I didn't really care about the content of this article. But check out the style notes:
The author, Tree Bressen, uses a lower case "i" to refer to herself because, as she says in a postcript, "The English language is one of the few (maybe the only?) in the world that uses a capital letter to refer to oneself but not to others in pronoun form.... I choose to treat myself as a part of the sentence, no greater or lesser than any other part, to be capitalized at the beginning and not in the middle." Tree also uses a feminist version of the word human — "humyn".
I wonder if bell hooks and e.e. cummings are about the same thing. Where do I start? That "myn" reminds me too much of "gyn" which triggers my innate wombtomb fear that makes me all nervous and stuff. No, it swings things too much to the feminine side (although you could argue that that would only be fair). How about Humits? Or Huits? As for the "i," I hereby will refer to myself with "_____." Yep, it's a blank. _____ just feel that _____ am actually less important that all of the words in a sentence. Maybe it's that wombtomb shit that _____ suffer from, or just an inferiority complex due to all of the schoolyard beatings that _____ was a victim of.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
gees..i've been using lower case in most of my web commentary and non-business email for years.
no high-falutin' motives here though....it started once in the middle of several months of software documentation, when my wrists started to bother me. so leaving out the shift key during non-essential writing eased things up a bit.
...plus i know it pisses people off. heh.
2 - Jan Eggers
You have stumbled onto something great, Mark. _____ think you should pursue it.
3 - visualsimplicity
In Mark's case, I would suggest he stick to the lower case i and not switch to Jan's ______ since that would add about 4-5 extra shift finger action, which is a bad thing. However, not capitalizing I just seems lazy to me. Indeed Mark, it is annoying, at least to me, to see i instead of I.
4 - Mark Saleski
...yea, but when i'm writing in cursive (on paper...where most of my posts begin their lives) the letter i is so much easier to get down.
plus, nobody gets hurt (i think)
5 - visualsimplicity
Wow, I should have put those "I's" and "i's" in quotations, they don't read out very well. A hypocrite I have become. I was too lazy to put quotations, so I left them out.
6 - Mark Saleski
somehow, i feel like i'm now one step closer to posting on the "50 Cent" thread...
7 - Jim Carruthers
I knew someone at uni who insisted on using the lowercase for his name, basically, a pretentious asshole. He had a sugar canister in his kitchen labeled "white death". We put a canister with a dead rat in it beside it labeled "Black death".
Hah, stupid hippy.
8 - Mac Diva
I find her arguments unconvincing. How is using 'yn' instead of 'en' less male-derived? 'Gyn' as in gynecology isn't even pronounced the same. I? I think that capitalizations (but not unnecessary ones) aid the eye by breaking up the text. And, when talking about oneself, the attention is supposed to be focused on the subject -- I. Methinks Tree is one of those people who spend a lot time focusing on aspects of writing instead of having something worthwhile to say.
9 - Mac Diva
Oh my, it just struck me Mark says he applies pen to paper! How quaint. It has been ages since I've done that at all often. Perhaps the Luddite can tell us more about his pre-modern habit-:).
10 - duane
The obvious pcification of "human" would be "huperson." Problem solved.
Oooh. The White Zombie song becomes the much improved, "More huperson than a huperson," etc.
"Man's inhumanity to man" becomes "Person's inhupersonity to person."
"To err is huperson, to forgive, divine."
I got a million of 'em.
11 - visualsimplicity
Ah but what about the aspect of perSON? Son would also refer to a male child of a parent. Then you have to go PCify that.
12 - Jim Carruthers
Y'know, before it got hijacked by right wing groupthink junkies, the phrase "politically incorrect" was the property of Maoists, especially for self-criticism sessions.
I don't know which is more damning, that Maoists let loose this bludgeoning phrase, or that those who wear their jackboots with wing-tips expropriated it.
And Happy New Year to you too, we're living in the future!
(And yes, I do own a Mao suit, really!