#When it comes time to conjugate my name instead of using masculine endings it’s correct to just not conjugate it at all

[euphonism]

Don’t act like you speak all languages, please. Some languages DO literally refer to grammatically gendered nouns as “male” or “female”. Romance languages are not the only languages that exist. I understand what you are trying to say, but please do not make sweeping generalizations about languages you don’t speak. Like who’s “we”? Speakers of like 5 out of the 1000+ languages that exist?

we don't even call grammatical genders the same thing as gender genders... like do people just not notice that it's "feminine" and not "female". those are different words

[foggyfanfic]

Head Canons: Trans Woman Bubba

I recently reblogged a chart about trans acceptance per country, and it showed that Colombia is relatively progressive when it comes to this issue (I think it was like 60% of people were for offering teenagers gender confirming medicine). This got me thinking once again about my Bubba is a closeted trans woman head canon, so here's how I think that'll shake out.

(Disclaimer: In my research I have found more information about the history of homosexuality in Colombia than the history of trans people. I am basing this largely on that, and what I can find about the state of the LGBT movement in current day Colombia.)

If we assume Bubba comes to town a couple years after the movie, we're still a decade or two ahead of the Pride movement hitting the mainstream in Colombia. That said, Bubba is supposed to be from the city, so he/she may have happened across an underground queer club where she figured some stuff out about herself. The wrong sort of people find out about the club, and her membership, and Bubba's life goes down the drain. With no other choice, she leaves the city, promising that where ever she ends up she'll stay in the closet for good.

This is how she finds herself in Encanto. She does everything she can to seem as manly as possible, including riding the motorcycle, cutting her hair short, and dressing as butch as possible. TBH she's comes off pretty annoying and most of the Madrigals avoid her if they can, with the exception of Isabela.

In the original script, Bubba saw through Isabela's facade, so in this head canon, it is Isabela that sees through Bubba's. She doesn't push per say, she just hangs around constantly talking about how much happier she is now that she doesn't waste all of her energy being who others want her to be.

A part of Isabela's fascination springs from the fact that Bubba is the only "man" Isabela has ever been attracted to, up to this point she's only ever been attracted to other women. Something she's trying not to think too hard about.

Bubba tries to resist her attraction to Isabela, since she is a danger to the Live the Rest of My Life in the Closet plan. Unfortunately for Bubba, Isabela is hot as fuck, and loads of fun to be around post canon.

They start dating, in typical lesbian fashion become committed to each other really quickly, and are soon married.

It's on their wedding night that Isabela begins to piece together what her "husband's" deal is. She kisses Bubba, then giggles when she realizes she's gotten her lipstick on her spouse's lips. She shows Bubba her reflection and when Bubba sees herself wearing lipstick she looks happier than Isabela has ever seen. It's a blink and you'll miss it sort of thing, but Isabela didn't blink, and therefore didn't miss it.

She experiments after that, tells Bubba she wants to practice putting make up on somebody else for her nieces and watches Bubba's eyes light up when she sees herself in a full face of make up. She notices the way Bubba always tenses a little when people use masculine conjugation for her so Isabela purposefully slips up and calls Bubba "mi esposa" instead of "mi esposo" a couple times. In private she starts calling Bubba by feminine pet names and notes that Bubba never corrects her.

Isabela gets pregnant and that puts her investigation on hold. She doesn't go back to referring to Bubba as her esposo, but she doesn't think much about the topic either. Especially when her son is born and he turns out to be a little handful, they name their kid Santiago.

One day, tired after staying up all night with baby Santiago, Isabela slips up and calls Bubba "mi princesa" in front of Tio Bruno. Bruno doesn't initially react, but it doesn't escape his notice that Bubba, who is usually super defensive of "his" masculinity, doesn't react either. Being the designated Gay Uncle, Bruno starts noticing all the same signs Isabela does. With the benefit of having seen the 1982 Pride March in Bogota in a vision, and having learned about the yet to be established MLHC, Bruno figures out what's happening.

Being better with actions than he is words, Bruno buys Bubba a pair of earrings for her birthday and gives them to her in private. Cue a small breakdown on Bubba's part as the truth comes spilling out of her at the first show of support.

Meanwhile, since she's spending so much time sitting, staring into space, and thinking while Santiago nurses, Isabela is slowly realizing that Bubba is still the only "man" she's ever been attracted to and what that means about her.

They sit down and have that one conversation, "Darling I have bad news." "Me too. I'm a lesbian." ".........Darling, I have great news!"

