Quote from TofuQueen
The irritation is towards the assumption that the only reason for choosing a non-traditional name is "trying to make the child unique". In my family's case, the runner-up names were Peter and Molly, so yeah, I'm pretty sure our names were just chosen because they were the ones they liked best.
Emphasis on your own interpretation. And you keep bringing yourself up as a singular counterexample. I think you are taking it way too personally. Perhaps this matter with names is hitting you harder than it should?
This is what I first wrote and you quoted:
Quote from N0x_
parents these days are struggling so hard to make their children "unique" in any way possible, ...
... and one of those ways happens to be giving them unique or at least rare names. Not *all* parents are going for that, but that should go without saying. Did I say there was anything wrong parents that do? Nope. Nothing wrong with trying to be unique. God knows, I don't want to associate myself with plebeians.
:-|
:-)
>:-)~
Sure, I ridicule some of the crazier names I've heard (single, non-alphanumeric characters), but if you couldn't tell, I thought some of them sound kind of cool, or even normal (Asterisk/Star). And if you haven't noticed, I like picking at everything and everyone, including myself, so perhaps you could... I don't know, just let it slide, or get used to it. I'm a bit confused, because you've had your name name for a while now, and I'm sure you didn't need to snap at every person who contributed to a conversation about outlier names.
You added "
only" in your own mind. Subconscious strawmanning generally gives me the impression that the other party is itching for a confrontation.
Then again, come to think about it, the vast majority of people I know who have outlier names or interesting pronunciations/spellings of their names have been anal and vocal about their names, excessively so.
"That's Riawwwna... not Ri-Aaah-nna... No one ever pronounces my name right! How difficult can it be?"
"That's Cyndee spelled with a Y and a double E."
"... we're just chatting with each other verbally though.""Yeah, like, it's just so you know. You know?"
I don't really mind if some parents want to raise their kid genderless in an attempt to differentiate them from others (make their kid "unique"). That's their business, just as is what they want to name their kids. I personally think they are putting way too much effort fighting gender identity, but I won't deny them the opportunity to prove me and/or others wrong. I also think it would be sad if someone relies only on his name or some other gimmick to distinguish himself/herself from others.
Quote from TofuQueen
Quote from Vudoodude
A child is born into this world like a clean slate, and it is society that will begin etching and shaping that slate into what the child will become.
Oh...wow...this is so completely NOT true! Babies are born into this world with a personality already in place. Yes, society & parents have an influence, but a lot is already THERE when the baby is born.
I think it's interesting how you are now siding with the nature side of the argument over nurture (slightly).
I have to agree (slightly), and note that what you are saying now (and the existing evidence I'm aware of on the matter) does somewhat discredit the feasibility and rationale behind the genderless identity unschooling.
There are actually a lot of valid and logical reasons for gender identification of roles/jobs, etc which make it more practical for one gender to fulfill a role over the other. On that note, it's reasonable might even be more productive to have kids just focus on what they're more likely to succeed in and what may be better for society... with a rational open eye and ever-open mind for opportunities to rock the boat once in a while, of course.
Last edited by N0x_ at 1:54 pm, May 25 2011