OT. Star Trek Censoring

Jan 30, 2024 Last reply: 2 years ago 25 Replies

This is in the comments below: It's sometimes pronounced "max", so it sounds like they is named "Max Somelastname". It is sometimes pronounced "mix", which opens up a non-binary person to unpleasant jokes which write themselves. It is sometimes pronounced "mex", which in the U.S.A. sounds like a racial slur. And the people who pronounce it the different ways all insist that their way is the correct way - and who's to argue with them, since "Mx" has no vowel?

Pronouncing it "Mox" avoids all those issues, so of course no one pronounces it "mox". Or spells it Mox. That would be too easy and too clear.

ISTM that Mr, Mrs, Miss were originally meant to indicate marriage status, not gender identity. So if Mx doesn't work for everybody, and would be ambiguous anyway, just get rid of any "Mwhatever", and just show first name, or initial. Then people can just guess at gender or marital status.

The ladies room? The beauty parlor?

It seems to me, it does leave women out. They may have already gone there, and men are only getting there later.

I started using miz in 1964, long before Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.

I couldn't remember if a given person was Miss or Mrs. so I used Mssss.

My favorit is pronounced Latinx. Rhymes with minks and sinks.

Mr. does not indicate marriage status. Miss and Mrs. do but after indicating sex.

Yes. In Latin an infinitive is one word, so you can't split it.

And some who knew Latin thought you shouldn't split an English infinitive, even though it is easy to simply do it.

Porto, portare, portavi, portatus comes to mind. The infinitive is listed 2nd in these mnemonic lists, and that one word is translated "to carry".

(First word is "I carry"; 3rd is "I carried", and 4th is past participle, "carried".)

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