Lynn Conway, who died Sunday at 86, was a leader in the development of personal computers and microprocessor technology, and a symbol for generations of transgender individuals.
Question about style: wouldn’t it be better to refer to her as her speaking about her pre-op life, even if she was fulfilling a male social role? Or the column’s choice of pronouns is better?
it’s highly personal, so ideally you ask the individual and include their consent in your article. that said, generally speaking, trans people will use their current pronouns, even referring to their pre-transition selves. this is also what’s generally considered polite if you don’t know them, so it’s pretty suspect that the article is not doing that
Also some other language like “woman attracted to other men” just shows you aren’t conceptualizing this person as a woman. Like grammatical parallelism be damned. She was a woman attracted to men. That’s it.
Question about style: wouldn’t it be better to refer to her as her speaking about her pre-op life, even if she was fulfilling a male social role? Or the column’s choice of pronouns is better?
it’s highly personal, so ideally you ask the individual and include their consent in your article. that said, generally speaking, trans people will use their current pronouns, even referring to their pre-transition selves. this is also what’s generally considered polite if you don’t know them, so it’s pretty suspect that the article is not doing that
still, something about malice and incompetence…
If an article is written by an author of her biography they may have talked about the use of pronouns.
But wiki article, for instance, consistency uses “her” to refer to her
Also some other language like “woman attracted to other men” just shows you aren’t conceptualizing this person as a woman. Like grammatical parallelism be damned. She was a woman attracted to men. That’s it.
Yes, this is poor style.
Yes. No, it’s distasteful.