Line Manager just "come out" as Non-binary

Recognising a person's sex isn't sinister, bullying, or offensive. It's instinctive.

Trying to compel people to pretend they cannot perceive a person's sex, and implying or threatening consequences for people who will not or cannot submit to your unreasonable demand, is extremely sinister.

Like it or not, English is a language with sexed pronouns, and natural uninhibited conversation about specific people references their sex.
There is no offence in this. The recognition of sex is a neutral act. The referencing of that sex in the natural flow of language is a neutral act. There is no insult and no disrespect involved.

She sounds crap anyway, aside from this issue. Have you raised any of the other stuff with her superiors? Somebody needs to say something. It can't just be you she's managing poorly.

Yes, the consequences may merely be offending someone, which isn't sinister or bullying. It would be sinister and bullying if the consequences were loss of job or similar.

Since we don't know, let's see if OP has checked or not.

I love how the counterargument has evolved to "Look, you don't have to, it's just that there will be consequences if you're disrespectful".

Because that's not sinister and doesn't sound like bullying at all!

Have you spoken to HR, OP, to see where the organisation you work for stands on this officially? It might be that you feel there's a threat to your job when actually the threat may only be that your Line Manager would be personally offended.

It certainly should, TotallyFuckedUp

@74NewStreet You refuse to answer my questions but continue to ask them of me, and then consider yourself to be arguing in the cause of 'respect'.

Was that in response to Thinkingaboutit’s post, Erkhart?
“Yes, disrespect doesn’t go down well”?

Yes, disrespect doesn't go down well.

Funny that, since disrespect towards women, in particular, seems to be very acceptable. Isn’t it strange how the woke brigade, demand respect but refuse to give it. Respect should be earned and not demanded.

@Binterested that would have had me marching up to the organisers asking why the hell they were goosing gender politics crap on a load of children - when back in the real world creepy guys were chasing little girls (and boys too). So stop messing with the children’s heads and get real.

Yes, disrespect doesn't go down well.

There's a sort of grim irony in all this, Binterested. The sex predators who are being given free access to women's changing rooms etc are, as you say, perfectly well aware of our sex and their own!

everybody has a right to ask to be called whatever they want.... It's up to others whether they choose to respect it. Where's your problem with that?

Eckhart, no, it's not up to us. That is exactly the problem. We do not have a free choice about whether to call men "she" or women "he" or whatever they order us to call them.

If we choose not to obey, we could, like Kate Scottow, be arrested. Or, like Harry Miller, be told by the police that we do not have that right. Or like Maya Forstater, lose our jobs, and then be told by a judge that our beliefs are not worthy of respect.

If we can't afford to lose our jobs, reduce our employability or be arrested, it is not up to us what we 'choose'.

To make matters worse she just mentioned that there was a weird man at the bus stop this morning who was trying to talk to her - she kept walking away and he kept following her. Fortunately another man at the bus stop told him to lay off and he walked off.

She only mentioned this in passing just now because it’s not the first time. She had a similar incident a couple of years ago and was flashed at last year on her way to school.

This is what teenage girls already deal with. I am so angry. You can bet all those weirdos knew her effing pronouns

My 13 yo has just come back from a day at a debating competition at Imperial College. They all had to say their pronouns first.

Because teenagers really need to be misled and lied to, when they're at the most confusing stage of their lives, don't they?

Words fail me, Binterested. Except ones that would get the police on me to "check my thinking", and I have plenty of those.

*bear, sorry. Always mix those up.

My 13 yo has just come back from a day at a debating competition at Imperial College. They all had to say their pronouns first. So angry with this shit. Stop brainwashing my child

OK. But bare in mind that many other clever people have also opposed them. Also, I didn't say any of those things.

@Findumdum1 Do you call every opinion that doesn't match yours an agenda?

No, but I think all the people who come on the MN FWR boards and say oh women, just be kind, be nice, what does it cost you? Don't make a fuss, it's fine, don't worry about MRAs invading female spaces, definitely have an agenda. I won't bother reiterating what that is as many, many clever women have already done so, many, many times before.

Barracker 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼 👏🏼

Spot on Barracker well said.
Op- just use her name every single time. No pronouns just Ms Jones said, Ms Jones would like etc.

What a pleasure it is to read such incisive posts from Barracker . Thank you for your clarity and wisdom - and for consistently centring women

so some perhaps found it difficult to let go of the past

But the GC view would be that they are very much reading the present.