1. What anyone who uses the term "special snowflake" is doing. Commonly done by edgelords of the internet to look cool.
2. People failing to recognise that third gender individuals and those who lack gender identity have existed long before Tumblr.
People pull out the words “special snowflake” when someone does any of the following:
- Have a profile/blog that talks about their non-“traditional” gender identity, sexuality, or neurodiversity.
- Ever mention that they have a non-“traditional” gender identity, sexuality, or neurodiversity
- Ever talk about any kind of non-“traditional”/non-white/cis/straight/neurotypical/etc. identity
- Want words to exist for that identity so they can talk about it
- Want people to accept that that identity exists
None of that is about thinking they are “special”. It’s about wanting to be able to talk about identities in the same way that other people can by default. That’s when you'll see people use the words “special snowflake”. I’ve never actually seen anyone who made up a non-“traditional” identity because they want to be special, but I have seen a lot of people shamed as special snowflakes for talking about their non-“traditional” identity, and people assuming they are lying, treating them as lying, etc. far beyond how likely it is that they actually are lying.
2. People failing to recognise that third gender individuals and those who lack gender identity have existed long before Tumblr.
People pull out the words “special snowflake” when someone does any of the following:
- Have a profile/blog that talks about their non-“traditional” gender identity, sexuality, or neurodiversity.
- Ever mention that they have a non-“traditional” gender identity, sexuality, or neurodiversity
- Ever talk about any kind of non-“traditional”/non-white/cis/straight/neurotypical/etc. identity
- Want words to exist for that identity so they can talk about it
- Want people to accept that that identity exists
None of that is about thinking they are “special”. It’s about wanting to be able to talk about identities in the same way that other people can by default. That’s when you'll see people use the words “special snowflake”. I’ve never actually seen anyone who made up a non-“traditional” identity because they want to be special, but I have seen a lot of people shamed as special snowflakes for talking about their non-“traditional” identity, and people assuming they are lying, treating them as lying, etc. far beyond how likely it is that they actually are lying.
by angelArmageddon November 23, 2016