Do you secretly judge people who announce their pronouns in their emails?

[Mewmin]

I was reading the thread on BBC pronouns earlier and it got me thinking about my own reaction when I come across people who I had previously respected and looked up to who have put their preferred pronouns in their email signature (all female with obviously female names like Annabelle and Rebecca).

Personally I believe it shows a lack of critical thinking and, working in the academic field, I am finding it very difficult not to alter my view of the (very) few colleagues and work contacts who have done this. In one case it has actually made me think twice about working more closely with someone.

Am I alone in this?

I should add that I am supportive of transpeople's rights but don't think that they should override women's rights and I cannot go along with the lack of logical thinking and tautological definitions used in gender ideology.

It makes me think an awful lot less of both the person and the organisation they work for

I wonder if organisations/individuals will realise that they are having the opposite effect that they hoped they would have, and are damaging their personal and professional reputations?

@KFleming

work had Gender Free January and all actively encouraged to publish our pronouns,

Regardless of opinions on pronouns in emails, why on earth would they be pushed during a “gender free” month? Wouldn’t something like “gender awareness month” or “trans awareness month” have been a fit for what they wanted to do.
Gender free month would surely include removing any indicators such as Mr/Mrs and replacing all first names with initials in email signatures. So instead of “Ms Kate Fleming (she/her)” you’d just have “K Fleming”.

That would actually be amazingly cool. A month consciously spotting and removing gender signifiers to highlight how ingrained and subconscious gender-based labels and assumptions are.

It's supportive of both trans people who have to deal with the everyday unconscious bias people have about the gender others are, and gender critical people who would like to see gender de-weighted as much as possible.

I haven’t read the full thread - just your initial question. Yes - I do judge people for the bloody “she/her” etc. Fuss about the

It's being pushed at my work and my boss has added his to his linked in, I personally think it's ridiculous and just trying to be woke. Hate it.

One of my staff added it to her email signature and I thought it was a joke at first. Bloody ridiculous.

I don't like it and don't do it. Very few people I work with do. I wouldn't reject a job application based on it, though.

It's unnecessary personal information. I don't need to reiterate my sex or, if I had one, include a gender identity any more than I need include my age, sexuality, height, religion.

I suppose you could do little character profiles, e.g

Yours sincerely,
LegoPoliceman
(She/her)(Lesbian)(Catholic background, not practicing)(5'1")(Cat person)(Sore foot).

@bluebluezoo I know right? She's on the committee of the LGBTQ+ network and does talks at away days about how there are 76 genders and its a spectrum, you may genetically be one gender but mentally another, and the mental gender can change depending on the day, so you might be aligned with your genetic gender one day, but then tomorrow you may be further along the scale mentally. It is insidious - it sinks in. She uses this gingerbread man picture and calls it "genderbread". I actually really like her but this nonsense just makes me feel very old.

Such a load of shite

Does anyone care? I know one person who has transitioned and I really hope they have been fully supported. It must be an incredibly difficult thing to do and I always try to keep an open mind

At the same time I think the world has gone bloody mad with uni sex toilets and pronouns. Bonkers

A trans person's perspective on neo-pronouns and pronouns for anyone who's interested.

Several women I work with have added theirs and have said to me they don’t really know why and don’t really understand. I helped them understand a bit.
One diversity bod I do some work with said ‘it’s all so complex’ when I said I would resign from that role before starting any meeting with a round robin pronoun sharing exercise (a hot suggestion at the moment).
A lot are sleepwalking into it and have little idea, although this is changing I think.

Yes I judge. Sadly some women I work with have started doing it and my opinion of them has gone down hill.

I've never seen a man or transman do it. Only women or transwomen with exclusively feminine names (so nobody called Sam or Chris or Ashley).

It annoys me a bit but I don't really know why. I suppose because I only ever see it done by people with clearly feminine names so a) I can't see the point as someone going by a name like Sarah or Tamara surely expects female pronouns (if not, you're just being difficult for the sake of it) and b) once again, not something men seem obliged to do.

I actually wouldn't mind if the Chrises, Sams and Ashleys did it since they really could be either.

Never seen a non binary person do it either.

I judge, but not secretly.

I'm quite astonished that people on this thread still put titles (other than qualifications such as Dr / Prof) in their signatures.

I'm 42 and I don't think I've ever seen this.

Yes. I judge hard. And openly.

It takes me all my energy and patience to get from 7am through to bedtime.
I don't have any spare energy or patience to entertain this sort of bollocks.

Yes, I do judge. I just don't understand why it's necessary. I know people say it's to show support for transgender people but I would have thought most transgender people wouldn't want to put their pronouns in their bio as it brings attention to it, when 9 times out of 10 their name tells me what pronouns would be appropriate.

I think it makes them look like a nob

I don’t believe in treating those people cruelly, but at the same time I don’t know why it has to change behaviour in the other 99% of us

Do you also oppose stuff like putting wheelchair access ramps on to public buildings and providing translations of medical information? The same argument could be given.

The way I see it, is than is is no big deal for everyone to give pronouns, and it makes things better for an oppressed group. So why wouldn't you? It is very, very common in my workplace.

"They" doesn't make any sense in the context a lot of the time and is just confusing because it easily suggests there's more than one person

I'm sure it's already been said on the thread, but if I were ever asked to state my pronouns (unlikely as I am ancient and retired) I hope I'd have the guts to say "I, me, mine".

"Sometimes I wonder if this is all just an elaborate April fool."

😂😂😂

@StealthPolarBear

Thw few people I know who do it are very intelligent and valued colleagues.

Phew! Someone else saying this! The ones I’ve seen are not twats, not dim, and it’s not work policy. They are smart genuine caring women (all are women, no surprise), but while I agree they can do whatever they want I personally won’t and think there are issues with it.