AIBU to find pronoun introductions patronising?

[superlint]

I was in a meeting this morning and a woman introduced herself saying ‘Hi, my name is Maureen and my pronouns are she/her'

I genuinely haven’t heard anyone say this for years. As she was clearly a biological female and had a female name it sounded both patronising and virtue signalling. We all knew she was a woman within a second of seeing her.

I have never not immediately been able to tell someone’s sex and quite frankly in a meeting you use people's names not pronouns so it’s totally unnecessary.

AIBU to think pronoun announcements sound ridiculous.

As someone who has fought for equal rights for women and not to be treated different just because we don't have a penis, and for biological sex to become irrelevant, I find the whole pronoun thing insulting!

It is completely un-doing all the hard work and progress we have made in society to treat everyone as equals, and now here we have people obsessed with everyone having to belong to a gender. ARGH.

What does it matter????

It makes me absolutely cringe when people tell me their pronouns.

It’s ridiculous enough if you feel you have to tell everyone your pronouns once, but having to do it every few days in case of gender fluidity is unhinged. Using phrases like ‘touch base’ also marks you out as a bit of a knob.
🙄

Oh gosh yes, I might be a she/her on a monday and feel all manly and a him/his by the thursady! And who isn't a they/them on a weekend?

Such self-absorbed, navel gazing rubbish.

so true.

thank you!

Overly corporate? Listing your pronouns is overly corporate. Most major corporations pander to this kind of shit to avoid the inconvenience of court cases.

Those of us who work for corporations jump through the hoops of sitting through training and calling colleagues by their new name etc.

There's very little 'real' human connection that comes out of this and has more associations with people crying foul or being difficult just so they can avoid getting on with any real work.

Women need to care about this bullshit, though.
It's important that it gets called out.

Tbf I dont mind at all if someone wants to tell me what I can already see or already know, or what they want to be, or remind me theyre still a woman/man or they still want to be a woman/man/they etc. Makes no difference to what im chatting to them about.

Id probably just refer to them by name anyway so it would be pointless unimportant information to share

Excuse me? I am not going around calling people I disagree with a type B sexual implement, please don't be disrespectful to myself and to all the people who think society would be a lot more inclusive and welcoming if we just affirmed each other's identity expression. I mean, how does it even hurt you to just say your pronouns are she/her whenever you speak to somebody you haven't heard from for a long time? Is it worth the hurt and pain caused by even an accidental misgendering?

Do you happen to have a black labrador and enjoy taking it to the pub by any chance?

I hear "Hi, I'm a dangerous ideologue who can get you sacked"

Christ on a crumpet - I think I'm going to choke with laughter at this. I'm pretty sure you're not being serious but in case you are then you need an intervention without delay.

a type B sexual implement

Stop it now! I'm dying here

Equally it causes no harm to just say "Hi Geraldina, nice to see you again"

And she sends me the 'flowers' reaction! Fellow non-bullshit artists - I think we have a dangerous lunatic on the loose here!

I cba to be that bothered. It's up to she/her.

I don’t want to be involved with anyone else’s ‘fluid’ at work thanks.

They're ridiculous. The only people who might possibly need to do this are the people who are least likely to want to, as trans people presenting as their preferred 'gender' wouldn't feel very affirmed if they had to point out they were a she/he and typically prefer to be 'read' as such. I suppose non binaries like it, but I've not met one of them in a while, so perhaps that's not a thing anymore?

Did it ever occur to you that normalising pronoun announcements for everyone regardless of gender identity makes trans and non binary people feel included? I've worked at an organisation where everyone did it so when a non binary colleague joined our working group I was then aware of what pronouns to use for them, instead of misgendering them. A little bit of inclusive language goes a long way. And I'm sure you would be mortified if you misgendered someone.

How can you misgender a person who is trans?

They will be ‘living’ as their trans gender and will have changed their name.

I can accept an email signature that says “Alex, he/him” after I was emailing a contact for years and had just assumed it was female, when he very much wasn’t when I actually met him.

The ones that say “Julia, she/her” - well no shit Julia, your name gave it away.

I’ve never had anyone introduce their pronouns in real life but I’d find it hard not to roll my eyes. And maybe accidentally misgender anyone who clearly matches their preferred pronouns as “it’s so difficult to keep track, I’m terrible with names and pronouns, I’m so sorry!” .

They’re a great signifier of people to ignore. Act as if you’ve heard nothing, move on, note to self that this person will be irrelevant.

It's not inclusive though. What about people who aren't out or aren't sure yet? it just puts them on the spot and makes them anxious. And those that don't believe in gender identity, what are they supposed to say?
Then there's people who have learning difficulties, are neuro diverse or have dementia who struggle with the cognitive dissonance, not inclusive to those people is it?
All it signals to me it's that someone centres themselves over others and isn't inclusive. I'm always just going to use their name anyway, if I talk about them at all.

I dont have pronouns so I cant announce what I dont have.

But clearly, from just the anecdotal evidence here (that people will mostly duck out if given the psychological safety to), it makes other people uncomfortable and awkward. We all know people can’t change sex - so it’s a performative charade that for some of us don’t want to be coerced into.

I can't decide if this is meant to be satire.

I’m Sarah Jones from Finance, and I’m an adult human female.