August 4, 2022

"Earlier this year, Demi Lovato updated their pronouns on Instagram... 'I’m such a fluid person... Recently, I’ve been feeling more feminine, and so I’ve adopted she/her again.'"

Writes Janay Kingsberry, in "Demi Lovato’s pronouns can help normalize gender fluidity, advocates say/Experts say it’s common for trans and nonbinary people to use multiple pronouns, and to interchange pronouns throughout their gender journey" (WaPo).

Why is Kingsberry writing "updated their pronoun" if Lovato has re-identified as "she/her"? It seems that when Kingsberry was writing about "Earlier this year," she chose to use the pronoun that Lovato was using at that time. But Kingsberry is writing now, after Lovato announced her pronouns as "she/her"? Or... no... that's not it... I don't think...
“Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities, or different language they’re using or different pronouns, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not their true selves,” said Sabra Katz-Wise, an assistant professor in adolescent/young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. “It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on.” 
Indeed, many on social media reinforced that idea and expressed hope that Lovato’s story would help normalize this experience: “This is a reminder that gender and sexuality can be totally fluid and that’s okay!” one user wrote on Twitter....
“The media’s reaction to Demi Lovato using she/they pronouns is why I wish I’d stuck with they/them,” another user wrote.  “The second I switched to he/they everyone stopped using they.”

So that's why Kingsberry wrote "Earlier this year, Demi Lovato updated their pronouns." If you take advantage of the opportunity to use the standard "she," you drop the excitement, the complexity, the challenge. It won't seem like a "journey" at all anymore. You're back home. And the normies are all too eager to welcome you back where you started. 

Aaron Williams, 21, has used they/them pronouns for more than a year. But it feels like their gender journey is just beginning, they said. “I’ve become a lot more understanding and aware of gender as a social construct in only the past few years,” said Williams, who lives in Port Talbot, Wales....

Please see me as on a journey. 

ADDED: I don't know why anyone sees the concept of being on a "journey" as something cutting edge. To my ear, it seems corny. This is my journey. That has been uncool for at least as long as there has been a band that named itself Journey. 

 

AND: It's so insular too. It's a journey, but it's just inside your own body, twirling and curling through the canyons of your mind. That takes me all the way way back to 1968 when that was a big psychedelic trope:

Beyond the seas of thought
Beyond the realm of what
Across the streams of hopes and dreams where things are really not
Come along if you care
Come along if you dare
Take a ride to the land inside of your mind...
How happy life could be
If all of mankind
Would take the time to journey to the center of the mind 
The Realm of What!

104 comments:

Howard said...

My preferred pronouns are asshole/fucktard. Nothing fluid about it.

Critter said...

All brought to you by Postmodernism.

Scotty, beam me up... said...

It’s confusing. Why? These people using the multiple pronouns are confused themselves and need mental health help from a professional who doesn’t buy into multiple genders / transgender industry that has sprung up.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Why should I care about someone else's journey? Especially when part of their "journey" is annoyingly insisting everyone else use special "pronouns" when referring to them in order to further inflate their already huge self-regard.

Meade said...

Do/Don’t Start/Stop Dis/Believin’
Hold on to/Let go of That/This Feelin’

—[my gender] Journey

wendybar said...

WHO cares? She can identify as a tree for all I care.

rhhardin said...

Babylon Bee diagnosed it. She got a flat tire.

wendybar said...

Hear!! Hear!!! Howard. That made me laugh out loud!!

AMDG said...

Language is meant to clarify communication. The use of “they/them” only confuses things.

In what way on God’s green earth is declaring oneself gender fluid” akin to transitioning?

It seems to me that in the LGBTWTF world everything beyond the first T is more of a cry for attention comb8med with varying degrees of mental illness.

Ann Althouse said...

I ripped off Meade in my post update.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

My pronouns are 'your highness.'

The Drill SGT said...

" it’s common for trans and nonbinary people to use multiple pronouns, and to interchange pronouns throughout their gender journey" ."

and they want to criminalize 'misgendering'

PB said...

