"All over the country, particularly in bright blue states like California, people are swapping the words 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' — and even 'husband' and 'wife' — for the word 'partner.'"

"According to data compiled by Google Trends, the search term 'my partner' has been steadily gaining traction...  After the term 'domestic partnership' gained significant legal and popular recognition, 'partner' became the default word for much of the LGBT community until gay marriage was legalized in the United States in 2015. More recently, straight couples have started saying 'partner,' with the term gaining most traction among young people in highly-educated, liberal enclaves. On certain college campuses, several students said, it would come across as strange, even rude, to use the terms 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' in lieu of the more inclusive, gender-neutral 'partner.' 'At Harvard, everyone is very polite and liberal,' said [Michael Bronski, a professor of women and gender studies at Harvard]. 'Everyone has partners now. Even if that person is someone you hooked up with the night before or your spouse of 40 years.'... The word “partner,” she said, gives couples the power to publicly announce a lasting adult commitment, without an engagement or a wedding. If the couple does decide to get married, the ceremony itself serves not to solidify the relationship, but to celebrate it, surrounded by family and friends.... But some members of the LGBT community are skeptical. 'It’s a joke we all know,' said Sean Drohan, a college consultant based in New York City who identifies as gay. 'If I was making a movie for a gay audience, and a straight couple introduced themselves as partners, that would definitely get a laugh.'... He is especially dubious of people who use the term as what he calls a 'performance of wokeness,' an attempt to publicly showcase their progressive worldview."

"Boyfriend and girlfriend are out. 'Partners' are in. Here’s why more millennials are changing how they define their relationships. The growing preference for 'partner' could suggest a shift that goes beyond labels and language" (at "The Lily" at WaPo).

Ha ha. I am encouraged to see the term "performance of wokeness" and to know that it's laughed at by more woke people. You're less woke if you perform it? I like that development.

And it makes me think of Jesus:  "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.... [W]hen you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others.... And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others."

But Jesus's point was that the show-offs got their reward from other people and do not get rewarded by God. But Drohan is saying that the show-offs — the performers of wokeness — are not getting rewarded by other people, at least not by the really woke people whose approval they want.

How then will we know who's woke? We won't and we shouldn't and we can't. All expressions are mysterious and even when you think you're following the precepts of your religion/religion substitute, you can be seen as the opposite of what you think you are. Just ask that smiling boy over there.