The term being a creation of white people is a common but mistaken belief. Latinx is a gender neutral version of Latino/Latina created by English-speaking queer Latinx people in the early 2000s who hated that the inherent gender binary in the Spanish language couldn’t properly represent Latinx people who didn’t identify as Latinos or Latinas. It’s since become an inclusive catch-all term for the entire community, regardless of gender identity.
Also, I don’t know if you’re intending it to come off that way, but your reaction to the term is a very common one among homophobic Latinos.
Except tacking an x on to the end is not a common Spanish pronunciation and completely discounts how jarring that is to use in speech. The whole thing also stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of gendered language, Latino can already be used to refer to male/female/nonbinary, just as the word for person (persona) can refer to any gender despite ending in the feminine form of -a.
It comes across as “Wow, so maybe you weren’t aware, but your language which is fundamental to your entire culture is like… Really problematic??? I heard it uses gendered words and that’s just like really micro-aggressive and could be offensive to people. Here, let us fix your language for you. What? No I don’t know any Spanish and don’t plan on learning.”
But even those who identify as different genders or none prefer latino/latina, ask them, the lbgtqs would always be the ones saying they don’t like that term in college here in california at least.
The way the language works and how feminine and masculine phrases/terms are different based on who says them is the identfier, they use neutral, masculine, or feminine language.
The term being a creation of white people is a common but mistaken belief. Latinx is a gender neutral version of Latino/Latina created by English-speaking queer Latinx people in the early 2000s who hated that the inherent gender binary in the Spanish language couldn’t properly represent Latinx people who didn’t identify as Latinos or Latinas. It’s since become an inclusive catch-all term for the entire community, regardless of gender identity.
Also, I don’t know if you’re intending it to come off that way, but your reaction to the term is a very common one among homophobic Latinos.
Except tacking an x on to the end is not a common Spanish pronunciation and completely discounts how jarring that is to use in speech. The whole thing also stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of gendered language, Latino can already be used to refer to male/female/nonbinary, just as the word for person (persona) can refer to any gender despite ending in the feminine form of -a.
It comes across as “Wow, so maybe you weren’t aware, but your language which is fundamental to your entire culture is like… Really problematic??? I heard it uses gendered words and that’s just like really micro-aggressive and could be offensive to people. Here, let us fix your language for you. What? No I don’t know any Spanish and don’t plan on learning.”
The attitude is also a very common one among the non homophobic Latinos.
But even those who identify as different genders or none prefer latino/latina, ask them, the lbgtqs would always be the ones saying they don’t like that term in college here in california at least.
They would always chime in and interrupt the professors, I remember being confused.
The way the language works and how feminine and masculine phrases/terms are different based on who says them is the identfier, they use neutral, masculine, or feminine language.