I’d like you to pause for a few moments and enjoy this trio of Calvin & Hobbes from decades ago:
As the expression goes these days, there’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s review, in chronological order:
- An entitled, self-absorbed brat strolls into a room and announces to an authority figure in his life that he will henceforth be referred to not by his given name, but by a made-up name;
- He makes clear that she will refer to him in this manner until the end of time and that he’ll refer to himself in the third person;
- The authority figure, his mom, instantly decides he is deranged;
- Later, he informs another authority figure, his teacher, that he will not respond to any form of address other than the one he has invented;
- This defiance winds him up in the office of an event more authoritarian figure;
- His father, to Calvin’s delight, calls Calvin by his new self-appointed name;
- Attributing it to the end of his patience, Calvin’s dad gives him a new moniker: “Mud”
Back in 1992 (which feels like about 700 years ago or so.………) people laughed at these comics because they were so preposterous. After all, who demands that society address them as whatever name, title, pronouns, gender, or species that they dream up? Crazy, huh?
Of course, we’re so far past that these days that the young lad in the cartoons above would do the only logical thing and file a lawsuit against anyone who refused to address him as Calvin the Bold. Because norms, respected authority figures, and long-established culture don’t count. The only thing that matters is what Calvin wants right this second.
