May I beg bloggers with humanities degrees who once did a crit theory course to stop using "binary" to mean "two" or "one or the other"?
@jason_pontin @justinleitgeb so what do you want people to say when they mean "a set of two options with no in-between states permitted"?
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@chaosprime@jason_pontin in that case perhaps saying, "two discrete states" would be more appropriate. -
@justinleitgeb how does that work in a phrase like "the gender binary", as i vaguely believe@jason_pontin to be intending to reference? -
@chaosprime@jason_pontin binary isn't a problem at all as it's used in gender studies. Math doesn't have a monopoly on inventing words. :) -
@justinleitgeb so if it's not that kind of "humanities degrees" topic, do we know at all what usage@jason_pontin is actually objecting to? -
@chaosprime@jason_pontin an example would be helpful. Then we could say if "discrete" or some other term would be more meaningful. -
@justinleitgeb yes, definitely.@jason_pontin, can we get an example? -
@chaosprime@justinleitgeb "Binaryopposition" is a good example of what I dislike. -
@jason_pontin@chaosprime couldn't find that. Are you referring to a particular blog or the concept of binary opposition as used in gender? - 3 more replies
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