Posted in: Comics | Tagged: daily mail, fox news, gender queer, Maia Kobabe

Fox News & Daily Mail Ridicule Gender Queer Pronouns, But Only So Far

Published Sat, 03 Sep 2022 08:57:10 -0500

Time Magazine gave an interview to Maia Kobabe over eir graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir, which has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and occasionally the right ones. Kobabe identifies as non-binary, prefers the use of non-binary pronouns e/em and eir, and eir journey towards that is much of what the graphic novel is about. The interview occurred after an obscenity case brought against em and eir publisher Oni Press and bookstore Barnes & Noble by Republican politicians, was dismissed by the courts on multiple grounds, and e talks about the book, er reaction to the various bannings and challenges around the country and er plans for a follow-up book, a fictional story tackling some of the same issues, but aimed at younger children.

Fox News and the Daily Mail had one shared reaction to that article, and that was to find people on social media mocking Time Magazine's use of pronouns, and there were so many examples out there, that they basically used the same half dozen.

Lindsay Kornick and Kelsey Koberg of Fox News and unnamed writer for the Daily Mail both reported the mocking comments from The Spectator's Stephen Miller, the author Frank Fleming, El American editor-at-large Ben Kew, Washington Examiner columnist Becket Adams, conservative writer Kimberly Morin. The Daily Mail managed to find a couple more as well. It might suggest that this wasn't actually an outpouring of mocking and may not have even warranted a story from both famed organs of the free press.

But, and I may be mind-reading a little here, there is also the sign that the author's hearts might not have been in it. Because while neither report used Maia's preferred pronouns when referring to e, aside from quotes… they didn't use any pronouns at all. They referred to eir full name or eir surname far more than usual, or as "the author". They may have to write this article, they may have to quote the kind of voices they have been told to quote – and it's basically the same voices – but they are damned if they are going to misgender Maia Kobabe themselves in the process.

The Daily Mail even went so far to talk about the origin of these pronouns, the Spivak pronouns, as a set of gender-neutral pronouns based on those used by American mathematician Michael Spivak, formed by dropping the 'th' from they, them and their.

Just a reminder that sometimes reporters don't echo the extremes of politics of the publication they are working for, usually they are just doing the job. A new edition of Gender Queer is going to FOC from Oni Press this weekend.

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