Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-4877635-20130614170253/@comment-22525977-20131003013311

ChocolatEyes613 wrote: TNOandXadric wrote:

On trans* people: Fish isn't a slang term or anything like that (that I know of, at least), it's the (unintentional but unfortunate) implication that fish (i.e., an animal) are equivalent to trans* people. (Now, if Choc had said "she's already a mermaid, for goodness sake!" that would have been still a little uncomfortable for me—it works on the idea that people only ever have One Big Issue—but less problematic because mermaids, unlike fish, are sapient and therefore people. Does that make sense?) I believe, the term you are looking for is''' sentient. '''

It was a joke, I was not looking to offend anyone. So, can you please drop it? This getting ridiculous, already.

Another thing.... the "mermaid scene" in the premiere, showed that most humans in the Enchanted Forest do not view mermaids as people. They view them as vicious animals, who cannot be trusted. Actually, sapient is the correct word for what I want to describe, which is a humanlike ability to think and reason. It's a very common confusion because the words sound very similar and are often swapped, but sentience merely describes awareness, or an ability to perceive; dogs, for example, are sentient: they are aware of what is happening around them. Humans are the only real species that we know of who also have sapience, which is the ability to reason and be self-aware. (A good way to remember, if you will forgive the dog latin: It's homo sapiens, not homo sentiens.) (:

Whether or not it was your intent (and I do, absolutely, believe that you didn't intend it; you seem like a very nice person), you did cause offense. Something to be aware of in the future? I am sorry for jumping on you and that it escalated into the debate that it did, but I'm not going to apologize for the emotional reaction I had to what you said.

That's a very good point, about the mermaids! I didn't think of it (although it doesn't change the fact that mermaids are sapient); I wonder how the writers will choose to deal with that? It could be a cool inversal of Triton's insistence that humans are Complete Monsters—and if the bigotry goes both ways (which'd explain the mermaids' apparently unprovoked attack on Hook's ship), Ariel/Eric could be the first step to bridging the rift between the species and forging a more peaceful relationship.

(And if they went the trans* route, they could make it a blatant metaphor for how the vitriolically transphobic people talk about the subject. Win-win, right?)