Epicene seems to be a word that should be used more often in TG fiction.
Any thoughts as to why it isn't seen that much?
Jill
Epicene
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Comments
its esoteric?
maybe people just don't know it?
I had to look it up, doubt I'm the only one
Intriguing question and an
Intriguing question and an honest one at that. I believe that most write what they know and those are your usual male to female story but with their own trusts and turns in the journey.
For me, I have already seen how things get if the wrong medication or a different course of treatment for dealing with recovery that I would hesitate to use it for fear of upsetting someone and removing my story before I could finish it. I'd rather err on the side of caution, even if it's bland...
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Oh large brained one, The
Oh large brained one, The rest of us have no idea what it means !
Karen
Hmmmm
Connie stared at her boyfriend. His look seemed to coax something from within as she found her heart being urged into her mostly-avoided lesbian fantasies She sighed as she continued to 'take him in;' Jay had an enigmatic, almost epicene look about him.... that kind of boy/girl face you'd find on Jody Foster or Hillary Swank.
Love, Andrea Lena
A Sissy's Tale
I knew I would get the hairbrush again if I didn't do everything Aunt Grunzilde told me, so I put on the panties, the training bra and then the stockings. I had to admit these felt kind of nice as I slid them up my newly depiliatoried legs. I don't think my parents knew what a man-hating nut case my spinster aunt was or they never would have agreed to leave me in her care when they were killed in that horrible schmelting accident.
I wriggled into the petticoats, applied my makeup like she'd showed me, strapped on my high heels and tottered awkward from the bathroom, embarrassed at the caricature of girlhood i'd been turned into.
Aunt Grunzilda looked me over sternly. "That's much better. I've burned all those nasty boy clothes you arrived here with, and from now on you will dress like this. Your life as you knew it is over. You will henceforth conduct yourself like a proper young sissy---flouncing + mincing + sashaying and sometimes doing all three at once---and obeying me in all things. Have I made myself clear?"
I curtsied like I'd been taught, my eyes downcast, and murmured in defeat, "Yes Aunt Grunzilda."
"When you've been fully sissified in body heart and mind you will thank me for this. But until then..."
To my horror she produced a red ball gag and advanced on me with it. I almost bolted, but since her castle was halfway up the side of Mt. Everest there was nowhere to run. But I did risk asking, "What's this for?"
She grinned cruelly as she wrapped it around my head and buckled the strap, "Children should be epicene and not heard..."
.
.
(I really hate shit like this....... Laika)
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
What's an Antidote for a Two-Hour Meeting with an Attorney?
I just returned from a mind-numbing meeting with a belt and suspenders attorney. My head was hurting from the assault he'd made on reality.
And then, I read your shaggy-dog story -- and laughed the cobwebs right out of my head.
Thank you. You're truly wonderful.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Epicene
Epicene — adj. Of or relating to that geological era full of long complicated sagas after sex had been invented, but before anyone figured out that there could be more than one. — n. proper. Name for the same era. The Epicene. "We barely escaped The Epicene with all of our maguffins intact."
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Epicene: The era following
Epicene: The era following the Late Holocene Epoch, in which human sexual dimorphism and differentiation disappeared. In the Epicene, all human reproduction occurred in vitro, as directed by the Robot Overlords.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
If you want to see it used
Read G.L. Hudson's The Samantha Project
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/20215/samantha-project
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
Visit my Amazon Page: D R Jehs
Will Take Your Word for It
eom
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Why, thank you!
I learned another new word today. It fits nicely with new one from last week and the three impossible things I believed this morning! (With more practice I might realize six of them before breakfast.)
Sara
Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.
Seems Like
A term in Earth's history or herstory (in non patriarchal cultures).
During the age of mammals:
Eocene epoch
Oligocene epoch
Miocene epoch
Pliocene epoch
Pleistocene epoch, etc.
So, anyway....
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
When Drama Queens Ruled The Earth
That short span of years during the Paleolithic known as the Makeascene Epoch.
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
In One Era
. . . and out the other.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
We use it in Biology to order
We use it in Biology to order certain types of sexual characteristics. It's not a word I'd use here, even though most of my protagonists do fall into the smaller and more effeminate (Epicene) males; but, it's their emotions that concern me most. Their struggles, I'd say. In getting those across I've tried in the past to use simpler, i.e. more colloquial, language. To biologists, Epicene features have more to do with morphology/functional systems, which we seldom see, nor seldom judge, us each one from the other in this place of tenuous electrical interaction.
BC would have to change it's motto to ...
Have it your way at Gender Epicene.
Hmmm
That word could have applied to me the first 12 years of my life. Finally they gave me what was said to be "vitamins" but now days I strongly suspect it was testosterone.
Well, we do use epicene expressions...
The word epicene simply denotes “gender-neutral.”
Here's a link to it on Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicene
My favorite use of the adjective is in the grammatical term epicene they, that is, using they to mean “he or she” as a singular third person pronoun when the gender of the antecedent is uncertain or unknown. By the way, this use of they in the singular had emerged in English by the 14th century.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Before authors can use this word, firstly, they must know it, themselves, and then, they must feel confident that their readers will, also.
Perhaps this discussion will enable more of our writers to know it and prepare more of our readers to understand it.
Anam Chara
Epicene They
I'm afraid that is fake history.
Singular they and epicene they are two different, although related, things. By the way, thanks for the phrase, which I hadn't seen before, since it gives a nice way of distinguishing the two. Here's the real situation:
When an author wants to communicate to cis audience that there is a group of people who have a common characteristic, like Republicans or strict feminizing aunts, ce can use either the singular or plural for a noun phrase, and used to be able to use either the singular or plural for a pronoun, regardless of the number of the antecedent. Using a plural pronoun such as they with a singular antecedent is called "singular they," and it's been standard English since before Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales.
Using "they" as an epicene pronoun wasn't done simply because, until 2nd wave feminism brought the issue front and center, nobody cared. (Or at least very few people cared.) The fake history is to try to project our current sensibility onto the past, presumably in order to legitimize what is really a new usage by giving it a veneer of historical plausibility.
When second wave feminism made it uncool to use "he" as a gender-neutral pronoun in the 70s, authors were left with a perplex. There have been a lot of suggestions. It seems like epicene they is gaining traction, but I prefer a real epicene pronoun (ce and cis), which I used above. Other people will do whatever they do.
Xaltatun
It's much older than second wave feminism
No, it's not false history. I stand by my research and my direct experience.
In my elementary school, during the 1960's, epicene theywas in common use. In fact, we had a teacher who made a point of calling it bad grammar and she tried to convince us not to use it, but without success.
Linguists have reported an increase in the use of epicene they since the 1970's. By the way, that was the era of first-wave feminism.
You assert that epicene they and singular they are distinct. I've only known them as synonyms for the same concept.
If these are distinct terms, please present your distinction.
Anam Chara
First Time...
...I saw the word was decades ago, in a library book discussing Ben Jonson's comedy of that name, and its title character. Somewhere along the way I figured out that in a story with character names like Morose and Truewit, Epicene's name probably meant something too, and looked it up. (Spelled Epicœne in early 17th century England, apparently.) Don't think I've seen the word more than once or twice since then.
(Somewhat surprisingly, dictionary.com estimates that 50% of Americans know the word. That wasn't my impression...)
Eric