Raven van Dorst almost gives a ticket to Shownieuws. Guido den Aantrekker is annoyed that colleague Dyantha Brooks is so frantic with the pronouns ‘them’ and ‘those’.
After 25 years, the people behind the Televizier gala choose to merge the prizes for best presenter and presenter into a gender-neutral category. “The AvroTros is surfing along with the new woke current that is emerging in the Netherlands, I have the idea,” says Story boss Guido den Aantrekker in Shownieuws.
Non-binary Raven
Colleague Victor Vlam thinks it is obvious why the organization has opted for this: Raven van Dorst has rapidly become a public favorite and identifies as non-binary, not as male or female. “You can sense that it’s going to be a kind of left-progressive price,” he complains.
Guido agrees. “Now you happen to mention someone who I read today was born a hermaphrodite, so she can just win him both then. (…) With all due respect, you can’t really please all people in that way, can you?”
“This really bothers me!”
Presenter Dyantha Brooks also thinks the price has been adjusted for Raven. She continuously uses ‘she’ and ‘her’ when referring to the presenter, while Raven likes to be called ‘that’ or ‘them’. At the end of the item: “I just want to close it well. I started talking about Raven and then I mentioned ‘she’ again. I think that should be ‘them’.”
That is against Guido’s sore leg: “I want to say one thing, because it still bothers me. You now say ‘them’ again. If those people want to implement that in their own circles, fine, but of course I can’t be forced to call someone ‘them’ if I don’t agree with it myself. You’re acting like it’s all general…”
‘Do your thing’
Dyantha doesn’t understand this attack from Guido. “I said that I would like to close it well. If you want to call her ‘she’, ‘him’ or ‘her’, do your thing, but I can imagine that if she has indicated that she likes that…” Then correcting herself: “If you have indicated them… It remains a bit of a learning curve.”
Guido annoyed: “If ‘them’… Yes, you see it already.”
Dyantha: “At least I try to do it right, but does that bother you?”
“I just say SHE!”
Guido: “Well, I think it’s a bit oh… Look, again: if she likes to do that herself… Oh, sorry! She, he, them, them. But I think… I just want to be able to say about her, because I think she’s just a woman now…”
Colleague Iris van Lunenburg: “If someone says: ‘I would really like it if I was accepted as I see myself.’ I sometimes make a mistake, but then you could try it, right?”
Guido: “I don’t think it’s a mistake. I know quite a few people and then I would have to put a list on everyone’s kitchen cupboard of: oh, that one wants to be called ‘them’, that ‘he’, that ‘she’.”
‘Fuck you!’
Dyantha: “It’s not that complicated, is it? We have to get used to it.”
Guido: “I think that this society is getting very confused. Nobody means bad either. Do we have a compromise?”
Dyantha: “Not that, but we’ll move on.”