Monday, May 15, 2017

Toronto Star Columnist Suggests We Dispense With "Gendered Holidays"

             It’s happened yet again.

A couple of days after I wrote a piece suggesting that progressives were about to start targeting “Mother’s Day” and “Father’s Day,” a columnist for the Toronto Star has suggested we dispense with “gendered holidays,” as they have proven “painful,” “exclusionary,” and are a “drag for non-binary parents who don’t identify with a single gender.”
That sentiment is a “drag” for those of us not in drag.
The columnist, Emma Teitel, wrote that “some of these parents” are advocating “for the creation of a brand new holiday to recognize parents who aren’t male or female.” They have even proposed a name and a date for the new observance. “Non-Binary Parent’s Day” would be July 17th. That name is direct in an ironically binary sense. There is a day for “binary” parents and would now be one for “non-binary parents.” Two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Heads or tails? Or both?
But what if a parent doesn’t fit into either the binary or non-binary categories? Wouldn’t that be “painful” and “exclusionary?”
Teitel also notes how difficult Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be for those who’ve lost their parents or don’t have good relations with them. In order to alleviate the terrible toll the annual days to honor moms and dads have taken on us, she herself proposes that we “scrap” both days for good, and replace them with “Guardian’s Day.” (In my post, “Progressives Now Frowning On The Observance Of Mother’s Day,” May 11, 2017, I suggested ‘Parental Unit’s Day’ as the holiday’s name).
Come to think of it, isn’t Memorial Day a bit difficult for those who’ve lost loved ones in the service of their country? Wouldn’t it be easier on all of us if we didn’t observe it? Perhaps we should just replace it with a new, less painful, more inclusive holiday? Whether you’re dead or alive, served in the military or didn’t serve, what the hell, “Non-Commemoratory Day” is for you!
Anyway, Ms. Teitel avers that Guardian’s Day “has a nice sci-fi fantasy ring to it” and could be “a rotating statutory holiday — meaning you can celebrate it any day you please, and you can interpret it any way you like. A guardian can be a mom, a dad, a non-binary parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a pet owner, or why the heck not — somebody who takes really good care of his houseplants.”

I propose we observe a “Non-Binary Morality Day.” Celebrate it any day you please, any way you want. Interpret it any way you like. Why the heck not? After all, it “has a nice sci-fi fantasy ring to it,” does it not?  

2 comments:

  1. Now we see what two generations of tip towing through the tulips did for us.

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    1. Yes, we are now talking about "parents" who are neither male nor female. Tiny Tim would be proud.

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