Just been told to remove my pronouns from my Teams profile

[Horrace]

I'm weak 🤣
My manager just phoned me to say there has been some serious complaints made about me that he must urgently address.
I panicked.
In the Pronouns section of my Teams profile, I have

'Take a Wild Guess'

Its been there for a few years. Its finally been noticed and I've been told to take it down because it's made someone or more than one possibly, FEARFUL of me.

🤣

What both situations have in common is safeguarding.

Embedding the culture of holding on to the handrail embeds an attitude of physical safeguarding.

Embedding the culture of declared pronouns leads to safeguarding breaches. Referring to Isla as a woman results in Isla being entitled to access women’s spaces. Do you really think Isla Bryson should be treated in all aspects as a woman?

All my answers relate to the OP's initial post and updates. You could start a thread if you wanted people's views on specific problematics?

NHS Fife shows when sex is relevant.

The female staff member on a shift is being forced to strip in a changing room with a male and be in the room while he strips. That was old fashioned sexual harrassment untill the managment of the UK health care system decided special men get a free pass.

He feels he also has the right to lay hands on and in a woman (or man) who requested same care from a female. That is assault / sexual assault and profesdional misconduct but the managers who write their policy are not brave enough to simply make it very clear that such conduct is not allowed.

I agree. I’m all for ongoing safety messaging in a business, led by policy, managers leading by example, etc. For example where meetings start by the person leading it including a short safety message. Embedding culture.

But then I can see clear as day that if the same meeting lead opens introductions with probouns, or there is a flurry of senior folk putting he hers on signatures, that too is trying to normalise and embed a similar culture. And if same said company policies use “stonewall speak”, the word sex is changed to gender, and perhaps there is enforced diversity training that assumes we all have gender identities, all these things are also to create and embed a certain culture.

I see. You don’t want to tell me why you consider it ‘respectful’ to use people’s stated language when that language doesn’t reflect the material reality of that person’s body. Is that because you cannot explain why your choice is ‘respectful’, perhaps it is just you being kind and you have never once thought about how your ‘respect’ is just one way only.

No thanks, I won’t start a new thread because you were the person who keeps using ‘respect’ in your posts, the questions are appropriate for this thread. Yet all you can seem to do is attempt to justify your personal choices with the answer that revolves around ‘respect’ which you don’t seem to understand much about while censuring others who do see the issues about language usage.

Including that ‘respect’ you keep referring to.

I've explained my point of view the best I can, in the context of the OP's initial post and updates. You may disagree and consider my views flawed, but I do not owe you answers that you find satisfactory. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!

Yes. I understand.

You like to censure women who see the issues that you either choose not to acknowledge or you cannot understand. Perhaps if you are not prepared to have the discussion, you shouldn’t admonish other women.

I understand you have tried to justify your position. Great. It is yours to have. But instead you also censured others.

You're right, I wholeheartedly agree with you!

I don’t get confused when addressing the trans people I work with because they clearly present as women. I did not know that they were trans for a long time while working with them, so I don’t understand why I would suddenly start using male pronouns for them now I do know they are trans.

There are so many people on this thread who are just coming across as aggressive and very black and white. I think there are nuances in this debate and it’s too polarised.

What does presenting as a woman mean?

I think you know what that mean.

No, please explain.

Why won't you say it?

Really? It means that when I met them, they had female names and it did not occur to me that they would have been born male.

If that's all it is, why did you need to be pushed on this and why are you so angry about it?

But a name isn't actually a presentation, as we all know. It's a name. You don't know it when you merely meet someone. So go on. What do you really mean by "presenting" as a woman, and why are you so reluctant to say it?

So you knew they were men with female names, @Cybiil? Is that the trans equivalent of saying 'I'm so non-racist that I don't even notice the colour of people's skin'?

Not that long ago I decided to have 'Goddess' as my preferred pronoun. When I was asked to remove it I said I was just being facetious only for them to suspiciously ask 'what facetious meant?'

Honestly, I despair.

John Wayne’s actual first name was “Marion “.

@Cybiil A friend of mine has a ds with an unusual old Irish name. It is traditionally a male name but had fallen out of common use. In recent years, it has started to be used as a girl's name so must people, until they meet him, assume he is a girl. To the best of my knowledge, despite him having what most people perceive as a girl's name, nobody has ever mistaken him for a girl when they meet him.

I also know several females called Dara/Daragh/Daire (very much a male name but still commonly used for boys too). Same with Naoise, although that is less commonly used for boys now despite being traditionallly a boy's name.

So in all of these instances, the name is not resulting in anyone mistaking these people for the opposite sex.

Why do you think I am angry? I am not going to say that a man with a beard wearing a dress is presenting as a woman if that is what you would like me to say.

Eh no, it’s just saying that the trans people I work with I would not have noticed that they were born male. So I have no reason to start calling them by male pronouns now I know. What is difficult about this position?

But you still haven't told us why you assumed they were female other than having traditionally female names. In my experience, that does not result in mistaking people's sex.

Yes okay,but I am not sure why this is addressed to me?

They have female names, female voices, dress and generally look female just like I do. Is this a good enough response for you?