[lbo-talk] This "Partner" Crap

[Chuck]

Joseph Catron wrote:
> 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.

Huh? Why is the use of this term a problem? Is this some kind of 
generational thing I don't get?

I've used this term for years, well, back when I actually had a partner. 
As I see it, this is a term used to describe a serious relationship that 
is something more than "boyfriend" or "girlfriend."

How isn't this term liberatory? This term infuriates religious people, 
who still insist that everybody involved in a serious relationship get 
married. For me, the term was liberatory, because I had to put up with 
some familial friction when I started living with my "girlfriend" back 
in 1991. I always saw this term as an in-your-face alternative to the 
pro-marriage hegemony in our culture.

Chuck0