Found this interesting re: pronouns

[Thebeastofsleep]

Wasn't sure how to title this.

I work for the NHS, we've not had any overt pressure to add pronouns to our emails however it is definitely creeping in and I've noticed it on some people's emails, but only where their name easily identified their sex (such as Matthew or Natalie). Today I've received 3 emails from people with gender neutral names signed off "Mr Sam Peterson", "Mrs Alex Ireby" and "Ms Cameron Whitely" (surnames changed for anonymity).

I'm not sure what I think about this? Is it a quiet objection to pronouns? An alternative of denoting your sex? Unintentional on a GC basis? Something else entirely?

I don't know any of the people well enough to ask their reasoning.

Interesting and then opens the old can of worms for woman announcing their marital status. I have a job where I contact on the phone lots of professionals and members of the public. It does help to know if people are male/female as flow of conversation can be stilted if it is hard to tell ( and is relevant ) and also I annoy myself assuming who might be male/female based on the job role,still after all these years I revert to stereotypes from childhood. I have seen the preferred pronoun thing on emails and just think ok and move on. If I was made to clarify my preference , I would add Ms as i just am female. So yes those people might be making a point but I don't see why you need to know why or what else they mean by it if anything . Years ago writing your name then Mrs/Ms in brackets was common place to clarify title as well.

I think Wimbledon is updating thr female winners boards to remove Mrs or Miss isn't it, because the married status of a woman is irrelevant. In my job, the sex of someone is also irrelevant so I don't need to know what the pronouns of the person I'm emailing are. I will not put mine on my email signature, looks ridiculous and unprofessional imo

Are these consultants or other staff?

That's always been a thing (always women though - men never needed to point out they were men)

I'd perhaps think they might be consultants, who I think don't use Dr and use Mr instead but I don't know what female consultants use. Would it be Mrs/Ms/Miss??

I wouldn't have thought it comes from any criticism of gender ideology, as declaring whether you're Mrs/Ms/Miss seems like a backward step. As an old school feminist I would just put my name, and leave out any title.

I don't think this is about pronouns.

Quite often systems/online forms have compulsory titles, so it makes it easier for anyone filling in those, also it means that everyone is addressed by their preferred title.

Alex might not like being addressed as Mr or Ms and Cameron will probably be assumed to be male a lot more than female (if that's a real example, I'm not sure I know any female Camerons) so it's mainly to protect Alex and Cameron from being addressed as Mr.....

I wouldn't make any assumptions about Sam's sex when I didn't know, as there seems to be as many of either, but I also wouldn't use a title if I could avoid it either as they seem pointless and outdated as far as I can see.

It's sensible if they're people who someone might want to communicate with somewhat formally using title and surname rather than first name. (The marital status thing is a bit of a red herring because women can always use Ms if they want).

I like this reply to the pronoun question:

Other staff. Not medical.

People have used Mr or Mrs where I work for quite a while. I think it's a way of letting people know whether you're male or female without looking like it's a political stance. The first time I saw it was about 6 years ago before pronouns were really a thing. It was a woman with an unusual first name and Gordon for a surname. It was easier than correcting everyone who called her Gordon in emails.

I doubt if it is to do with objecting to pronouns being stated, in my opinion. Just respect their choice.

Maybe we all need an equivalent gender neutral pronoune to Doctor, a bit like Ms is neither married or single.

Those of a certain age will remember police used to be distinguished by WPC / PC but they have dropped the W.

Hmmm, I think it's quietly GC. I'm a Girlguiding volunteer and lots of the paid staff who work for Girlguiding have gone full pronoun on emails, ( all female that I've seen) however I've had one email signed off Mr FirstName Last name, no pronouns...so I read that as he doesn't buy into it all and has gone for Mr as an alternative.