Never before in human history has so much mental illness been viewed as acceptable.

tim maguire said...

It seems that when Kingsberry was writing about "Earlier this year," she chose to use the pronoun that Lovato was using at that time.

Kingsberry dead-pronouned her. That's cause for suspension from most social media.

Meade said...

Ripoff artist…she don’t look back.

tim maguire said...

If it's a journey, then why is your current stop so very important that it's bigoted to suggest that there might have been other stops?

Wince said...

I wonder, what are Ted Nugent's preferred pronouns?

BUMBLE BEE said...

Remember David and Lisa? Now... David is Lisa and Lisa is David and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4

Jamie said...

Poor Demi Lovato. I watched a documentary on her (I'm not even going to try to keep up) a while ago, the one in which she nearly died of a drug and alcohol overdose and went into rehab and... decided that weed wouldn't hurt anything. Considered herself fluidly sober or thereabouts.

I am SO GRATEFUL that none of my children grew up even remotely famous. My husband, a southern Californians with parents and aunts and uncles who worked parties at the Playboy mansion and an aunt who moved heaven and earth to get her daughters into modeling as young teens, wanted me to take them to every casting call in our area (they were very cute children and have grown up very attractive), and I flatly refused.

Our nieces have pulled it together now, but wow, were they messed up for a while. They were modeling for Benetton back in the day, so small potatoes compared with Lovato.

Ampersand said...

Last week I sent an email opposing, mainly for noise reasons, the installation of pickleball courts near some condos. I provoked furious responses by the lovers of pickleball. Several people responded by recounting their pickleball"journey". I found their claims of journeyhood pretentious and risible.

rehajm said...

Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities...It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on.

So many gender journeys begin with burned bridges and points of no return. Wouldn't 'measure twice cut once' be a better strategy?

...and oftentimes???

Tina Trent said...

But don't YOU dare misgender her. It's a crime. You can be put on a DOJ watch list.

They always weaponize the children first.

Owen said...

Please explain to me again why we —the world around this self-absorbed moron— should have to bear the cost of his/her/its/their pronoun whimsies? The whole point of language is to exchange information efficiently. Pronouns are stable for a reason: so the reader/listener can keep track of who is doing what to whom. When this fool (and too many others like him/her/it/they) starts gratuitously mucking about with said pronouns, it stalls everything. We have to work harder for no good reason, just to accommodate his/her/its/their attention-getting vapors.

Whole business makes me think of a two-year-old throwing stuff out of the shopping cart just to see if Mom will get mad.

Yancey Ward said...

This is why I don't give a shit which pronouns someone picks- if it is fluid, then I am not going to expend the time and effort to keep up with it. I will go by what my eyes tell me.

Elliott A said...

Words have gender, people have sex

Kevin said...

“It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on.”

So why isn't this widely recognized, without the pressure to label themselves?

Because in the next teaching period, we're going to learn about CRT.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Sorry semi-celebrity but we don’t care about what you call yourself today. If you aren’t singing you’re just not interesting to me! Oh and if you change your lyrics after I buy the song I’m not going back to get the woke version. My copy of Black-eyed Peas still says “let’s get retarded” and it still makes me smile.

Howard said...

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious gender fluids.

pacwest said...

Any publicity is good publicity.

Lurker21 said...

Yes. Why deadpronoun her in the headline?

gilbar said...

Remember! men that were falsely assigned the female gender, were ALWAYS male.
It is NOT something that changes.. Except..
“This is a reminder that gender and sexuality can be totally fluid and that’s okay!”


Because you were Always male (though assigned female), it's OKAY to give you puberty blockers (chemical castration) and hormones; as well as top (and bottom!) surgery, even though you are only 5 years old. Your TRUE gender will NEVER change.. Except..
“This is a reminder that gender and sexuality can be totally fluid and that’s okay!”\

of course, once we've cut off your breasts and sterilize you with puberty blockers, you won't be able to go back; but that's okay!
you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up. You trusted us!
Hey, make the best of it!

Robert Cook said...

