A-Bristle with a Plethora of Sisthern...

Our much beloved Sister Antiphilia has painstakingly dredged to the surface, once again, An Extremely Important and Pressing Issue.

She has been meditating on whether or not it is appropriate for us to use the terms Brother and Sister when referring to fellow members of The Church?

"Isn't it a shameless and utter capitulation," she wonders, "to the sort of oppressively unenlightened binary genderism of the heterosexual supremacists - a profoundly demeaning genderism to which we are all presumably firmly opposed? How dare We of all people reduce the astounding variety of gender expression to a measly 'Brother' and 'Sister'? Surely We can find a way to inclusively celebrate the boundless diversity of our individual constructs?"

(One of the things we admire most about our dear Sister is her fierce polysyllabism - we wonder, though, if she may suffer from the occasional episode of excessive sesquipedalophilia. And we wonder that in as loving and supportive a manner as is possible to affect.)


Nevertheless, she's raised an excellent question.

How should We refer to each other?

The alternatives of Brister and Sisther have been suggested - although an unfortunate homophonic relationship of the former to the ceremonial removal of the praeputium is a bit worrying. And as for the latter, even with the most careful diction, cruel comments must necessarily rise to the lips of the less spiritually aware.

Perhaps the best solution is to leave it up to individual members to determine the form of address that they feel best suits them?

Click here to learn more about Judith Butler's thought-provoking book on gender that is illustrated above.