A hurricane is a massive storm consisting of strong winds, heavy rain, and maybe some other things I don't know about. I mean, I'm no expert on hurricanes, but what I do know is this. It's 2018, everyone. We live in a time full of inclusiveness and open-mindedness, where people can choose to live their lives the way they want to and identify with whatever they feel the most comfortable with.
Although it still remains a commonly debated issue in today's society, people today can generally choose to identify as whatever gender they feel best represents them, without receiving too much hate from others, at least not as much hate as they would have received in past generations.
However, does this right not extend to hurricanes? My question is this. We allow people to identify with their chosen gender these days, so why do we continue to automatically assign genders to hurricanes through the hurricane naming system? This system is outdated and offensive, assigning gender-based names to hurricanes without asking the hurricane first, and therefore taking away the storm's autonomy.
Hurricanes are one of the most oppressed natural disasters in the world today, and it is a true and utter travesty. It's time that we all step up and change the system for naming hurricanes because come on everyone, it's 2018.
The 2018 hurricane season will soon end at the end of November, but change can still be made before the 2019 season rolls around. Maybe the reason why some of these storms do so much damage and take so many lives is that they are given automatic names without any sort of consideration as to what kind of name they prefer.
Hurricane names such as Andrew, Ivan, and Harvey obviously have male connotations, when the hurricanes that were given these names may not have identified as males. The same goes for female names such as Sandy, Camille, and Katrina. These storms were given these names without consideration as to whether the storms even identified as female or not. It is truly heartbreaking.
Maybe if more attention was given to what the hurricanes want, as opposed to whatever name the dreadful system comes up with, then these storms would be less angry and would then cause less damage. Maybe the reason Hurricane Katrina caused so much damage in New Orleans was that the storm didn't identify as female. Just some food for thought.
After all, we don't assign these gender-based names to tornadoes, or tsunamis, or most other natural disasters. So, why are hurricanes treated so unfairly? I wish I knew the answer to that question.
Scientists need to spend less time focusing on things like the speed of the winds and the path the storm is traveling, and instead really take the time to engage with the hurricane and its feelings. If a scientist is in the field studying the properties of a hurricane, the scientist should put down his or her scientific equipment, even for just a moment in order to just talk to the hurricane, in a simple man-storm conversation.
Scientists should get to know the hurricane, asking it things like how it's day is going, how long it plans to last before fizzling out and most importantly, what gender it identifies with. If scientists took just a little bit of time to stop and learn those basic facts, then the storms could receive names that more appropriately represent them, and they would then have less of a reason to release so much fury and destruction upon mankind.
If we really have to name the storms, then why not use more gender-neutral names? This would hopefully help alleviate the problem because regardless of the storm's preferred gender, they could still identify with their given name. If we gave the storms more gender-neutral names such as Jordan, Alex, or Charlie, then hopefully the storms would be less motivated to make landfall and would instead peacefully fizzle out over the blissful ocean, completely content with their given name.
We need to step up and change the hurricane naming system, creating a more inclusive world where hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms can all feel more at home. Just ask yourself, are these natural wonders really just gigantic, rotating storms full of deadly wind and rain, or are they simply poor, misunderstood creatures who only cause destruction due to their frustration at mankind for thrusting specific names upon them.
You decide.