In Ms. Lovato's case, "they" and "their" might be the proper pronoun, as it seems she might be several people in one earthly form...(rim shot!).

Levity aside, people who change their preferred pronouns according to who they feel they are on any given day--according to whim, in short--make it impossible for others (who wish to be polite) to know how to refer to her from day to day or week to week...which undermines their insistence on being referred to by the appropriate (sic) pronouns for "who the are." How does someone know who another is, other than by physical clues?

It would be easier for those with gender fluid identities to just be called by their names...no pronouns.

rehajm said...

Chrysler has played with the word in their marketing for the Dodge Journey crossover vehicle. Where will your Journey take you?, I'm Sarah and This is my Journey and such...

12 or 13 years ago they ran a contest where you could win a Dodge Journey if you solved a treasure hunt in the 'real world'. Basically they parked a truck somewhere and pointed a live video feed at the truck sitting there. If you were the first to find it, show up at the location, look into the camera and say 'My name is _____ and this is my Journey' you won the truck. The whole thing was a bit of a cock up because none of the winners got the tag line right...

Second winner

It was also a bit of a dangerous free for all and environmental disaster that overwhelmed rural resources when thousands of people joined the hunt, but no matter...

Sebastian said...

“Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities, or different language they’re using or different pronouns"

But the rest of us will then be forgiven for addressing them in the wrong cycle, correct?

"true selves”

So, if in next week's cycle I decide that I identified myself incorrectly the previous week, was I still my true self earlier? Or would my true self be dazed and confused?

“This is a reminder that gender and sexuality can be totally fluid and that’s okay!”

But isn't the logic of transgenderism that sexual identity is so deeply rooted in one's subjective self-understanding, so fixed at the core of one's true self, that to oppose or deny any transition is cruel?

Or should we all abide by the new meta-logic of pure subjectivism, namely that anyone is and must be treated as whatever x/s/he says x/s/he is at any one moment, for whatever reason, regardless of any prior identification?

AlbertAnonymous said...

They/she should change their/her pronouns to “attention starved whore”

Mine are sir and your honor.

narciso said...

She learned to deny her christian faith speak abomination

Ice Nine said...

Must have a new movie (or song, or whatever it is she does) coming out.

Buckwheathikes said...

You need a "mental illness" tag.

Sincerely,
Buckwheat

(My pronouns are Your and Majesty.)

Lilly, a dog said...

I'm thinking of a different Journey song.

They're seein' through the promises
And all the lies they dare to tell
Is it heaven or hell?
They know very well

Only the young can say
They're free to fly away
Sharing the same desire
Burnin' like wildfire

RLB_IV said...

I have one preferred pronoun and it is Mr.

Humperdink said...

They're not mentally ill, they're normal. Just ask them. Or ask those that support them.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Gen 2:24)

Jesus repeats it: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain [two] shall be one flesh." (Mark 10:6)

The words are timeless.

Sydney said...

All of that fluidity is the perfect set up for keeping yourself the center of attention.

cassandra lite said...

Late-stage decadence has many faces and pronouns.

Dave Begley said...

“Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities, or different language they’re using or different pronouns, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not their true selves,” said Sabra Katz-Wise, an assistant professor in adolescent/young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. “It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on."

Couldn't agree more.

My gender journey has brought me to beep/bop/boop.

ElPresidenteCastro said...

I was shocked to read that was Ted Nugent playing guitar. He was also wrote the song.

Not at all shocked that gender is changeable for beautiful, rich and talented women.

lgv said...

Now everyone will changing their pronouns to show how cool they are being in a journey of fluidity.

I wouldn't be quite as irritated with the entire nonsense if they/them wouldn't have used plural pronouns as their alternative. It easily create confusion in communication.

Richard said...

O'Brien tells the thought criminal Smith that control over physical reality is unimportant to the Party, provided the citizens of Oceania subordinate their real-world perceptions to the political will of the Party; and that, by way of doublethink: "Sometimes, Winston. [Sometimes it is four fingers.] Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once

Welcome to 1984. The party will make you change what you think whenever they want to to demonstrate that they are in charge.

