So we have some people complaining that the new archon is female and some other people complaining that they should have referred to the female divine beings as "goddess"
First of all, I think it was established that "goddess" didn't fit on the card
Second of all, why does this, or the new archon, matter? Some of you really have too much time on their hand (and I'm typing this while at work!)
I'm not going to debate the bolded further than in this post
The bolded is something I just cannot ignore: it is NOT sexist to refer to a female divine being as a goddess. Just NO. The representation of the being is clearly meant to be identified as a female: nature and the sea are usually associated to feminin (el mar or la mar Hemingway would argue!) and there is nothing inherently wrong in recognizing it. WotC chose to go with God rather than Goddess for practical measures: Goddess did not fit and it is also a well-intended, thoughtful measure to avoid having to deal with people who think that everything and everyone in the universe is the same and should be treated the same.
Differentiating between the sexes is NOT sexist; in fact I'd argue that stating that there should be no difference between men and women in language and culture to be much, much more offensive intellectually than someone using the word Goddess to refer to a FEMALE representation of a divine being. Neither is ideal but we are imperfect beings: rather than try to fix that cannot be fixed, accept and deal with the real world.
Except it is sexist, for reasons I stated clearly. You didn't really address my argument, so...
I'm getting the impression my point is going over people's heads. I'm not saying the term 'godess' is offensive, I'm saying the fact that there exists a different term for a female god is a pointless differentiation between male gods and female gods. Why does there need to be a different term for the two?
If you subscribe to the logic that the term 'goddess', or 'actress', or any gender-specific title is okay, you are basically saying that it would be okay if all job titles are gender specific for no reason.
Would you like a she-chanic to fix your car?
Except it is sexist, for reasons I stated clearly. You didn't really address my argument, so...
I'm getting the impression my point is going over people's heads. I'm not saying the term 'godess' is offensive, I'm saying the fact that there exists a different term for a female god is a pointless differentiation between male gods and female gods. Why does there need to be a different term for the two?
If you subscribe to the logic that the term 'goddess', or 'actress', or any gender-specific title is okay, you are basically saying that it would be okay if all job titles are gender specific for no reason.
Would you like a she-chanic to fix your car?
I feel like the differentiation between Actor and Actress at least provides some useful information, since knowing the gender of someone who acts is helpful because acting parts tend to be gender specific a lot of the time. I don't really see why waiter vs. waitress has any value though, since the gender of the person bringing me my food is of essentially zero interest in most conversations where waiters get mentioned. Same thing with the she-chanic bit. Ironically, some job titles where it might actually be helpful don't do this--you see the phrase "male model" a lot because the gender is actually kind of relevant, but the job title isn't gendered.
Then again, English is so poorly put together that I don't really care that much. The god/goddess thing bothered me some, but I feel like being able to reference it as 1 consistent creature type plus the shorter length makes up for any english specific gendered title weirdness.
"God" can be a neuter term, especially in light of a mixed gender pantheon. Saying that Artemis was the ancient Greek god of the moon would not be inaccurate or inappropriate.
Except it is sexist, for reasons I stated clearly. You didn't really address my argument, so...
I'm getting the impression my point is going over people's heads. I'm not saying the term 'godess' is offensive, I'm saying the fact that there exists a different term for a female god is a pointless differentiation between male gods and female gods. Why does there need to be a different term for the two?
If you subscribe to the logic that the term 'goddess', or 'actress', or any gender-specific title is okay, you are basically saying that it would be okay if all job titles are gender specific for no reason.
Would you like a she-chanic to fix your car?
Romance Languages don't count, they gender everything.
I feel like the differentiation between Actor and Actress at least provides some useful information, since knowing the gender of someone who acts is helpful because acting parts tend to be gender specific a lot of the time. I don't really see why waiter vs. waitress has any value though, since the gender of the person bringing me my food is of essentially zero interest in most conversations where waiters get mentioned. Same thing with the she-chanic bit. Ironically, some job titles where it might actually be helpful don't do this--you see the phrase "male model" a lot because the gender is actually kind of relevant, but the job title isn't gendered.
Then again, English is so poorly put together that I don't really care that much. The god/goddess thing bothered me some, but I feel like being able to reference it as 1 consistent creature type plus the shorter length makes up for any english specific gendered title weirdness.