Mandatory pronouns on work email signature

I quite fancy ‘Fuckface’ as my pronoun

And also, I don’t feel the need to identify myself as a woman in my emails, having a unisex looking name saves me from a lot of mansplaining!

This! I worked for a multinational and have an androgynous name. So much unearned male privilege 😀

I'm the only person I've noticed in my company that doesn't have pronouns in their signature (we're an SME ~150 employees). Most people have their pronouns then a hyperlink "why I use these" to a page that waffles on about inclusivity and staff feeling safe.

I'm now sorely tempted to write "No pronouns - why I have this" and hyperlink to a document that says these two points. 😂If I get pulled up on it, I could say I'm helping any gender critical colleagues "feel safe".

Not sure I'm brave enough 😶

"What/Ever" 🤣

I sincerely doubt mandatory pronouns would happen at my workplace, even though it is Super Righteous, but if it did, I already know what I'm planning to use (and I think it is pretty Righteous-proof): those of my mother tongue which is a relatively uncommon dialect of Chinese, and therefore both non-gendered and in a non-roman alphabet.

NoBinturongsHereMate · Today 07:06

Finnish is high on my list, as is Hungarian (vary according to grammatical cases that don't exist in English)

I don't know about Turkish, but Kazakh doesn't have sex based pronouns either. Finnish and Magyar are part of the Finno Ugric - Turko Mongolian language family.

Mandatory email pronouns is incompatible with established UK rights and legislation.

1. a declaration of pronouns is a declaration of faith in the concept of gender as an ideology. Whilst that belief structure is protected and those who hold it are at liberty to do so, the alternate position of believing that sex is a physical reality is also a protected belief and it would be discriminatory on the grounds of faith or belief to force people to make a declaration incompatible with their beliefs.

2. for those who do believe in gender ideology, forcing pronoun declaration is forcing all employees to either "out" themselves/make a declaration they aren't yet ready for or alternatively to uncomfortably opt for pronouns they aren't happy with but aren't yet ready to publicly reject. This is contrary to the equalities act because it puts people who are uncertain about their gender at a disadvantage.

I wrote 'No preferred pronouns' in mine. So far no-one has told me off!

Whilst I certainly see your point, I guess the argument would be that pronouns are asked for as people using the incorrect ones can cause offence to some. Whereas there's not likely to be occasion for other people to refer to your colleague as lesbian or straight when in discussion with her or about her, if that makes sense.

Finnish is high on my list, as is Hungarian (vary according to grammatical cases that don't exist in English), or Tagalog (assorted dropped vowels and suffixes to play with, as well as formal and informal versions).

I recently had an email from someone at a company who I very strongly suspect have made pronouns mandatory.

Her email signature reads “My pronouns are private”

Finnish.

They have to use English to talk about this stuff.

hän / hänen

Or go for one with a non roman alphabet.

I have a colleague I’ve known for years who I’m certain is a lesbian based on various things, but she has never “come out” at work. This is entirely her business. Imagine if she had to sign off things with J Smith (lesbian). That would be outrageous. I’m both straight and GC, but even I can see that people with gender confusion might not want to be required to tell the world this or alternatively to lie and feel bad about it.

I got an email from a young man today whose signature said

Tom Jones
Any Pronouns
Job Title

I don't think you should have to provide pronouns but if I was forced to I'd probably put this.

I can't tell you how much I eyeroll at women I've known for years who now have she/her in their tagline. Yeah, I know you are a she/her Julie - you told me about getting knocked up unexpectedly in grad school - it gave me a clue to your sex

This is my view as well and I have quoted the Yogyakarta Convention at work when my very fad following boss decided to try to force us to include pronouns in our communications.

I am not transgender, nor gay but I oppose the forcible use of pronouns for the same reasons: people who are still not sure about their sexuality/sexual preferences should not be forced to chose a pronoun and therefore identity before they are ready.

And also, I don’t feel the need to identify myself as a woman in my emails, having a unisex looking name saves me from a lot of mansplaining!

This was started at my workplace last year (in Australia). Interestingly, I wasn't actually asked what I wanted as pronouns someone else created it for me. I've just quietly removed them.

Free Speech Union advise on this but you have to be a member to read it.

https://freespeechunion.org/gender-pronouns-in-the-workplace/

I wouldn’t do this. It just makes it appear that more people are buying into this nonsense. It may work but for all the wrong reasons. We need to start rejecting these ideas not utilising them to get results.

Maybe I can explain it this way. If you use mirror pronouns, that means your pronoun preferences are in a constant state of flux, because they always change to conform to other people.

Let's suppose that Alice went through the looking glass and found mirror pronouns there, and then decided to adopt mirror pronouns from then on. (Yes, I do think I'm funny. Sorry.)

From then on, all the characters she met would have to refer to her the way they liked to be referred to themselves. I'm sure Humpty Dumpty would demand other people used unique neopronouns of his own devising to talk about him, so he'd have to use those same unique pronouns when he spoke about Alice.

Anyone with a she/her pronoun badge would have to use she/her about Alice, anyone with a he/him badge would have to use he/him about Alice, anyone with a they/them badge would have to use they/them about Alice, and so on.

None the wiser even after reading this.

A person who uses mirror pronouns wants to be referred to with the same pronouns as the person talking.

• Person A uses mirror pronouns.
• Person B uses she/her, so when she talks about person A, she uses “she/her” to refer to her.
• Person C uses ze/hir interchangeably with fæ/fær, so when ze talks about person A, fæ uses either ze/hir or fæ/fær to refer to fær.

https://en.pronouns.page/mirror

I thought I was up to date with most terms but what is this? What does mirror pro nouns mean?

Yes, that'd be a good approach I think. Present it as that you haven't looked into it much but after a quick Google you found the principles, and if you're not mistaken it seems that blah blah blah...

On the question of how could they tell you were being dishonest... HR departments are not your friend. If they suspect you of rocking the boat then they absolutely will look at your SM posts etc.

And those suggesting here you should go with he/him or her majesty or some stupid neopronouns or whatever, absolutely do not do this. That is taking the piss and assuming you're not actually a he/him or a ze/zir, you're playing with fire and you might get a sanction from HR for making the workplace a toxic place for trans people, or something.

As much as we like to joke about it on here this is serious business and as you all know women have lost their jobs over this trans shit.

Make your objections known, and do so with respect, that's my advice.

What happens if there are TWO PEOPLE WITH MIRROR PRONOUNS who need to interact? How do you know what to use? Does it depend on the last pronoun used by either? Argh argh my brain hurts...

Oh my goodness, I love this. I bet someone on here invented these. Imagine working in a company with lots of people with mirror pronouns - you'd never get any actual work done! 100% of the working day would be a)figuring out and (because you would get it wrong) b) fixing pronouns.

I usually suggest FO / AD.