18th October is International Pronouns Day

Apart from entitled people and try hard diversity specialists who gives a flying monkeys.

I think lots are bored of this now.

Colons have a whole month - April. The variety that malfunction and cause digestive and bowel nastiness, and are undeniably a wearying fixture of some not-always-evident disabilities without much effective medical treatment.

On the subject of gerunds, I can't help thinking of these Ronald Searle cartoons - don't know if I am allowed to link in this way, but I will have a go. Site by Matou

It's obviously not the 'deadnaming' itself that is upsetting people; they must already have underlying issues that cause them to react this way in the first place.

If somebody were repeatedly calling you something grossly offensive or malicious, I would understand; but somebody unwittingly calling you Michael when you now go by Michele should not make a well person feel so traumatised.

As a theologian, I also come across Godself used as a pronoun. Apparently people think it gets around the argument of using gendered language for God. It doesn't, it just jars and draws attention to the pronoun rather than the meaning of the sentence.

If we're talking from a Christian or Jewish perspective, God's chosen masculine pronouns have been made explicitly clear by 'Godself' - so anybody refusing to accept this is categorically confirming that they don't agree with people being allowed to specify their own preferred pronouns.

Please make it stop

It would be useful to hear a clear explanation why dead-naming and misgendering are such serious breaches of conduct in this context, but not in any other contexts.

One person wrote that dead-naming and misgendering cause deep mental pain for transgender and nonbinary people, but the person stating this did not explain why the reaction would be so strong.

I would have thought that if a person's inner, abstract gender identity is so strong it would be at most only a minor annoyance to have someone disrespect it? It sounds like something that needs to be resolved in psychological counseling, not something that the rest of the world should fix?

Not sure. I would appreciate understanding all this better.

Why is it 'international? Should we celebrate those languages where the third person singular doesn't make a distinction between male and female? (Wonder how enbies stand out in those places.)

Neopronouns are the most fun, by the way; to have the right to control the speech of others even when you are not in the room, and to force them to remember cumbersome words nobody else might use or to be deemed a bigot. A fantastic opening for passive aggressive behaviour should someone wish to use it that way. Which obviously would be wrong.

What is dangerous about all this, of course, is that it is yet another way of forcing everyone to worship at the church of gender identity, because it turns our own pronouns into gender identity signals, and as far as I can tell, the feminine gender identity is going to end up being defined with very sexist stereotypes about women which we are now expected to accept as valid for ourselves if we give our pronouns as sheher.

FFS. On the same day as menopause day as well. You couldn't make this shit up.

Talking of Americanisms, I'd far rather be misgendered than have to listen to people constantly being referred to by their full name: 'as Danielle Jones just said when Danielle was presenting Danielle's work ...' Just use a sodding pronoun. Pick one. Someone will tell you if it's not Danielle's chosen one.

As a theologian, I also come across Godself used as a pronoun. Apparently people think it gets around the argument of using gendered language for God. It doesn't, it just jars and draws attention to the pronoun rather than the meaning of the sentence.

Quite. I've never understood what's supposed to be so triggering/ upsetting about being misgendered, or even dead named. I'm misgendered not infrequently, despite very definitely presenting as the sex that I am

I used to work in a big American bank. Despite speaking to people on the phone they'd still start their telexes (yes, I'm that old) with 'Dear Sir.' I have short hair, I've been called 'sir' by absent minded shop staff.

Should have sued someone and demanded counselling. And who cares if it's Intl Pronouns Day anyway? every day seems to be devoted to some cause or another. This is just another one to ignore.

Can I put in a word for the most vulnerable and marginalised piece of speech - the gerundive? It can't even be said as a single word.

Yes, one realised one should have said 'you'

We could always have a Colon Day - where people can feel free to stick all these pointless 'international days'... wherever they deem appropriate!

Excellent

Excellent. I think I'll celebrate it by saying 'it', 'us' and 'oneself' a lot.

'Your' is the worst pronoun for this, obviously. So vain it thought it had a song about it.

Ahem. <language teacher alert> 'Your' is a possessive adjective, not a pronoun. Also it's 'You're so vain'. Admittedly, the 'you' in 'you're' is a pronoun.

International Pronouns Day.

Is / it?

We could always have a Colon Day - where people can feel free to stick all these pointless 'international days'... wherever they deem appropriate!

Yeah. 'Your' is the worst pronoun for this, obviously. So vain it thought it had a song about it.

I got madame'd <shudder>

Oh please can we have a Hyphens Day? I love hyphens, and they are so neglected these days. Everyone uses pronouns every day, that’s probably why they got so vain and think they’re something special.

Quite. I've never understood what's supposed to be so triggering/ upsetting about being misgendered, or even dead named. I'm misgendered not infrequently, despite very definitely presenting as the sex that I am. I also get called by my sister's/ daughter's/ nephew's/ father's name, and at work by some random names. I've survived without any injury to my sense of self. Although I do wonder why so many people over the years have independently thought that my name is Rachel - a name which sounds nothing like my real one and isn't the name of anyone close to me. I also get Rebecca quite a lot. Apparently I come across as someone whose name starts with R. I am not. Nevertheless, I have survived this far.

I wonder if that explains why I had to reply to an email explaining that I don't want to display my pronouns in my department today?

Or reader's conjunctions!

When is international apostrophe day or Metaphor week? It seems unfair to exclude them.

They could bring back a seriously dulled-down version of More magazine - who wouldn't be desperately racing home from the newsagent in order to cop a good look at Preposition of the Fortnight?!

I've just learned what a clitic is. I think they'd've their own day.

I haven't watched the new revival of Big Brother, as I think it already started to go stale over 20 years ago; but they showed a clip on something or other where they were meeting the new housemates and one of them was trans.

One housemate virtue-signalled and suggested that they should all go around the table and state their pronouns - why this was remotely necessary for anybody except the trans person, I haven't the faintest clue.

I mean, it's not even like the words 'he' or 'she' are remotely offensive, so why you'd be upset at being referred to the 'wrong one' if your appearance 'strongly suggests' which one people would naturally use for you, I do not know. Many very much non-trans people have, on occasion, been mistaken - on the phone, by people not looking properly or just making assumptions - and they all seem to have managed to come out the other side unscathed.