To shriek from the rooftops that there is No Such Thing as “preferred pronouns”?

[Ddakji]

That’s it.

They don’t exist - any more than preferred adjectives, adverbs or nouns exist.

Even people who don’t like them still seem to think they exist.

Language is a shared, collective endeavour that belongs to all. It’s not a pick’n’mix for individuals to choose and change at will. For words not to be garbage they have clear definitions - in this case she for females, he for males, they (singular) for sex unknown.

Saying my preferred pronouns are she/her, even if that doesn’t fly in the face of reality, is no different to saying my preferred species is human, my preferred adjectives are sporty and lush.

It’s nonsense. Nothing to do with being kind or they don’t affect me, or I don’t mind if others do but I won’t. It’s nonsense.

Let’s make 2025 the year we kick this nonsense into touch.

Why does it bother you what people call themselves?

More echo chamber than rooftop

For someone with such strong opinions on language, you don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "preferred".

Please do, that’ll be an entirely sane reaction to something that doesn’t affect you. But hey, why not have an over reaction to be the centre of attention and make something all about you.

(yes, I know you’re being sarcastic in your response)

I honestly don’t care if people have preferred pronouns, it’s not something I do but as an adult I’m able to respect others.

You guys ‘won’, why keep picking.

Arguably, there is such a thing. I'm presuming you would be insulted if someone kept calling you him/sir/a bloke?! If there was no such thing then surely it would be fine for people to call you a man?

We can hope

YABU. I'm gender critical, but of course you can have preferred pronouns. Same as you can have a 'preferred name'. It might not be your actual name on your birth certificate but it also might be what you've been called since you were 2 days old. Whether someone prefers to be referred to as he or she has no bearing on you, it's very different to someone accessing a space reserved for a different sex.

ETA - so yes, you do get preferred nouns! Proper nouns.

"Language is a shared, collective endeavour that belongs to all."

And it evolves all the time, so try not to get wound up about this. You're only upsetting yourself!

I like to use the word beautiful rather than pretty, but according to your post I can't have that preference as they're both adjectives?

Do you have that in your work email sign off? Do you demand that others refer to you as beautiful rather than pretty?

Are you perhaps purposefully missing the point?

The OP is about what people want others to call them, not shat they call themselves.

I care, preferred pronouns tell me that some people can't think for themselves and are being led like sheep.

You seem to have got your name, which belongs to you to do with as you choose, mixed up with pronouns, which don’t.

They can call themselves whatever they want. Insisting everyone calls them that when it is based on a lie is plain old narcissism.

I don't think people can change sex. I don't believe transgender females should compete against women in women's sport.

But whether someone wants to be called he or she totally doesn't bother me..it's up to them! If a man wants to be called 'she' I'm happy to call them 'she' if it makes them happy. Doesn't mean I believe they are a women.

I don't want to have to state my pronouns. I don't want to wear a badge that says 'im she/her' etc.. but if someone else does, what difference does it make? Let them crack on! Each to their own! As long as I don't have to participate in their delusions, I don't care about calling them what they want to be called. It's kind and decent.

What a load of tripe. When you say a preferred adjective of yours is 'lush', I presume you use the word to describe your garden as you do seem to have an excess of manure.

I wouldn’t be insulted. I would think they were quite stupid or didn’t know English very well.

The people who insist on this self-centred nonsense are oblivious to the additional mental load it inflicts on others. In some cases that seems to be the objective, so they can draw attention to themselves when someone 'mispronouns' him or her.

You think someone would call you a man because they didn't know English very well? Ok then. Most people would be somewhat insulted I'd say.

You don’t get to tell other people that they don’t have a pronoun they prefer to be referred to with. So scream away, it’s not going to make people stop.

@MagpiePi You do realise that you can also call them whatever you want.

This is a bit of a mad take. I'm pretty gender critical but I do think words, as in noises made by rubbing vocal cords together or characters written or typed on a page exist, and I would say that assertion is reasonably uncontroversial outside a meta-physics classroom. Given that we agree words exist, it follows that some of those words are used to refer to people, either concretely e.g. names used to refer to specific people or abstractly I e. Pronouns. And if you agree that, it seems reasonably obvious people do have feelings, reasonable or otherwise about how those words are used. E.g. I prefer to be addressed as Noctua, and do not very much like being addressed as ShitFace. Neither as it happens are my legal birth name, nor the current name on my passport or my work email address or my electricity bill, so we can argue ad infinitum about your right to address me as ShitFace if you choose to do so, and the various socio-psychological structures that may have led to your feeling / belief /decision that I am indeed designated by the noise/characters signifying ShitFace and to my taking offence at the same, and whether I can legally insist the electricity board and my work colleagues address me as Noctua and the political and societal and practical implications of all of that but to try and say the words Noctua and ShitFace don't exist isn't really very useful in furthering debate or anyone's understanding or agreement?

Of course you can have preferences. I prefer she to they but ultimately it makes little difference to me. However I appreciate it is a lot more emotive for other people and I wouldn’t choose to upset someone over the sake of a few letters.

So you are allowed to bleat about the ‘mental load’ it puts on you for other people to have a preference in pronoun…but the mental load, anguish and upset gender dysphoria causes doesn’t matter? And you think trans people are the self centred ones here?

Shrieking from rooftops is what turns people off the GC movement. Ditto TRAs.

It's no skin off your nose how someone would like to be referred to. Maybe devote your energies to working out how we redesign our public spaces so that they work for everyone.