Pronouns - pros and cons

There are two pros, as far as I can see. The first is that it's an easy way to identify people with a herd mentality and who lack critical thinking skills. The second is that it does occasionally come in handy if someone signs their email Sam or Alex or Chris and has their pronouns in their signature. (It's only handy if you need to know their sex, and can't find out by googling them, so it is of fairly limited value.)

This.

My use of pronouns has always been sex based. Basing the pronouns I use to refer to someone on their gender presentation causes all sorts of problems. For a start, everyone I know has a mixture of “masculine” and “feminine” characteristics. I am using the “too old to remember” excuse for not trying to keep a mental list of who wants to be referred to as “they”, “she”, “he” or any of the other usages I haven’t (fortunately) met in real life.

Pronouns arose in language as a convenience, a usually shorter and easier word to refer to someone, and we know who is being referred to by the context. Having to remember what someone wants me to call them is the opposite of convenience. It requires an additional mental effort, even if the pronoun doesn’t seem utterly incongruous. When it is demanded that I refer to my son as “she”, the cognitive dissonance is enormous, and takes over from whatever I was trying to say, sometimes resulting in me completely losing my thread.

I think I have yet to be pulled up on mis-sexing anyone; in real life, one’s perception of someone is nearly always correct, and we tend to say “they” if in doubt. Using pronouns automatically is much more conducive to fluent conversation and understanding than this new demand to think constantly about someone’s self-perception.

How do they differ in terms of pronouns?

@VinnieVanDog you don't but the pronoun argument applies to gender not sex.

Why do you need to know the sex of someone who's emailed you?

For emails sent by someone with a foreign name, pronouns can be helpful as it may not be obvious what sex they are by name.

There is no need for me to add my pronouns at the bottom of an email.

My title is Mrs (it's in the footer) and my first name is traditionally feminine.

You don't see it on letters do you.

Cons are that you don't know if you're telling someone you are female or that you have a feminine essence, because it's not clear whether people use them to ascertain sex or gender identity.

its the same list:

Pros: signalling you are part of a cult, or lack capacity for thought.
Sane people can easily identify you as member of said cult, and avoid you.
Your emails get answered last.

Cons: signalling you are part of a cult, or lack capacity for thought.
Sane people can easily identify you as member of said cult, and avoid you.
Your emails get answered last.

I've often wondered why The Righteous Style is 'she/her' and 'he/him' or 'they/them' as if people don't know how to use grammar. And then the other day I saw 'he/him/his' which was even more

In my experience, people who use wrong-sex pronouns are not always twats. But I take your point.

Cons: it’s not always a straightforward decision to avoid someone, because of the ramifications of doing so, particularly in wider family (and sometimes friendship) contexts.

I like pronouns, they save have to remember peoples names, help to differentiate between sexes , and are useful if you are referring to a group of people.

Quite so, it's what they're for. Useful grammatical constructs we apply without any thought to make communication more fluent.

If anyone tries to subvert their normal evolved usage by imposing personal rules you need to remember then they are breaking the utility of pronouns. It's like having to remember extra names for them so in that case it's likely to be easier and more fluent to just use their name. Sometimes using 'they' generically will work ok as we do use that for single unknown people entirely naturally.

My favourite pronoun is, "whatever."

Pronouns in themselves are not an issue. The issue is the forcing of language which expects people to use a pronouns that is either made up and therefore meaningless, or relates to the opposite sex that a person actually is.
Freedom of speech is vital.

Yes, there’s definitely that.

pro-a bit like rainbow lanyards, they save you time identifying who the twats are.

I have a name that is more often used for males, it is so much easier to get info from people or get things done if they think I’m male, sadly advantage disappears as soon as I meet them in person but nice while it lasts.

Not a chance I’d put female pronouns on my email.

Cons - disrupting girls intuition as to the truth of who is male and who is female, making them less safe.

cons:
Wrong-sex pronouns makes it more difficult to uphold sex-based rights.
Wrong-sex pronouns make it more difficult for socially-transitioned people to desist
Wrong-sex pronouns use cognitive capacity which is better employed doing something useful, or at least interesting!

I like pronouns, they save have to remember peoples names, help to differentiate between sexes , and are useful if you are referring to a group of people.

The problem is when people appropriate them to make pointless points and to stroke their own egos , but I am not not too worried, it’s a fad, it will pass.

Pros: you can suss out the walleys before having to converse at all.

Cons: if you are in the unfortunate position of being in a pronoun friendly work culture you are guilt tripped into using them.

Pros: anyone instructing others on what pronouns to use marks themselves out as someone to avoid

Collectively using pronouns has allowed activists such as McKinnon/Ivy to leverage ‘but society sees us as women therefore it is so cruel to exclude us’ from where they want to access. We are still campaigning to reverse the policies where harm is being done.

People using pronouns need to understand what is happening because of this usage and consider their contribution. I don’t believe they can ignore the collective harm that results, they can try to ignore it. But it has already happened and to deny it is dishonest.