TobyTucker said...

There are so many genders today, my "journey" might take a while before I get back to where I was.

https://dudeasks.com/how-many-genders-are-there-in-2022/

Leland said...

Seems like an intended minefield, almost like a defense mechanism, but this one is designed to cause ordinary people saying ordinary things to easily offend those laying out the minefield. The typical reaction then is just to avoid the person and therefore the minefield. But then your are called homophobic and isolating although you didn’t create the minefield.

Ann Althouse said...

You will wind up peeking through her keyhole.

ccscientist said...

Because these people want approval/affirmation due to their insecurity and because their identity revolves so much around sex, we suddenly must become involved in people's sex lives. I do not want to know about your sexual feelings. It makes life way too uncomfortable in a society of hundreds of millions. For hetero people, do we need to start hearing about and affirming that they are exhibitionists, like or don't like blow jobs, do it with the lights on or off, do it in the shower or not? Where does this stop? Are we to affirm people who have sex with sheep?

Furthermore, they are demanding that we keep up with their pretense. I'm not even sure who Lovato is but if I mention her I should use the proper pronoun? How about all the people we casually encounter at work or school, which may be hundreds over the year? I don't even know their names or if they are married so I certainly don't know their intimate "how I feel" stuff or their pronouns.

Ann Althouse said...

"Yes. Why deadpronoun her in the headline?"

Well, that's where I was originally going with the post, but reading on, I saw that the claim was that she didn't drop "they/them," she just added "she/her." So you can pick either approach.

Then some of the other discussion is a critique that says if you let people say "she," they'll totally drop "they." So *that's* why Kingsberry made a point of *choosing* the "they."

retail lawyer said...

Isn't it a crime or firing offense to misgender someone in some jurisdictions? We need to keep current on everybody if we expect to keep our jobs.

Joe Smith said...

So one day you can get banned from Twitter and the next day you're OK, depending on idiot Lovato's mood when 'it' gets up in the morning.

The Chinese are laughing their asses off.

We are weaker now than we've ever been.

I welcome our new Chinese overlords...

Joe Smith said...

'My preferred pronouns are asshole/fucktard.'

We agree on something.

Drago said...

PB: "Never before in human history has so much mental illness been viewed as acceptable."

Its gone far beyond acceptibility. Its now the lauded and praised and celebrated and, in many places, required, way to view the world in democratical/left/nevertrump (but I repeat myself) land.

Mark said...

It always surprises me when people who claim to not care take time from their busy days to post about how much they don't care.

Makes me think that MJB Wolf and their ilk really do care about this issue a whole lot.

The lady doth protest too much or whatever that saying is.

wayworn wanderer said...

Yeah, Uncle Ted on guitar.

Does anyone know what Ted's pronouns are?

Roger Sweeny said...

For what it's worth, I know someone who may be "journeying" from male to female. He's not a jerk about it, taking it slow, and mostly keeping it to himself--though a lot of us know. He has a female name picked out and thinks that at some point, he will ask people to use it.

Some people are just different.

Kevin said...

Then some of the other discussion is a critique that says if you let people say "she," they'll totally drop "they." So *that's* why Kingsberry made a point of *choosing* the "they."

Yet another example of our best and brightest making a dent in the universe.

Mark said...

You WILL use people's preferred pronouns.

You WILL accept whiplash going back and forth with people's preferred pronouns when they change them daily, as is THEIR right.

You WILL like it.

You WILL get your mind right.

mccullough said...

Lovato’s preferred pronouns are “I, me, mine”

Joe Smith said...

She was cute when she was young.

Now she is fat and looks 15 years older than she is.

It is a desperate cry to stay relevant.

The only thing she had going for her is gone at thirty years old.

Must really suck...

Dan from Madison said...

My line in the sand is "they/them" when describing one person. I can't and simply won't do it. And it is completely confusing when reading it in print or online.

Anthony said...

This is the bottom of that slippery slope many of us said was coming but were dismissed as h8ers.

Narayanan said...

so much easier for all >>> just stick with confused

Carol said...

