‘Latinx is me’: How one letter links controversy, community

*Where do you fall on Latinx? I’m not a fan. I understand that people want a non-binary gender term that fits them. But I don’t think it’ll stick. Because if I have a Latinx friend, and hx and hxs friends (or shx and hxr friends) want thxir (or is it thexr?) identity to be refered to as such, I’m going to have a hard time keeping up with the pronouns. And how does this work in Spanish? “Mi amigx se identifica como Latinx y quiere que se le llame, a ellx (see how that doesn’t work?) y a sus amigxs, de esa manera.” How would you pronounce that in Latin America? I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a term, but this one is cumbersome. The only way to make it work is to make changes across the language, and that’s not going to happen. Let’s have an intelligent conversation. VL


cronkite newsBy Socorro Carrillo, Cronkite News

Just one letter – “x”– has spurred death threats, sparked arguments and reverberated throughout a community.

Latinx.

Lateen-eks.

The “x” marks the intersection where masculine and feminine are dropped in the Latino/Latina culture, rolling out a new, controversial label for those who don’t identify as masculine or feminine. Those who identify as Latinx are part of an emerging and increasingly visible group known as genderqueer or nonbinary. At times, Latinx is substituted as an all-encompassing term for all Latinos.

Latinx is equal parts social-media firestorm, social movement and social divider.

From smartphone screens to Twitter feeds, and friend circles to academic literature, Latinx has quickly flooded the conversation around evolving language, culture and masculinity.

“When you change words, you change stories,” said Brendan O’Connor, a linguistic anthropologist at Arizona State University. “When we say having to choose between established genders is problematic . . . READ MORE


[Photo by Everyday Femenism]

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