Preferred pronoun labels at childrens event

[StopitSarah]

I took my primary age children to a science event this weekend. It’s run by university students. Almost all of them had their preferred pronouns on their name labels.

AIBU to feel that was unnecessary and to feel a bit uneasy? One of my children wanted to know why “the man is saying we should say he/him. Isn’t that obvious?”

I asked one of the students who said it was to show support to any trans helpers and was for the benefit of the (adult) students, not the children.

I’m SO BORED and irritated by the trans agenda being every-bloody-where.

But AIBU? I had a good chat with one of the students and he said that they’re all science students and understand that woman = biological female is too simplistic. My brain exploded.

You will likely have seen trans people and not known that they are trans. If you don't know then you don't know

lolling at this. The trans people I’ve meant literally look like/ are men in a skirt with make up and long hair. The only trans person that briefly fooled me was Hunter Schafer and even then it was for about half an episode of Euphoria before I realised. Men in dresses look like men in dresses. Even when they look like they’re maybe passing there’s an ‘uncanny valley’ aspect to it all, something looks off.

The vast, vast majority don’t pass, and even the ones who might aesthetically, they often give themselves away as soon as they open their mouths, but if you’re implying they do, how are they being misgendered and targeted so frequently?

Dying

“most oppressed group ever, victims of discrimination and hate crimes!” Vs “you can’t tell if someone is trans”

”it’s just pronouns it costs nothing to go along with it” Vs “if you don’t use the correct pronouns I will do harm to myself”

”don’t be mean they’re mentally ill” Vs “it’s not a mental illness”

Stupidest belief system ever. Starting to wonder if the end game is to turn everyone off of this pseudo-religion. Surely this has to be a joke?!

If they pass there's no need for declaration of pronouns as people would automatically use the opposite sex-based pronouns.

There really are no good arguments for declaring pronouns - well, except for signalling your moral purity and adherence to a totalitarian ideology.

If they pass so we'll, why do they need a badge @spelunky?

yeah...unreasonable.

no one was trying to force you to put YOUR preferred pronouns on display right? If that were the case then it would be totally reasonable to have an issue.

Are you ok though? That must have been really really hard seeing all those pronouns on other people's name tags.

I personally find pronouns on badges and email signatures very triggering, so I wouldn't have managed to cope in that environment.

It's so ludicrous, isn't it, when you put it like that?
We only label things when it's not immediately obvious what they are, like jars of spices, for example. Nobody labels a chair or a table, because everyone knows what they are.

Are you ok though? That must have been really really hard seeing all those pronouns on other people's name tags

I'd be a bit taken aback and uncomfortable if I attended a science event and there was any sort of religious iconography displayed prominently. It would undermine my trust in the accuracy of the information being presented.

It would have been pretty unbearable for me, actually. I don't like to be forced to practice cognitive dissonance. I know quite well what I'm looking at.

I should add to this that I have worded badly re gender dysphoria, obviously they cannot be the opposite sex but in these cases they may well believe they are (I liken this to some who is anorexic believing they are fat). The end result should be the person understanding the truth and being helped with their mental health issues.

People deciding left, right and centre that they can change gender is so damaging to those with true gender dysphoria as they are saying people can change gender, when they can't. Being trans shouldn't be an issue, transwoman, transman, that's fine but that's what they are, they are NOT actual men or women and never will be.

I feel incredibly sad that this is how the world is at the moment, I feel sad for my teenagers future really.

This is the way of the world now. It'll certainly be the way of the world after we're all gone. No point fighting against it really is there?

Why would you fight against the idea anyway? Does it affect you?

You don't know what cognitive dissonance is.

I am fed up with the whole thing. It is an utter nonsense. I fell very sorry for young people today - they can't tell if they are coming or going with all this shite. Where will it all end?

redefining the word ‘women’ to mean ‘adult human female & men who feel like women (and no we won’t define how a man feels like a woman)’ affects every single woman whether you like it or not.

Adults are not children
dogs are not cats
apples are not oranges
men however they present or identify are not women

The perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it?

That's exactly what it is. She's seeing a man and seeing contradictory information on a badge saying that the man uses female pronouns. And it wears her our trying to rationalise it.

It's completely accurate use of the term!

I think I do, thank you. Better than you, it would seem.

Why would you fight against the idea anyway? Does it affect you?

It affects all of us, why is that so hard to understand? And even if somehow you personally are never impacted if there are no women's sports, women's prisons, women's changing rooms, women's rape crisis services, if children are taught they are in the wrong body and have healthy body parts removed and are sterilised, if we have a cohort of legal adults who never went through puberty and have the brain and bodies of children - why don't you care about those who ARE impacted?

Yes, it does affect me.
It affects all women.

Why would you fight against the idea anyway? Does it affect you?

Why would we fight against the word woman no longer having a definable meaning? Why wouldn't you fight against the idea?
It affects half the population.

I find the whole "shhhh, don't fight, just accept it" suggestion a bit.... something.

But the thread isn't about women's sports, women's prisons, women's changing rooms, women's rape crisis services. That's a different discussion.

This is about pronouns and respecting how people want to be referred to.

It's the way the world's going. It's the way the world will be once we're gone so I don't understand why there's so much impotent railing against it. Every time a thread like this recurs I'm left thinking about all the fucked up kids that will result from the sort of attitudes shown by parents here.

Some of your kids are going to feel non-binary, some of them are going to experience gender dysphoria. What are you going to do? Try and talk them out of it?

Why would you fight against the idea anyway? Does it affect you?
Such a stupid question, really. How could it not affect all of us? Anyone dumb enough to ask that question in the first place is kind of showing their hand 😬

The rational thing is to have some human empathy, surely?

You're only going to be disadvantaging yourself and your kids with these attitudes.

I notice you haven't explained how it affects you. No-one has.

It has been explained @MaryMcCarthy, RTFT.