It's getting so confusing, generally, to read "they" for an individual of known gender.

I'm thinking who's "they," who tf are we talking about now?

WK said...

I know newspapers used to have birth, engagement and marriage announcements. Maybe they can add pronoun announcements.

Earnest Prole said...

It's completely understandable. I had a young relative who identified as a cat; for hours she would respond to others entirely in cat language (most of the time, indifference). Eventually she grew out of it and is now a delightful adult.

hombre said...

Progs destroying the language. "Her" is "they" and "recession" is God knows what.

PigHelmet said...

Owen wrote (in part): “The whole point of language is to exchange information efficiently.” I’m not sure that’s the *whole* point.

Breezy said...

If you require me to use your preferred pronouns, then I require you to pay me every time I do so. See how that works? I don’t bend to your knee for free.

Night Owl said...

It's hard to believe that people embrace this insanity. You can't write satire anymore because our culture is already a joke.

Humperdink said...

"“Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities, or different language they’re using or different pronouns, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not their true selves,” said Sabra Katz-Wise, an assistant professor in adolescent/young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. “It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on."

Let's no lose sight of the fact this person is in a teaching position. The doomsday scenario has arrived.

Ann Althouse said...

"I was shocked to read that was Ted Nugent playing guitar. He was also wrote the song."

I think he wrote the music, not the words. In any case, the last verse seems anti-drug:

But please realize
You'll probably be surprised
For it's the land unknown to man
Where fantasy is fact
So if you can, please understand
You might not come back

Wa St Blogger said...

Words have gender, people have sex

Unless they are incels.

Mark said...

Demi Lovato - another victim of Disney child abuse.

How many kids has Disney effed up?

Michael K said...

There seems to be an epidemic of mental illness among a certain segment of the population. A small but noisy segment.

Drago said...

Mark: "Demi Lovato - another victim of Disney child abuse.

How many kids has Disney effed up?"

According to Howard, none at all. Nothing to see there. It's never happened. There's never been any grooming or abuse at all. It's just "groomer porn"-talk for republicans.

He can explain further.

My favorite Howard Explainers (like Vox Explainers which are always wrong) is when Howard proclaims the very videos where lefties openly and proudly brag about their grooming activities in schools never actually happened!

Humperdink said...

From Leftypedia: "Lovato had suffered from bulimia nervosa, self-harm, and being bullied before her first stint in rehab at age 18.[293][294] On November 1, 2010, Lovato withdrew from the Jonas Brothers: Live in Concert tour, entering a treatment facility for "physical and emotional issues".[295] It was reported[296] that she decided to enter treatment after punching backup dancer Alex Welch; her family and management team convinced her that she needed help. Lovato said she took "100 percent, full responsibility" for the incident.[293] On January 28, 2011, she completed in-patient treatment at Timberline Knolls and returned home. Lovato acknowledged that she had bulimia, had cut herself, and had been "self-medicating" with drugs and alcohol "like a lot of teens do to numb their pain".[297] She added that she "basically had a nervous breakdown" and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder during her treatment.[298] She later commented that she used to use cocaine several times a day and smuggled cocaine onto airplanes."

The lady has more issues than personal pronouns.

Jupiter said...

"... Sabra Katz-Wise, an assistant professor in adolescent/young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital."

A criminal parasite.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"Oftentimes, people might cycle through different gender identities...It’s just sort of part of this larger gender journey that people are on."

So she's saying she's Schizogenus?

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"How many kids has Disney effed up?"

Countless millions.

n.n said...

Words have gender, people have sex

Unless they are incels.


Incels like trans/homos engage in sex-like or sexual activities find another hole to penetrate. Human sex is both biological and behavioral where the penis penetrate the vagina.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

As soon as anyone announces "My pronouns are....___"
I immediately think - woke idiot.

mikee said...

Fluidity implies ability to fit into any shape of container. So gender fluidity means that your gender is, or at least can be, shaped (i.e., determined) by those around you? Hmm.

Big Mike said...

Demi who? Never heard of her.

