pronouns on booking form

<sits on surprisingly comfy £3 million in £50 notes>
<counts piles of gold bars>

No, it doesn't sorry.

<orders new curtains for the super yacht>

<orders new cabin boy for the super yacht>

It's just a rumour spread by idiots

<bites gold coin>

ooh chocolate. Bonus

If you read my posts you'll see that I said no such thing - quite the opposite. She could simply put 'n/a' and avoid any and all drama.

But the point is she shouldn't have to even put N/A. She should have been able to progress through the form without it being a mandatory box.

And I would agree. But that isn't the situation. Demanding that it is doesn't make it so.

huh?

the OPs post was "What would you put in a form when it demands you fill in the pronoun box or it won't submit, and there is a danger said pronouns will be printed on the name badges? It's a professional conference."

it was the conference/form doing the demanding.

I said no such thing

The OP posted in response to being advised to put N/A.

”it does make a difference if they then print N/A on my name badge though doesn't it? It singles me out as a tricky customer”

To which you replied
“But you are being a tricky customer”

So on the one hand you say she should just put N/A, but on the other you say that singles her out as a ‘tricky customer’. Which brings us back to the point of the OP, to find a workaround that doesn’t single her out. Something that shouldn’t be necessary.

Put He/she/it

Oh the irony just made me leave my body for a moment...

She said she was being a tricky customer - that was her characterisation of her behaviour. I, if you'll also note, said she should just put N/A.

There was an investigative study project done and it was reported on the BBC where they took a CV and made it very similar in quality of education and experience. They gave one a male name and the other with a female name and sent them to veterinarians around the UK and asked which they would be more likely to hire and how much the salary would be.

The male CV was most popular and they consistently said they would pay that candidate more.

This was just before or during Covid if I remember correctly.

I know quite a few female people who don’t want to bring attention to the fact they are female at work due to how they are treated differently when working by email.

I know what she posted. And what you posted. It’s right there. I must have misread the bit where you wrote “nooo, you’re not being tricky, you’re rightfully pushing back against poor practice”. Must have got lost in all your accusations of people ‘creating issues’ or not behaving professionally.

@alcovecupboards and when all is said and done, why should preferred pronouns ever be a mandatory field?

There’s a large body of research along similar lines. Also looking at other characteristics such as applications from particular postcode areas or from candidates with ‘immigrant’ names. In general, it’s widely accepted that ‘blindness’ in relation to things like sex, race, social class etc helps to address bias toward middle-class white men (to generalise).

It’s why many of us find the push toward declaration of pronouns, which in the main is about identifying sex, so frustrating. We know it disadvantages women.

It would be so phenomenally easy for them to have had a box labelled "Optional: if you have preferred pronouns which you wish to appear on your badge after your name, please state them here; otherwise, leave blank".

They actively chose not to do this, but rather to force everybody to join in with something that is completely irrelevant to the vast majority of people and which a great many strongly disagree with the concept of and/or do not believe in. A bit like asking everybody to state which Pope or Guru's teachings have inspired them spiritually the most.

Incidentally, I would caution against putting 'N/A', as the kind of people who do this are 100% guaranteed to also be the kind who will then robotically put that as your preferred pronouns, so you'll end up with a badge saying 'Emma Williams (N/A)'.

This

Thanks for that link, I particularly liked this part, amongst other excellent paragraphs and concepts:
The more insidious part of the strategy is the first part: the pretence that the contentious propositions that form sex denialism are already accepted without question by all educated, right-thinking people. Sex deniers make determined efforts to weave their claims seamlessly into our language and the fabric of our workplace culture, with the aim of converting contentious claims into the kind of tacit knowledge that doesn’t even need to be stated or formulated.

This is an interesting point.

Why is it detrimental to their mental health for a pronoun to be used?

For example, it does not cause me distress if a male pronoun is used in reference to me. Why does it cause this group severe emotional distress if someone uses a different pronoun?

It's Schröedinger's Pronoun. It's such a trivial, irrelevant point of mundane grammar for the vast majority of people to care about; but at the same time, it's pretty much the single most important thing about them for a minority of people.

ooh ohhh I know!!

is it because you're an actual adult who dies t take to the fainting couch if anyone (oh the horror!) wrong sexes you?

I wonder if the conference is being organised by a commercial interest ? If so maybe writing your own name badge on a card with a rivals log might focus attention ?

Alternatively no name badge, but use fact you have to verbally introduce yourself to your advantage ?

Cat and ways and skin and all that.

I know what I wouldn't do, and that's put up with this shit like some PPs claim they would. (In my case I owe it to DM who would never have put up with this bollocks.)

If you can't type in blank characters (like space or tab) put your fullname in the pronouns section, therefore it looks like a printing error on the badge, and you can play dumb when people quiz you on it.

As if anyone has ever been quizzed on their pronouns .. (adopts a very hard stare)

If it’s a paper label put inside one of those plastic badges with a safety pin, you can always take some scissors and cut off the pronouns or whatever ends up being printed underneath. I’ve done that before.

Apologies, I can't find a bookmark for it. Which suggests I read it in a book rather than online. Potentially Gina Rippon. I'll come back to you if my memory throws up anything more useful.