Who is Gad Saad? Someone who is clearly troubled by this horrible TREND of trans people having jobs!
A few days ago, Canadian psychologist Gad Saad tweeted a seemingly harmless thread about how he and his wife, while dining in a cafe, wanted to approach the transgender waitress to order. But lo! Saad’s wife was “frozen in fear” that she would use the wrong pronouns for the server. This, according to Saad, is why pronoun discourse is toxic.
My wife walked up to the server at our local cafe. The person was possibly transgender. She wanted to engage the individual but was frozen in fear that she might use a pronoun that might offend. Therein lies the problem with this language policing. It takes perfectly natural
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) October 27, 2021
I mean…interesting takeaway, but no. As many have since pointed out, it’s not necessary to use pronouns in many circumstances, even if Saad and wife were speaking French. For instance:
things you can "safely" say to your gender-ambiguous server:
"hello"
"how are you?"
"can i have a coffee with cream & sugar"
"the leaves are beautiful out there"
"those are great shoes"things not to say:
"what up, theyfriend?"
"can i see your genitals?"— Midwestern Hedgie (@MidwestHedgie) October 27, 2021
Let’s also remember that Saad and his wife are MOST definitely not the victims here. Think it’s hard ordering coffee from a trans waitress? Have you considered, um, BEING the trans server in question?
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Lol, as a trangender who works at a cafe, I can promise you that pronouns are not necessary when ordering coffee, 100% of the time. It doesn’t sop boomers from calling me “boss man” and “big guy,” though. https://t.co/VadSyio5q3
— katie’s slasher movie 🎃 (@katieofthelake) October 27, 2021
Maybe your wife should change her greeting from “you there, female!” to a more traditional “hi”
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 27, 2021
"The barista at Starbucks was at the counter making gender and I saw one of the genders and the gender looked at me!”
— 🎃💀Bratty Bekka but Spookier💀🎃 (@BrattyBekka) October 27, 2021
Therein lies the problem with this language policing. It takes perfectly natural shelved eggs and in the quest to not offend an extraordinarily small minority (who of course deserve to shelve their eggs like anyone else), everyone is wa
— Ghost Tour Question-Asker (@erinmcallahan) October 27, 2021
Gad Saad’s wife ordering a coffee:
GOOD MORNING SIR, CAN SHE OVER THERE MAKE ME A CARAMEL FRAPPE AND COULD THAT TALL GUY PASS ME A CROISSANT? LADIES AND GENTLEMEN DO YOU TAKE APPLE PAY? https://t.co/U67ocLULEG
— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) October 28, 2021
Oh but look! Saad has replied!
Oh my! A lot of people are "offended" at the story that I shared about my wife not wanting to offend a server at the cafe earlier this morning! Not wanting to offend is now a measure of offence! 🙂
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) October 27, 2021
I guess not wanting to offend is now a measure of offense. Wow, what a world! Except that it’s totally fine to not want to offend someone, as long as you maybe keep your thoughts to yourself and don’t blast your ignorance all over the Internet.
I think people just think it’s weird you made up a story and told Twitter about it
— Henry Gilbert (@hEnereyG) October 27, 2021
Is this about offense and hatred or do we just find the ignorance in your story easy to make fun of? Can you tell the difference?
— eco 🏳️⚧️ mockery of nature (@cephalopie) October 27, 2021
It just never ends, does it?
If we’re being honest, here’s the real takeaway:
It certainly does takes perfectly natural
— Jonathan Surratt (@beerinator) October 27, 2021