JIM TREACHER: Why Should I Use Ezra Miller’s Preferred Pronouns?
And what’s even worse, this bizarre phenomenon renders news stories [such as this Variety article] about “nonbinary” people almost indecipherable. Just look at this latest story about the ex-Flash actor going around the world being a violent lunatic:
The actor — best known for playing the DC superhero the Flash in several films for Warner Bros. — was set to start filming the studio’s latest entry in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ in London when the shoot was halted on March 15, 2020, due to COVID. In the weeks after, Miller, who identifies as nonbinary and uses ‘they/them’ pronouns, became a regular at bars in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, where locals came to know and even befriend them. Many recognized Miller from their earliest breakout movies, 2012’s ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and 2011’s ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin,’ where they played a troubled teen who brought a bow and arrow to school and murdered his classmates.
It’s a grammatical nightmare. “Many recognized Miller from their earliest breakout movies.” Oh, so those Icelanders worked with Miller on those movies? No, you see, “their” is supposed to refer to him.
And this part is just madness: “They played a troubled teen who brought a bow and arrow to school and murdered his classmates.” So it’s not “They murdered their classmates,” because the character he was playing wasn’t nonbinary? What is this gibberish?
Tom Hanks recently said he regrets playing a gay man in Philadelphia because he’s not gay. I always thought that was just called “acting,” but what do I know. If that’s the case, though, why should a nonbinary person be allowed to play a normal person?
And if I’m expected to use a criminal’s preferred pronouns, why can’t Rachel Dolezal call herself black? There’s less genetic difference between a white woman and a black woman than between any man and any woman.
How bad is the Variety article that Treacher quotes above? This bad:
When journalism crosses the line to activism.
UPDATE: Variety More Concerned Over Misgendering Ezra Miller Than His Assaulting Victims.
(Updated and bumped.)