Since “demi” means half-sized is “.”lovato”’ Latin for “assed”? Asking for a friend.

TobyTucker said...

Just a comment on the Amboy Dukes and all the other music of that era: "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end..." (Good times listening to WLS and WCFL out of Chicago. R.I.P. Larry Lujack.)

I feel sorry for the kids of today having to listen to the crap they call "music" today and all the other crap they have to put up with like this gender identity/pronoun BS. I'm thinking it won't end well for them. So sad.

Patrick Henry said...

In Finnish there are no gendered pronouns.

Joe Smith said...

Ashton Kutcher and Bruce Willis must be so confused...

Joe Smith said...

'Since “demi” means half-sized is “.”lovato”’ Latin for “assed”? Asking for a friend.'

If you've seen any recent photos, her ass is not 'demi.'

Patrick Henry said...

I'm waiting for someone to be she/him or he/her because they have no fluid viscosity...

walter said...

About 60% water.

Ted said...

I like Demi Lovato. She has a beautiful singing voice, and I personally think she's extremely attractive. But people are making too big a deal about this pronoun decision. It's not as if she wrote an essay in the New York Times demanding that people refer to her as "she" again. Someone asked her about it on a podcast, and she answered. Even if newspaper copy desks are falling all over themselves trying to decide if it should be "she" or "they" in a headline, I doubt she really cares that much one way of the other.

Jim at said...

I've reached the point where I don't even try to pay attention to these lunatics anymore.

Beasts of England said...

I’d never heard that Amboy Dukes song - thanks!! Cool to see Ted rockin’ a Byrdland (early to mid-sixties Florentine cutaway) back in the day.

Michael K said...

Interesting story on the tranny topic.

It turns out that the 4H program plans to house kids by their "gender preference" and is not telling parents about it.

RALEIGH — A parent that was considering sending their child to an overnight 4-H camp run by the N.C. State 4-H Cooperative Extension discovered that campers can be assigned to sleeping accommodations by their preferred gender identity.

The policy was not given to parents prior to enrolling their children at 4-H camps. Parent Van Brinson tells North State Journal he had signed his 11-year-old daughter up for a weeklong “Fur, Fish and Game” 4-H overnight camp this summer. The camp was held in the Richmond County town of Ellerbe.

“I find this exceptionally deceptive,” Brinson said. “If this is going to be their policy, then parents need to be informed. I am not anti-trans, or anything else. I am, however, staunchly pro-information.”


Tranny counselors will also bunk with the kids. OK Groomer.

Michael said...

I have no problem with fluidity, but when it comes to pronouns the menu needs to be limited. All those who aren't satisfied with the standard he/him/his and she/her/hers need to get together and agree on some third option (and not they/them/theirs, which is plural). I myself would suggest per/perm/pers, derived from "person." It is all well and good to be "non-standard," but to require everyone to keep track of a different set of pronouns for each of hundreds of individuals on pain of social opprobrium and cancellation is some combination of narcissism and bullying and should not be countenanced.

n.n said...

Progressive confusion need not be a lifetime burden.

Women, men, and "our Posterity" are from Earth. Feminists are from Venus. Masculinists are from Mars. Social progressives are from Uranus.

Baby Lives Matter (BLM)

Dr Weevil said...

I remember the first time we were told at a high-school faculty meeting to start referring to a student (whose anatomical gender I've forgotten) as "they". Just after the meeting broke up, I realized that no one had thought to ask the essential question: "'They is' or 'they are'?" Neither sounded right to me, and I managed to avoid having to use pronouns for 'them'.

jim said...

Good god, who cares.

james said...

In some of Andre Norton's science fiction, she introduced the term "gentle-sap" as a generic honorific that applied to any sapient species or sex. One might drop the "gentle" and re-purpose the remainder as a generic pronoun--pronounced with a long or short "a" depending on your mood.

Clyde said...

So basically she's identifying as less mentally ill. Good for her.

The Godfather said...

When I saw "twirling and curling through the canyons of your mind" I first read canyons as crayons. I think that may be more accurate.