Simultaneously Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner completed a clean sweep of the entire US awards system by receiving a Glamour magazine “Woman of the Year” award. Soon afterwards, even the award of “Woman of the Year” to someone with a penis seemed passé as a far-left blogger and “anti-austerity activist” called Jack Monroe came out as “nonbinary transgender”. A few days later she accepted a “Woman of the Future” award,  which was not merely undeserved but (if Monroe were to be taken at her word) singularly inaccurate.

Or not. For although Monroe has announced that she is “trans” she expressed herself unwilling to do anything about it. Indeed, she demonstrated even less skin in the game than Caitlyn Jenner. Personally, I slightly admire people so sure they are stuck in the wrong body that they go through the terrible operations necessary to change sex cosmetically. But I feel reluctant to go through the necessary language hurdles if they won’t do anything other than “declare” themselves something. And what hurdles! In reporting Monroe’s desire to “transition”, Pink News adopted the new house style which makes pronouns for trans people not only non-gender specific but also plural. So we read, “Writing on their blog, Jack said . . .” Also (lovers of our delicate and beautiful language look away now), “The Guardian columnist and poverty campaigner changed their name to Jack when they was younger.”  The new newspeak is the old illiteracy.

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No wonder that throughout the year news of the breakdown of college-aged individuals emerged almost daily. The demand for “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” reached a pitch when Yale students were filmed surrounding and swearing at a professor who had advised students just to look away from any Halloween costumes they were offended by. This would not do. Before telling the professor to “shut the fuck up”, one student screamed, “It is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students. Do you understand that?” Not only rude, but wrong. The role of a university is quite different from the role of a home. What chance does anyone have with quantum physics or Shakespeare if they find Halloween so stressful?  As with all these tergiversations, the great question of the year was not why the kids were revolting but why the adults kept giving in.