Pronouns- here to stay??

[StuffLikeThat]

Can I get people's thoughts on whether the act of stating your "personal pronouns" (after your name on LinkedIn or in your email signature etc) is here to stay? Is it just a fad or will this stick and just be a thing for ever more?

I think it will be a fad if enough of us who disagree with it don’t do it.

That's what I thought originally but scrolling through LinkedIn this evening and im dismayed at the number of people (mostly women) who do it.

I don’t see the harm in it. I think a lot of younger people want to show solidarity with non binary people. My friend’s son is now non binary and it took me and my husband a while to get used to saying “them” instead of “him” but if it makes them feel more comfortable. I think the point of putting “she/her” is so that the few people who put “they/them” feel less weird for specifying it if we all do it. I must say I haven’t done it on my work emails or anything but was thinking about doing it.

I think non-binary is a fad so pronouns probably are too

I think most women don’t understand the way their rights are gradually being eroded with practices like these and ‘don’t see the harm’. I’d encourage anyone wondering about how it harms to hang out on the feminism board for some information.

It is a hill I'm prepared to die on - totally agree about the erosion of womens rights

Fuck sake. Pronouns really don’t matter because you use them when THE PERSON ISN’T THERE. No offence can be caused because they are NOT PRESENT.

You can call them whatever you like. Such a load of bollcoks.

The sooner we realise/remember that everyone is non binary as gender is an artificial shitty construct designed to repress both males and females the better.

I think it's a fad. I haven't seen it in any work emails. It's probably more common in some sectors than others.

For those who can't see the problem with adding pronouns, here's a quick summary that I've shamelessly nicked from another forum:

Here are some reasons against pronouns being displayed:

1. Because women are targetted for abuse and have reasons not to draw attention to our sex particularly on the misogynist cesspit of social media

2. It is increasingly being compelled within people's workplaces and many employees are afraid not to, which results in compelled speech

3. It means those not displaying pronouns are assumed to be bigots & transphobes, which is used as another excuse for abuse, particularly towards women defending their own rights as a sex

4. some people transitioning but who don't look like the stereotype of the sex they are transitioning to are then outed as trans against their will

5. men who wish to identify as the opposite sex for nefarious reasons - yes this is increasingly happening, trans women are as concerned about this as natal women - are using pronouns to gaslight women and other observers into having to accept them into our spaces.

Fad I desperately hope

I'm training to go self employed as it's taken over my workplace and I cannot stand it

@Barrawarra

I think most women don’t understand the way their rights are gradually being eroded with practices like these and ‘don’t see the harm’. I’d encourage anyone wondering about how it harms to hang out on the feminism board for some information.

Totally agree. I visited the feminism board and had my eyes opened.

I'm civil service and I'm seeing it more and more

Fad, I hope. I think if DC come home with all manner of non binary friends that's fine, they just better make sure they call me 'your maj',muy preferred pronoun although it could change each time they visit, otherwise they might not be welcome back for free beers and pizza

I hope it’s just a fad. Even my very “woke” Dd, understands compelling people to put pronouns on emails etc, is a load of bollocks and achieves absolutely nothing of any value.

Definitely a fad and most people will feel ridiculous in the future for entertaining it. Sadly it seems to be mainly women falling for it and yet it’s women it damages most of all.

@Barrawarra

I think most women don’t understand the way their rights are gradually being eroded with practices like these and ‘don’t see the harm’. I’d encourage anyone wondering about how it harms to hang out on the feminism board for some information.

Yep this. Enough of the ‘be kind’ crap. It’s hugely detrimental to women’s rights and needs to stop.

@TeacherJen

I don’t see the harm in it. I think a lot of younger people want to show solidarity with non binary people. My friend’s son is now non binary and it took me and my husband a while to get used to saying “them” instead of “him” but if it makes them feel more comfortable. I think the point of putting “she/her” is so that the few people who put “they/them” feel less weird for specifying it if we all do it. I must say I haven’t done it on my work emails or anything but was thinking about doing it.

Whenever you write an email about other people, Jen, do you bother to go back and check all the she/her, he/him and they/them signatures lost in the depths of your email inbox? Or do you go for ‘they’ all round?

@Hollyhead

The sooner we realise/remember that everyone is non binary as gender is an artificial shitty construct designed to repress both males and females the better.

Gender has multiple meanings. Kathleen Stick is very good on this in Material Girls.

Sex, however, is a biological reality. We are mammals. Humans are either male or female. We are a binary, dimorphic species.

Kathleen Stock (not Stick)

So do you think that the vast majority of people who are declaring their pronouns are aware of the underlying ideology/ reasons for it... or do you think they are just naively doing it because other people are and they think it's a nice thing to do?

I think most people do it in order to make other people, who they may or may not know, feel comfortable.

I think some do it in order to show how much they are in the in-crowd.

And I think a few do it in order to piss off their parents or teachers.

No thank you

Oh... i hope it's a fad. I could live with using 'they' and 'Mx' for everyone instead.

Hoping it's a fad, it's not something I will ever support. Work have recently formed a Diversity and Inclusion forum so I'm expecting this kind of rubbish to start filtering out to us soon.

I see no reason to have pronouns in my email signature, if someone wants to refer ti me and doesn't want to risk being wrong then they can just use my name. So instead of 'she wrote the notes' they can say 'halfshrunk wrote the notes'.