I am being asked to go into a meeting and introduce my pronouns to everyone in an hour and a half!

Good point. I actually would just use the word transexual. I am happy with the outdated words like woman and transexual.

I'd also be tempted to say, well how have you previously referred to me ? Has anything changed? Well why are you asking then? I suspect you only need ask someone who has changed their status quo, not those of us who haven't.

Say you identify as God.

I like this for a more official complaint:

Just say you won’t comply as it’s an infringement of your civil liberties, like having to declare what your religion is or what political party you support. It seeks your affirmation of a contested cultural practice that also indicates a political position, so it’s invalid.
Spyglass

I know a few people who do pronouns in emails and I never did. I wasn't comfortable with it and I worried I'd get abuse off my colleagues.

Exactly: people will assume that you follow the same sex-based pronoun conventions as 99.999% of the world unless you choose to announce them when introducing yourself at a meeting or add them in to your email signature. How is that not simple, straightforward and satisfactory to everybody?

The same as some women choose to put 'Mrs' after they sign their name, but nobody is ever forced or even asked to state their title (except on official forms). In fact, I used to correspond with somebody at work who was a man, but was called Kim, so everybody who hadn't met him or heard his voice naturally assumed he was a woman, and he signed off with 'Mr' at the end of his name to avoid any confusion. His choice; everybody happy.

I know a few people who do pronouns in emails and I never did. I wasn't comfortable with it and I worried I'd get abuse off my colleagues. I was already paranoid about them finding out I was bi.

Big Daddy’s name was Shirley wasn’t it (or was it Giant Haystacks?)

John Wayne's real name was Marion

male names quite often move across to be used as female names, and when that happens they rapidly cease to be used as male names altogether. Happening right now to Aubrey. From birth onwards, males can't be tainted by being misidentified as female.

That's a good and interesting point

Hilary was originally a male name.

So was Shirley.

However the only "recent" male ShirleyI know of was the late Shirley Crabtree - better known as "Big Daddy"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Crabtree

... transmen who then go on to deliberately get pregnant. If you feel so strongly that you identify as male, I would have thought that the idea of doing the most specifically female thing possible would be completely alien to you

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Very true...

I was also put in mind of Evelyn Waugh and He-Evelyn and She-Evelyn! I often wish he was still around to comment on our society today!

I they won’t ask any of that. Just ‘are the toilets unisex?’

Are you allowed to strictly reject the use of all third-person pronouns in reference to yourself - denounce their use as hate speech - and then legally change your name to something very long?

"I was in a meeting with Annunciata-Immaculada yesterday and Annunciata-Immaculada said that Annunciata-Immaculada had been working on Annunciata-Immaculada's new project along with a few of Annunciata-Immaculada's colleagues. Annunciata-Immaculada explained to me that, in Annunciata-Immaculada's experience, Annunciata-Immaculada had noticed a clear trend for Annunciata-Immaculada's clients to tell Annunciata-Immaculada that they valued Annunciata-Immaculada's involvement in directly applying Annunciata-Immaculada's skills to help them resolve the specific issues that Annunciata-Immaculada had been tasked to work with them on. Annunciata-Immaculada was very proud to inform me that 98% of Annunciata-Immaculada's clients gave Annunciata-Immaculada a 5-star rating when Annunciata-Immaculada asked if they would kindly review Annunciata-Immaculada's services.

Much more simple and straightforward....

Is the room for the diversity training set up in a way that blocks the path for a disabled person? Has the trainer put things on the floor in a place where a disabled person trying to get to their seat/the coffee making facilities/the exit has their way impeded?

Are all heavy items (boxes of paper, for example) raised above floor level? Does every employee have a workstation assessment, an appropriate chair and their screen raised to eye level without having to publicly out themselves as disabled by asking for such?

Look at the fonts used in handouts. Is there a readable paper copy of the presentation, rather than a shit half page size black and white printout of slides with no real information on them?

Are all the surfaces completely level to access both the building and all parts of the office? Is it well lit with non flickering lights and access to daylight? Is there the possibility of selecting your own light levels?

Are disabled people solely represented by a picture of an attractive, smiling, slim, young white woman in a wheelchair and an old man with a walking stick?

Has the trainer asked if there are any particular adaptations or adjustments needed by attendees in advance? How does asking this make somebody feel, as though they're having to demand special treatment? Shouldn't it all be availiabe to everybody in the first place to stop them needing to ask?

I'd love to see what Evelyn Waugh would have made of gender ideology.

If Bertrand Russell were still here, she'd be pointing out that male names quite often move across to be used as female names, and when that happens they rapidly cease to be used as male names altogether. Happening right now to Aubrey. From birth onwards, males can't be tainted by being misidentified as female.

You never, ever see a traditionally female name moving across to become a boys' name. I'm not even sure a traditionally female name could become unisex to any great extent. nameberry.com/blog/unisex-baby-names-names-that-morphed-from-blue-to-pink

XX as a 'pronoun' is a stroke of genius. I'm not going to wittingly/willingly poke a gigantic needle into a very angry, buzzing hornets' nest, but in the event of this shizzle ever becoming mandatory it's sorely tempting. (How about the crowning touch of a Venus symbol structured around both Xs)?

Failing that, my pronouns are me/mine and the usual form of address is 'you'. (I honestly think I prefer 'comrade' - you can see where this is heading!)

I love that anecdote about the Waughs. Apparently they were going through divorce when he wrote Vile Bodies, which is why that novel becomes increasingly more bitter and cynical as the text progresses. It's and also conceivably why he changed to that title from Bright Young Things.

I can see his point ...

Hilary was originally a male name.

So was Evelyn - or at least it was unisex. Evelyn Waugh's wife was also called Evelyn, so their friends and family called them He-velyn and She-velyn to distinguish them and make it clear which one they were talking about. If all of this modern choose-your-own-pronoun thing had been around then, he would have been known as They-velyn, she would have been known as They-velyn and, if talking about both of them together, you would just have used They-velyn - not confusing in the least....

Why go to all the trouble of changing to the opposite gender, to then not even want to be defined by it?

I'm probably missing something, but I personally can never understand transmen who then go on to deliberately get pregnant. If you feel so strongly that you identify as male, I would have thought that the idea of doing the most specifically female thing possible would be completely alien to you, as well as making it look to the outside world that, despite all of your assertions to the contrary, you aren't all that serious about identifying as a man. There was that documentary about the trans Guardian journalist who went through the courts fighting for the right to be named on the birth certificate of the child that he'd given birth to as 'father', but obviously nobody else fitted the role of 'mother' and a BC legally has to give the name of the mother (seems a bit pointless having one in the first place if it doesn't, imho).

I noticed recently some TRA rallying against chromosomes.

That is crazy - just makes me think of Alan Partridge exclaiming "Lynn, you're shouting at weather!"

I would say my pronouns are “XX” and that’s how I identify my pronouns. I noticed recently some TRA rallying against chromosomes. Very strange how they disregard one lot of identifying factors (chromosomes) but yet insist we identify ourselves with misdirected words such as “they” or “cis woman” (bleurgh). In their logic, I can make my own pronouns up and mine is XX, as that is more science based, which they hate.

Ooh yes pinching those.

I may get a badge made that says pronoun free.

women's pronouns are sex based like their oppressioN

I also like

“i don’t identify in to my own oppression”

women's pronouns are sex based like their oppression.

I'd love to sign off my emails with "my pronouns are sex based, like my oppression", if I was ever forced to have it as my email signature.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g completely agree, and astounds me this isn’t highlighted more.