I’m neither a Democrat nor a Democratic strategist, so my opinion on the politics of “Latinx” are kind of beside the point. My objection to the word is rooted in aesthetics: It is, simply, a remarkably ugly neologism.

Like a brutalist building constructed to house Kafka-esque bureaucracy, “Latinx” prizes function over form, jamming a gender-neutral “x” onto the end of a word that has a history and a form all of its own. There’s something appealing about the gendered Romance languages, an almost lyrical quality to the words. Sure, it drove me nuts in school trying to remember the “el” or the “la,” the “o” and the “a.” But even a (wildly bad) horror movie like The Curse of La Llarona sounds a little more beautiful with that gendered flourish.

The sound of the word is all wrong, and it’s all wrong because “n” and “x” don’t belong next to each other unless Michael Hutchence (RIP) is belting out “New Sensation.” La-teen-ecks sounds like a made up word. Maybe a long-abandoned prequel to the silly-but-under-appreciated Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Every time I entered my local mall through the Nordstrom and saw the sign promoting their Latinx appreciation last month, I wasn’t sure whether to wrinkle my nose or roll my eyes.