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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 8668364" data-attributes="member: 6796468">I do take a lot of your points to heart, [USER=59082]@Mercurius[/USER], but there's one I really need to push back on:Neurodivergence. It's a -great- word and it was chosen largely by the neurodivergent community to replace stigmatized labels. And we -need- labels. We -need- these words. We just need them to lose their stigma.In a world without labels you can't easily express who you are. I'm a trans woman. I'm -incredibly- happy that people treat me like a cis woman in my interactions with day to day life. Particularly -here-. And particularly the staff at EN Publishing who don't treat me any different from anyone else...But I have unique perspectives and experiences that no cis man or cis woman ever will. No trans man or nonbinary person, either. And that is an important aspect of who I am, inside. And sometimes it's important to be able to express that information and that understanding.Same thing with my Neurodivergence which includes a disability. Same thing with my sexuality and where I've lived and what I've accomplished. My career, my job, my joys.Each of these things, writer, ADHD, trans, bisexual, American, Georgian, wife, and Nerd above all else tell a story to anyone who hears them and combine to help tell the story of Me.Labels, like any word, can help us to express who we are to the world around us. An act for which the English language is -woefully- inadequate. Every word, every label, we take on helps to express who we are.The pushback against labels is nice in theory. It prioritizes a world where stigma is erased which is great! But what is lost along the way in that world is a lot of language that can help people understand who they are, why they feel that way, and how to approach their life with information and self-awareness.</blockquote>

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