It'll be several years yet before the couple comes out to the rest of the family, but Bubba starts wearing feminine lounge clothes whenever they're in private. As Santiago learns to speak he picks up on the fact that Papa becomes Mama whenever they're away from the public eye. This leads to Santiago going through a phase where he thinks everybody is a woman in private but a man in public. Isabela and Bubba figure out what's happening and give Santiago a kid friendly explanation of their situation.

Santiago turns five and gets the gift of super speed. He is thrilled by his gift, but when the familia eventually figures out the gifts are given by Mirabel and Abuela, and not by some higher power, Isabela almost strangles her little sister.

If this reaches any Colombian trans women, I would love to hear what sort of names are popular in your community. It's a common joke here that trans women all choose names you might pick for a cartoon Princess, but I haven't found any word on if that is a Universal Queer Experience, or just a North American Queer Experience. I've been referring to out trans woman Bubba as Tia Barbara in my head.

Bubba/Barbara doesn't fully come out until Mirabel's daughter marries another woman, aka when Barbara is in her late forties. After that she transitions fully, and it takes all of a month for the entire Madrigal family to get used to the change. If we assume every generation of Madrigals has an average of three kids per married couple, that's about sixty people (depending on how many people of the next generation have been born, and whether or not we assume the Madrigals have extended lives due to constant exposure to magic healing food). So definitely a decent amount of people to be supported by.

I imagine that being a magic family living in a magic house makes it less likely that people will move out to their own home, so Casita ends up being a small village within its/their own right. There is still the general feeling that "We are a family, we love each other", but there's also a lot more variation in beliefs. There are members of the family who are more devoutly catholic, who in private disapprove, but will throw hands in public if need be.

Some of the more oblivious kids never realize their Tia Barbara is trans. Camilo's youngest granddaughter has a bad habit of asking people if they're stupid whenever they misgender her great aunt, because to her eyes "That is clearly a woman?!??". Camilo, Isabela, and Santiago all reward this behavior, undermining her very religious parents' attempts to train her out of it.

It is generally agreed amongst everybody who remembers what Tia Barbara was like back when she was Bubba, that she's much better company when she's being herself.

[learnjapanesebod]

Difference Between Male and Female Japanese Speech ("How-to avoid sounding too girly or boyish in Japanese?")

PREFACE:

"How do I avoid sounding too girly/boyish when speaking Japanese?" is one of the most common questions we get; and to be completely honest, it is usually asked by learners of the Japanese language who are at a fairly beginner level. Our guess is that most people asking this question have started learning Japanese by somewhat unconventional means (e.g. befriending a native Japanese speaker and starting to learn from them as opposed to beginning from a textbook). In these cases, probably the best general response to this concern is:

Inadvertently sounding too masculine or feminine in Japanese isn't a big deal at all, so there's no need to fret over it.

One, because native Japanese speakers-and even non-native Japanese speakers will surely understand if you don't have a mastery of gender-based speech when just starting out. You can stick to gender-neutral speech instead of having to worry about mastering female and male speech too when you already have so much vocabulary, grammar, kanji, etc. on your plate to learn.

Two, because a fully fleshed out answer to the question "How do I avoid sounding too girly/boyish when speaking Japanese?" involves referring to a lot of Japanese language topics, including some that are relatively intermediate level and thereby some that you might have trouble following if you're still fairly new to the language.

Nonetheless, we are still indeed going to go into said fully fleshed out answer in this lesson below; and having said that, now is perhaps the best time to provide a list of prerequisite lessons before we begin.

Prerequisite(s):

First Person Pronouns, or, Ways to Say “I” in Japanese (Post | Video)

Second-Person Pronouns, or, Ways to Say “You” in Japanese (Post | Video)

ね and よ as Final Particles (Post | Video)

Conjugations of Desu (です) (Post | Video)

Introduction to Adjectives (い-Adjectives and な-Adjectives) (Post | Video)

Conjugating い-Adjectives (Post | Video)

Conjugating な-Adjectives (Post | Video)

Japanese Word Beautifiers お and ご (Post | Video)

Prerequisite(s):

*specifically for the examples incidentally provided below, not necessarily required to understand the key concepts of this lesson

Desiderative たい-Form (Pre-ます-Form VERB + たい as “want to VERB”) (Post | Video)

Negative ない Form (Verb Conjugation) (Post | Video) 

In many languages across the world, there is a clear distinction between masculinity and femininity.

