Heteronormativity ahoy

[nmg]

Scene: I was taking the garklet for a haircut, and we happened to pass a church that was ringing for matins. He asked why the bell was ringing, and misheard 'matins' as the name of one of his friends who moved to Cambridge last year (who I shall refer to as M). The important thing to note is that M is the child of a lesbian couple.

garklet:

Where M?

nmg:

M's in Cambridge.

garklet:

Why M in Cambridge?

nmg:

Because his mummies got jobs in Cambridge.

garklet:

What about him daddy?

nmg:

I don't know - M lives with his two mummies.

garklet:

No, M not got two mummies. M got a mummy and a daddy.

nmg:

No, M has two mummies. Remember, you saw them both at G's house earlier in the year. And you saw them when you went to M's birthday party. And you saw them almost every day when they picked M up from nursery.

garklet:

*upset* No, M got a mummy and a daddy. M not got two mummies. You pooey!

nmg:

I'm not pooey! Not all little boys and girls have a mummy and a daddy; some have two mummies, like M, and some have two daddies.

garklet:

*very upset* NO! YOU WRONG! YOU POOEY! M GOT A MUMMY AND A DADDY! pthpthpthpt!

nmg:

On that we'll have to disagree.

I mean, what else can you do in this situation?

Comments

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Overfitting

All bugs are bees to Katie. This can lead to a moment of fear when I hear a cheery, "Hi, bee! C'mon, bee!" inside the house, but it usually means that the cats have captured an errant cricket.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Mind you, the idea that all insects are "bugs" seems odd to us.

[kludge.livejournal.com]

But shouldn't, since we do the same thing for nuts and fruit.

Mixing technical and commonplace language always leads to things like that. For instance, when you are little (or ignorant), dolphins are fish. Then you learn better, and dolphins aren't fish (because they're mammals). Then you learn better still, and dolphins are fish again (because "fish" isn't really a proper group, it's the niche "non-sessile underwater predator"). I have learnt, for this reason, to be unsurprised by such usages.

...although it doesn't excuse this conversation:
Jilly: A platypus is a marsupial.
Paul: No it isn't, it's a mammal.
Jilly: No, it's not a mammal, it's a marsupial.
Me: You're both idiots.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

P is the less wrong by a nose, since he's right that a platypus is a mammal, and right that it isn't a marsupial (it's a monotreme), and only wrong that it's a mammal and *therefore* not a marsupial.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Duh. They're monotremes, as ane fule kno.