I've lost track of how many times I've stated that words have power. The way they are used, which words are incorporated, everything. And yet they are only a small component of the way we communicate in real life. Our expressions, inflections, implications and inference have a seemingly greater power to influence the tone of a conversation than that of the actual words said. If a conversation were a musical chord, the exact wording would be represented by the harmonic overtone, not an actual note in the chord. But the amorphous internet has changed all sorts of dependence on the word and the ways in which we relate to them.
If every word were a label, then it would make sense that we form inferences seemingly from nowhere. It's like an association game of attempting to get a message across to someone who is barely listening to the content of your statements. This translation is what it feels like to talk to cisgender people when explaining trans-issues. To talk to anyone who has a dissimilar lexicon and worldview. Finding commonality where there is little, is the marketing trick of the century, and yet it is a task I'm faced with constantly whenever I want to be understood by someone who isn't trans, and sometimes even to transfolk.
It'd be easier if I could just say, "It's complicated." Or "It's more complicated than that." Whenever someone makes assumptions, or draws conclusions that don't match my intent, I'm faced with a choice. Do I allow them to misinterpret me and possibly misrepresent me down the line? Or do I attempt to clarify over and over until I'm sure I've been understood? Does it really matter?
That I care so much, seems to force me into a Sisyphean task. I get to thinking that maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. Maybe there's some logistical verbal acrobatics that I can weave into the perfect persuasive argument case by case by case ad nauseum? Or maybe the fact I feel defensive is indicative of yet another example of my setting myself up for failure? I've long ago learned that no one wins an argument. There's no prize or trophy.
Even with an altruistic motive, feeling like I have to explain myself leads me down a destructive and reductive rabbit hole where I will never find satisfaction. Yes I want to find acceptance. Yes I wish people understood how I think and feel. But I have to accept that no matter what, I'm going to have to resort to using other people's words to express myself. I have to relate to them if I want them to relate to me.
No matter what community I converse with, their Lexicon will determine how I'm perceived. Otherwise it's an uphill battle with a boulder defining and redefining terms. Analogy, metaphor and simile can aid me when words fail to contain the power behind them to convey what I need. Although it can be tempting to create another false binary of us vs. them, me vs. the world, this type of thinking leads to the combative nature I've been referring to. I'd rather work to find ways I identify with others than disseminate why I'm different. I'd just be doing the work of othering myself for them, if I put stock in the us vs. them paradigm.
Here's more on a similar vein of thought.
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