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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Instagram has added pronouns (sigh)

30 replies

accessorizequeen · 15/05/2021 08:35

This week, Instagram added a pronouns field to profiles. It's not available to all yet. It's brought gender ideology to my door and I was wondering how others felt about it. Ive already seen a few colleagues post about it and encourage it as "respectful". The news articles I've seen talk about "normalising" it and signalling that you're an ally. I think a lot of people will do it & it's an area where I work. I think it's a load of woke bollocks that's actually quite insidious. I am seeing more and more people add pronouns to their email and social media profiles. I won't be doing that - how do you answer the inevitable questions and how do you encourage people to actually think about what's behind pronouns?

OP posts:
FindTheTruth · 15/05/2021 08:50

is it mandatory?

Helen and Glinner on the mess we're in, said pronouns have a political context just like 'make America great again.'

if you use pronouns, the political context is that you agree with males in single sex spaces - prisons, sports, refuges, women only shortlists etc

Youngatheart00 · 15/05/2021 08:52

I really hope this doesn’t become mandatory. Ridiculous. No issue with people being whoever they want to be but why force it on the rest of us

toffeebutterpopcorn · 15/05/2021 08:53

Is it an open field or drop down tick box?

Lottapianos · 15/05/2021 08:55

A load of crap. Ignore the hell out of it. Hopefully it's one of those mad passing phases

Deliriumoftheendless · 15/05/2021 08:55

It has a gender box you can type anything in so mine states “awesome”.

Deliriumoftheendless · 15/05/2021 08:56

@FindTheTruth

is it mandatory?

Helen and Glinner on the mess we're in, said pronouns have a political context just like 'make America great again.'

if you use pronouns, the political context is that you agree with males in single sex spaces - prisons, sports, refuges, women only shortlists etc

It looks like a free text box and mine is blank so I guess it’s ignorable.
Puntastic · 15/05/2021 08:57

Is not being on Instagram an option?

I find that works for me.

MissGendered · 15/05/2021 09:00

Can you select your majesty/your highness? Gender neutral and avoids the political bollocks.

FrancesGumm · 15/05/2021 09:01

My DS showed me this. He has typed in he/she/him/her as he is very GC and thinks it’s all bollocks so he was being funny.

But I told him to be careful and I said given he’s a floppy haired (not blue haired though) student - people will think he’s being serious and he’ll be taken to be non binary or other such tripe.
He had said he’d wanted to type in something rude but felt too scared !

Original poster
accessorizequeen · 15/05/2021 09:08

You can choose up to four from a limited list. I have to be on IG, yes and I also enjoy it!

OP posts:
Original poster
accessorizequeen · 15/05/2021 09:10

@FindTheTruth

is it mandatory?

Helen and Glinner on the mess we're in, said pronouns have a political context just like 'make America great again.'

if you use pronouns, the political context is that you agree with males in single sex spaces - prisons, sports, refuges, women only shortlists etc

I think most people don't have any idea of the political context of pronouns just as they don't see what's problematic about cis.
OP posts:
Original poster
accessorizequeen · 15/05/2021 09:13

@Youngatheart00

I really hope this doesn’t become mandatory. Ridiculous. No issue with people being whoever they want to be but why force it on the rest of us
Not mandatory but LinkedIn added it in March. I suspect by the end of 2021, all platforms will have it, emails will become more standard with pronouns and I will have to choose whether to be more open about being GC. That may well damage my business.
OP posts:
BraveBananaBadge · 15/05/2021 09:21

Yes I'd seen a professional group I'm in all excited about pronouns on LinkedIn after the LNER social media furore the other day. Have never really made the most of LinkedIn and this hardly makes me want to start.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 15/05/2021 09:23

I avoid like the plague. I got blackballed from a cookery group because their ‘rules’ was all about respecting people’s flipping identity and not calling people transphobic names. I merely asked if calling people sexist things was ok (and pointed out the errors in their proudly listed EA categories).

pinkstinks · 15/05/2021 15:01

Interestingly everyone I’ve seen harping on about it on there now doesn’t have any listed.. they’ve removed them from their bio but they haven’t appeared next to their names. Even large accounts like clem f.

Hopefully a nice glorious glitch.

Women where I work have started adding them to email signs - we are an all woman organisation ffs.

Original poster
accessorizequeen · 15/05/2021 22:04

I hope people ignore it too, but the way things are going I very much doubt it.

OP posts:
DemisRoussoss · 17/05/2021 17:23

I looked and my heart sank to see that someone I like and respect very much has added hers. She’s a lovely person and means well, I don’t know if she actually believes that she’s being kind or if it’s performative?

exLtEveDallas · 17/05/2021 17:30

My DD told me about this in the week. Thankfully in a “well this is bloody ridiculous” way. She’s put I/Me/Mine ❤️ and is chortling about the number of friends who have suddenly become ‘They’

Pota2 · 17/05/2021 17:35

@FindTheTruth

is it mandatory?

Helen and Glinner on the mess we're in, said pronouns have a political context just like 'make America great again.'

if you use pronouns, the political context is that you agree with males in single sex spaces - prisons, sports, refuges, women only shortlists etc

Yes, it definitely sends a political message. I am filled with despair when I see it in colleagues because it means that they wouldn’t even entertain a contrary point of view and probably would like it if I got fired. I think it has little to do with actual trans people. Why would stating your pronouns in your social media when you’re blatantly a woman and not trans help someone who identifies as female but doesn’t look it? So many trans people have said it’s of no help at all yet everyone still does it.
LadyCatStark · 17/05/2021 17:46

Gender critical DS (11) spotted this today (didn’t realise it was new though!) and says his are whirrrr/ whoooosh as he identifies as an attack helicopter 😂

Novelusername · 17/05/2021 17:58

I've been on TikTok lately, and unsurprisingly a lot of the young people on there list their pronouns. However, I'm seeing quite a few of them put 'any pronouns'. What this suggests to me is that these young people don't feel comfortable with having to choose a 'gender identity' label, but at the same time want to fit in with peers who are so vocal about this ideology, and to voice other opinions would to be a social outcast. In other words, I think they're probably gender critical but don't yet realise it, or daren't let their minds go any further contemplating it lest they realise that they are actually - shock horror - nasty little T*RFS.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 17/05/2021 18:06

If I could correctly spell the noise of eyeballs rolling - that's what DS would put (good lad).

EarthSight · 17/05/2021 20:09

People don't generally put their sexuality on emails to encourage others to come out, so why should one put pronouns?

ANewCreation · 17/05/2021 20:15

One on twitter I saw the other day was:
Multigender - no pronouns, please
🤣

ShirleyPhallus · 17/05/2021 20:18

I would say I don’t wish to do it as it forces people to put a label on theme selves they may not feel comfortable revealing. If you are trans but not ready to come out, then adding a pronoun you’re not comfortable with either way is shit.

Also, unconscious bias which goes against women. Those are my two reasons not to ever do it