[lbo-talk] This "Partner" Crap

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Mon Dec 24 15:31:57 PST 2007


Does anyone know how the term "partner," which obscures marital status and sexual orientation as if they were something shameful, became leftist default language?

Are the arbiters of political correctness really so small-minded that they can't find anything more liberatory than secrecy about the most basic facts of one's life?

I'll grant that some parties - not to be confused with me, of course - might find "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" a bit...well, off, when used by adults of a certain age.

But even so, wouldn't inventing new terms, or perhaps reviving old ones, make more sense than hiding one's choices with language designed explicitly to do so?

"Partner" puts us all in the closet together. If that isn't "crude communism," I don't know what is; and if it's "solidarity," I'll pass.



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