"Your pronouns"

[bingoitsadingo]

I've seen on a number of threads discussing being asked for your pronouns, people referencing research/studies that shows that when women are reminded of their gender or sex, their performance drops, or that when other people are reminded/told that X is a woman, they treat them differently, etc. Could anyone direct me to any of these please? I've been searching but struggled to find much.

I've noticed professionally that pronouns are creeping more and more into peoples email signatures, twitter bios, etc, so would really appreciate some resources to back up why I think this is a terrible idea for women generally, as I can't imagine it will be long before I'm asked to do the same

One example: www.apa.org/research/action/stereotype

I am fairly sure Cordelia Fine covers this in Delusions of Gender and she is pretty good with her referencing so you should find details in there.

There was a bit of a desktop research where a chap and his female colleague switched names and sexes on emails for a week. It was quite a notable experience for him.

Slightly off topic but my name is welsh and I spells a bit like Mayor. For a while when writing emails for work and internships and if the recipient was foreign they would assume my first name was some type of male honorific and I saw firsthand how networking worked for men: men were so nice to me until they worked out I was female in which case the lovely emails abruptly stopped

The whole premise is flawed, pronouns don't belong to individuals.

Here's one journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9280.00111

3rd person pronouns are chosen by the speaker to describe how they perceive the person they reference. They do not 'belong' to the person being referenced.

Pronouns are creeping in more and more at my workplace. I don’t want to put ‘my’ pronouns on my email signature but there is more and more pressure to do so from certain sections of our organisation.

Think this is a really good point.
Stereotype threat decreases performance on any task that involves groups and fields of diversity. Stereotype threat reduces achievement on tests in situations where the stereotypes are relevant.
(Ex. Academic environments, test performances, men vs. women in: math, driving, sports, professional fields. Homosexual men in childcare, old people and their memories, and Asians in math.)
If in a work situation women are asked to focus on their gender it could have negative effects especially in predominantly male situations. Imagine going round the room and being asked to declare your ethnicity.

I don’t want to put ‘my’ pronouns on my email signature but there is more and more pressure to do so from certain sections of our organisation.

Thought and speech cannot be compelled ... both are fundamental human rights.

See Articles 18 and 19 of Universal Declaration if Human Rights:

www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

Thanks @JackyHolyoake I’m not going to, and they’re not people who can put any real pressure on me, just the more woke areas of our organisation trying to get people to conform to their way of thinking

From your title I thought you'd be like me. You see, I only accept "you/your/yourself" pronouns used about me by others. I understand this may be confusing when discussing me in the third person with someone else, but this is an important issue for me. Daily life is very hard with all the times people around me get this mixed up and say it's "difficult" or "doesn't obey the rules of grammar."

They already use "you/your" every day but somehow it's impossible to make sure to do it for me, every time? Ridiculous and discriminatory.

My biography will look rather unusual, it is true, but that's a small price to pay for validating the identity of people who have too long been ignored and mistreated. Think about it: "second person"? That's practically "second-class citizen." You deserve better, and so do you and you and all the other people like me and you.

I don’t want to put ‘my’ pronouns on my email signature but there is more and more pressure to do so from certain sections of our organisation.

I'd start identifying as pronoun fluid. Fuck 'em.

I quite often use initial-surname - JK Rowling style.

Having to put your pronouns on company emails blows that out of the water.

Yet another change that has the potential to make life harder for women. It’s bollocks.

Surely it backfires too, I refuse to listen to a Podcast that completely unnecessarily states pronouns in the blurb and at the beginning of each episode.

just the more woke areas of our organisation trying to get people to conform to their way of thinking*

Maybe in chats with them ask them if this is not a breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Articles 18 and 19 .. and quote those articles loosely [ freedom of thought and freedom of speech, that no-one can compel the speech or thought of another] and suggest they can look it up on Internet?

I often think that these "Woke Folk" have no understanding of our Human Rights.

I'd start identifying as pronoun fluid. Fuck 'em.

This is, to my way of thinking, exactly the correct response!

Maybe in chats with them ask them if this is not a breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Articles 18 and 19 .. and quote those articles loosely [ freedom of thought and freedom of speech, that no-one can compel the speech or thought of another] and suggest they can look it up on Internet?

Maybe just put these articles in your email signature?

Best suggestion yet Novina, if everyone can add the relevant sections of:

• The GRA re: single sex excemptions
• The equality act
• The declaration of human rights
• The declaration of the rights of the child
• Cordelia Fine "delusions of gender"

to their email sig instead of pronouns, and insist that these be quoted in full each time you are referred to in the third person, we might get somewhere!

Or list you status relative to all 9 protected characteristics and harass everyone else to do the same:

"Hi David, thanks for sending me the minutes of that meeting - unfortunately though you forgot to make it clear in your email whether or not you're currently pregnant. I know that this is a pressing issue for men these days, so please correct it for next time. Best regards, Grabthar (white british, 35, not pregnant or on maternity, has not undergone gender reassignment, atheist, unmarried, heteroflexible cross-orientation demisexual agender nonbinary femme, pronouns: just "milady" for first, second, and third person speech)"

Oo
I remember reading something the other day that was along these lines - it was either Deborah Cameron or Cordelia Fine
DC was not Verbal Hygiene, something refuting venus and mars - great book in any case

Also VG link you make OP between woke pronounage and the intransitive reinforcing of stereotypes you mention

I so want to steal your email signature, Grabthar.

I shall even identify as 35 in order to use it.

(I mean, what the hell, I liked being 35, it was a good time in my life, and I didn't have any late middle aged aches and pains and bits of my body starting to stop working properly...)

The whole premise is flawed, pronouns don't belong to individuals I couldn't agree more but I think that ship has sailed for now. It's the reinforcing of gender stereotypes that's really bothering me at the moment - I've seen people arguing that trans people are breaking down gender stereotypes, when it seems to be the complete opposite to me (they are literally defining themselves by the stereotypes they want to fit )
Thanks for all the recommendations - lots to read up on and arm myself with!

Am very tempted to create an email signature that reads: "Pronouns: I, me, myself."

Surely it should be in the order: Me, Myself and I??