For example, the Spanish language assigns a "grammatical" gender to every single noun word, even nouns words that represent inanimate objects with no physical gender.

The Japanese language employs a difference based upon gender in a much lighter sense, in that male speakers and female speakers tend to speak in a slightly different way in certain points in their speech; but even if a male speaker chooses (inadvertently or not) to sound like-or come off as, a female speaker with more feminine speech (or vice-versa) their language will still be one-hundred percent grammatically correct.

In this sense, gender-based Japanese speech is quite stylistic, which is to say it only appears in casual Japanese speech. Due to this, beginner-level learners of the Japanese language are likely not to come across this topic if their curriculum is textbook-heavy, as textbooks use formal and written language, which is both considered the more standardized Japanese and essentially gender-neutral.

All in all, the differences between male and female speech in the Japanese language are not prominently observable until first, what is being observed is an actual conversation and not just textbook content; and two, the participants of said conversation have transitioned from polite speech to casual speech and have become comfortable enough with their addressees to convey their personality more by speaking in a more masculine or feminine manner.

We separate the differences between male and female Japanese speech into three categories, in order of most distinguishing of gender:

Usage of Pronouns (First and Second Person)

Sentence Enders (Particles)

Select Vocabulary and Phrases

We also make a general distinction between male and female Japanese speech that these categories will follow:

Female-to-male speech can also be interpreted (perhaps more reliably so, in terms of a mnemonic device) as polite-to-rough speech. As unfair as it may seem, female speech in Japan is often associated with being more polite, reserved, and respectful, while male speech is considered more forward, rough, and crude.

#01. Usage of Pronouns (First and Second Person)

Female:

あたし (atashi) - First-person pronoun derived from the gender neutral 私 (watashi), considered more cute

*The use of one's own name to address oneself (i.e. referring to oneself in the third person) is also considered more habitually done by female speakers, as it can come off as cute.

Male:

僕 (boku) - The most commonly used first person for male speakers

俺 (ore) - Considered even more masculine than 僕 (boku) and more present in especially casual conversations amongst male friends as opposed to formal situations

*Female speakers may be heard using both male pronouns above for whatever reason.

Second Person Pronouns:

While first person pronouns are more indicative of one's self identity, second person pronouns are more dependent on the addressee of the speaker and what relationship the speaker has with them. As such, second person pronouns can vary heavily even when focusing on the topic of gender. Refer to Second-Person Pronouns, or, Ways to Say “You” in Japanese (Post | Video) for more information.

#02. Sentence Enders (Particles)

Female:

Using わ (wa) in place of よ (yo) - Naturally has a softer sound. わよ (wayo) is also a possibility.

*One of the female points of speech representative of an older female generation and may become rare when transitioning from fictional Japanese media (anime, movies, drama, etc.) to real life conversation

*This should also not to be confused with the common Kansai dialect usage of わ (wa), which is not female-specific

Sentence-ending particle の (no) used for statements - While the sentence-ending particle の (no) is commonly used by both genders when asking questions, it is more habitually used by female speakers when making statements. のよ (noyo) is also a possibility.

Using かしら (kashira) in place of かな (kana) - Expresses more wonderment, more feminine

*One of the female points of speech representative of an older female generation and may become rare when transitioning from fictional Japanese media (anime, movies, drama, etc.) to real life conversation

Example(s):

これが本当かしら Kore ga hontou kashira "Could this be true?"

Male:

だ (da) - The copula with loads of grammatical context. When viewed specifically through the lens of female-male speech, だ (da) is considered to add masculinity to speech because it is emphatic and declarative. So, while in a lot of cases the presence of だ (da) is grammatically required, it can be construed as masculine when it is used in a case wherein it is optional (e.g. after a NOUN or な-Adjective word). Since だ (da) has such an integral grammatical function that transcends gender-based speech and thereby female speakers are naturally bound to use this effect as well, there are select cases wherein male speakers will use an emphatic and declarative だ (da) to avoid sounding too feminine (e.g. before the sentence-ending particles ね, な and よ).

Example(s):

素敵だね Suteki da ne "Isn't It Wonderful?" [masculine]

素敵ね Suteki ne "Isn't It Wonderful?" [feminine]

*Of course, let's take note here that the Final Fantasy X video game ballad entitled 素敵だね does in fact exist and is quite probably written from the prospective of a female character to remind us this isn't a one-hundred percent reliable indicator of gender.

