Pet Peeves Part 2

I know its silly, but my grammatical wool is rubbed the wrong way whenever someone uses "X pride" where X=their, race, gender, sexuality, or lifestyle.

I'm gonna use "Male Pride" as an example, because I happen to be male and of the many things I am, being male is one of the least offensive.

I realize that pride is used as the opposite of shame to say "I'm not ashamed to be a male, I'm proud of it." However, I always think that whenever I'm proud of something, its because its an achievement. I'm proud to be self supporting. I'm proud to have beaten Ruby Weapon in FF7. I'm proud that "LLama Logic" is a known form of logic on the GiantITP forums. I'm proud that I can make the Kessel run in less that 12 Parsecs. I'm proud to live in a pineapple under the sea. These are all accomplishments. They are things that have been achieved through time and effort.

I didn't achieve maleness. I didn't even get to pick the "X" or "Y" chromosome. I just popped out male. No work or time went into being a male, it just kinda happened. The same can be said for race as well as gender and most people agree that sexuality and lifestyle are not choices, either.

Some will make the conclusion that by stating that I'm bothered by the phrase "Male Pride" that I'm ashamed to be a male, or perhaps even worse, a self hating male. This isn't the case. I'm very happy with my maleness. Being able to aim when I pee is a small thrill that I never take for granted. I'm just not proud of it. Instead of a "Proud to be a male" t-shirt, I'd much rather have a "Happy to be a male" t-shirt.

And yes, if you know me better, you may place just about any descriptor in the place of male, except for lazy. While I am lazy, I'm not terribly thrilled by it.