continued to make comments about what this person should or shouldn't do. That is ignorance. One could assume she did not do even the lightest bit of research on GID (there's plenty of information out there), and instead decided that her opinion about something she knows nothing about is worth sharing, despite admitting she doesn't understand it.

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'Cos none of us here would ever do that...

and? doesn't mean we lose the right to point it out when others do it, if everyone had to be perfect in their opinions and commentary all the time to have the right to say anything, this would just be a blank forum.

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double blog! what does it mean?

None of us are perfect. We're all ignorant in our own ways, but we're largely open to having our views challenged and our knowledge broadened, which is not true for the typical Mailite.

But there's a difference between not understanding and ignorance. Ignorance implies the inability to understand, or at least the lack of will to understand. It implies that someone is talking about something they know nothing about, whether they're making a small comment like that or are standing in a funny robe on a pulpit in a Scottish church. This woman likely didn't mean harm, I certainly don't think she did, but her comment is so naive. It assumes so many things about a condition that she clearly doesn't understand (and claims not to understand), so for her to say she doesn't understand it but suggests this person should - basically - get over it is rather ignorant.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh. I'm sure I am. But this is a personal issue for me, one that causes me hours of torment on a bad day. It's an issue that isn't understood by many people, and as such it's very dangerous to perpetuate or even turn a blind eye to the ignorance. Why? Because transpeople are attacked, raped, insulted, bullied, castigated from society, murdered - all for being themselves. A trans activist was beheaded earlier this year simply for who she was.

How the frak do you think I feel, knowing that? When I see stories like this, comments like that, it shows just how much ignorance there is in the world, whether it's intentional or not. I have nothing against the woman in question, but she needs to educate herself on topics before discussing them, because that sort of attitude only makes things worse. She's adding to this myth that it's all about doing these... weird things. That it's all about looking different. No, it's not. It's about being able to live. It's about having inner peace.

It's about being yourself.

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Changin' avatars like there's no tomorrow

OK.

We must never, ever look for things that we could find encouraging and work with to make things better.