素晴らしいね Subarashii ne "Wonderful, huh?" [gender neutral] *Considered gender-neutral because it is grammatically incorrect to include the copula だ (da) after an い-Adjective at all, so there's no way to deem this sentence as either more feminine or masculine.

Changing the あい sounds into えぇ - Most commonly done for the Negative-ない Form of words and い-Adjectives, e.g. のまない (nomanai) into のまねぇ (nomanee) and たか�� (takai) into たけぇ (takee) into "do not drink" and "tall" respectively (notice how the definition does not change whatsoever).

*May branch out to other adjective words with slightly different sound endings as well, e.g. すごい (sugoi) into すげぇ (sugee).

Adding い to the end of certain sentence-ending particles - Most apparently done with the sentence-ending particle for marking questions, か (ka), and the copula だ (da), to form かい and だい respectively. Meaning does not change.

Example(s):

いいかい! Ii kai! "Listen, you!"

そうかい！ Sou kai! "Is that so!"

一緒に行くかい？ Issho ni ikukai? "Shall we go together?"

調子はどうだい？ Choushi wa doudai? "How are you?"

Sentence-ending particles ぞ and ぜ - Considered very masculine, commonly used in imperative statements. While heavily used in fictional Japanese media (anime, movies, drama, etc.) to emphasize boyish and masculine characters, also considerably present in real life conversations.

*ぜ is considered to be used more by children as opposed to adults-and further, is said to have greatly dwindled in usage in real life conversation.

Example(s):

やっぱ　あんた　すげぇぜ。 Yappa anta sugee ze. "You really are amazing."

修業の成果だぜ！ Shuugyou no seika da ze! "This is the fruits of my training!"

わくわくしてきたぞー！ Waku waku shite kita zo-! "I'm getting more and more fired up!"

一緒に帰るぞー！ Issho ni kaeru zo-! "Let's head back together!"

Changing the sentence-ending particle ね to な - The affirmation seeking sentence-ending particle ね is changed to な, invoking a rougher sound. The multi-faceted ね here, while commonly considered to express seeking affirmation to your statement, changes more into affirming your own statement or desire as な. The same tone of kind of throwing a thought out into the air is still present.

Example(s):

いいな Ii na "That sure sounds nice (I'm envious)!"

旅行したいな Ryokou shitai na "I sure would love to go on a trip."

#03. Select Vocabulary and Phrases

Beautifiers

Phrases

Words

Beautifiers:

Female speakers are considered to much more habitually use what are called word beautifiers (美化語), which entails adding the character お (o) or ご (go) before certain noun words in order to express a politeness.

Example(s):

お買い物 ('okaimono/shopping')

お花 ('ohana/flower')

お部屋 ('oheya/room')

お友達 ('otomodachi/friends')

お料理 ('oryouri/cooking')

*Note that you cannot simply do this for any given noun word, there are select ones in which this can apply. Also, you can not freely choose between using お (o) or ご (go); depending on the noun word being "beautified," you must use the appropriate character.

*Also note again that this method is not completely restricted to female speakers. Male speakers may apply this method when in formal situations, it is just that female speakers are more inclined to even in everyday conversations.

Phrases:

Some phrases that exist purely in the realm of spoken Japanese (utterances similar to "um," "like," "well," etc. in the English language) are also considered gender-indicative.

Example(s):

あら - "Oh my" [feminine]

Words:

Perhaps as it is with any other language, some words in the Japanese language have multiple versions-or rather, synonyms that are considered either more polite or impolite. In line with the aforementioned construct of Japanese female speech being focused upon politeness, female speakers are much more inclined to use the polite synonyms of words.

*This may apply even when said female speakers are speaking amongst close friends and family.

Example(s):

"rice, food" - 飯 ('meshi') [masculine] | ご飯 ('gohan') [feminine] "to eat" - 食う ('kuu') [masculine] | 食べる ('taberu') [feminine] "stomach, belly" - 腹 ('hara') [masculine] | お腹 ('onaka') [feminine] *common in the expressions はらへった [masculine] and おなかすいた [common, feminine] to express "I'm hungry" "butt, ass, hips" - けつ ('ketsu') [masculine] | お尻 ('oshiri') [feminine]

Example Sentence(s):

"I don't want to eat sushi."

僕寿司食いたくねぇよ Boku sushi kuitakuneeyo. "I don't want to eat sushi." [masculine]

あたしお寿司食べたくないわ Atashi osushi tabetakunaiwa. "I don't want to eat sushi." [feminine]

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