Pronoun announcing: I genuinely do not "get" it.

[Tabitha1960]

Genuine question.

In all the arguments about announcing pronouns, I have never once seen it explained, step by step, how precisely it helps the (less than 1%) who have gender ID issues.

If someone is making an attempt to pass as someone of the opposite sex, with a change of name and wearing the right clothing, etc, why do they need to announce their pronouns? And why do people who aren't trans have to announce theirs? I know I am an old and out of touch person but honestly, I do not "get" it.

Seems to me that the issue has done nothing but cause ill feeling and get people's backs up. The attempt to compel speech has probably led to resentment against trans-identified people where there was none previously.

It’s part of the gaslighting, and compelled speech, OP.
You see a man in front of you in a women’s single sex space, your brain identifies him as male, you instinctively start to risk assess him as a potential threat - as women are hard wired to do - but you are told to refer to him by female pronouns, denying reality.
It’s a way of trying to force you to take part in and validate someone else’s fantasy - or in the case of autogynephiles, their fetish.
Read “Pronouns are Rohypnol” - written long ago by a MN poster.

Pronouns are rohphynol

It's signalling that that person is an adherent to the rules.

Nobody will explain the rules to you; the power of the rules lies partly in the fact that they are arbitrary and liable to change.

All you need to know is that it's a power move. Someone is asserting their authority over you, claiming that they are able to control your perception, speech and thoughts.

Thank you for the replies.

What I meant was, what is the stated benefit from the point of view of the trans lobby and the #bekind mob? What is their rationale? I have never seen it stated; all I have ever seen is the GC critique of it or complaints against it.

Oh, right. Because you are asserting your identity. IDK, they think this is a good thing somehow.

Don’t do it someone gives me a name I call them by it end off.

I think the reason why they want everybody to state their pronouns is because practically none of them pass, it's probably a nuisance constantly "coming out", and if everybody else has to do it too it doesn't look out of place.

As Babdoc says, the purpose is gaslighting, to cause people to have a mental split. The world that can be sensed with your eyes, ears, nose, etc, must be divorced from your thoughts and beliefs. Allegiance and obedience rituals, mantras, taboos must be instilled along with feelings of low self-trust - when looking for answers -bizarre, convoluted texts like Judith Butler make you doubt your own ability to understand and make correct judgements.

It is all about mind control. Controlling yours.

The thing is, something fortuitous came along to really make it take hold. It’s people with job titles like ‘diversity and inclusion lead’ that are well-funded and need measurable outcomes, who feel pressured to create content and to identify issues which may not even exist, and then find solutions for those issues, so that when it comes to appraisal time, they can say “here, look - I have increased inclusion by normalising pronouns in emails, pronoun rounds in meetings, I’ve made all the toilets inclusive, blah blah blah”. They need to keep themselves in a job that there was no actual need for. The employer can’t just axe the role though, they needs to keep someone in it for their own optics.

It's broadly a form of this:

www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sharing-your-testimony/

but arranged to be done in a highly abbreviated and low effort way.

In a workplace context I find it quite useful, especially.for email communication.

It avoids the "Alex/Sam/Lucky [whatever gender neutral name is popular] from finance needs the ABC report tomorrow, please can you send it to him/her/them" type of everyday messages which are often misgendered and can be seen or experienced as microaggressions by the person referred to.

My name is ambiguous so I prefer to state my pronoun and not be assumed to be a man over email before someone meets me irl.

Really? I have a name that is recognised as typically female by most Europeans. But I irk with people from all over the world. I am frequently misgendered. I really couldn't care less.

It's about control. If you can control another's speech you control them.

@Heli1copter you would likely get a more helpful response if people were to assume you were male over email:

www.newsweek.com/male-and-female-coworkers-switched-email-signatures-faced-sexism-566507

I have an ambiguous name too - think Leslie or Charlie or something equally uncertain. I work in a "male dominated" area. People who assume I'm male before meeting me get genuinely angry when they realise I'm female, as though I've been deceiving them in some way. I have enough difficulties with this without adding "preferred pronouns" to the mix where people won't go oh, yeah, she has she/her pronouns therefore in this male dominated line of work she must be a woman - they will go oh yeah, she/ her pronouns mean this is a man I can work with but he has some frilly pants.

I've tried explaining this at work but astonishingly it hasn't worked. Everyone would prefer that I put my pronouns in my signature as she/ her and when I point out that this doesn't match my personality they tell me off for being difficult. If I say that this is the exact demonstration of sexism, apparently I'm tedious. There we go.

I saw a woman referred to as a “privileged cis bitch” for not announcing her pronouns on the basis it was obvious she was female in an American TV show yesterday. The accuser character was a lesbian feminist.

Feminism has taken a different tack over in the US it seems. The idea was it was supportive of women who are gender non conforming to declare pronouns so everyone was on the same footing.

As well as other things suggested by other posters, i think some of the pronoun use is due to attention seeking, particularly amongst the younger adherents to the cult. It's as if having pronouns is a replacement for having a personality.
Still, discussing them in passing with a shop assistant in town yesterday, led me to discover an unlikely terf, so it was all good.

It's about normalising the idea that what your eyes and brain tell you isn't important, only what the other person tells you.

So if an obvious, entirely normal woman has to stand up and say she is a "she/her", it suggests that actually, there was some doubt in the matter - you might NOT actually be a woman, even though you very obviously are. So then the same MUST apply to the 6ft5 balding bruiser sitting next to you - and lo and behold, he is also a "she/her", so isn't it lucky that you were all asked, otherwise you might have looked askance when he, sorry, she, followed you into the toilets - but now you know what's expected of you and can toe the line!

I identify as a threat.

My pronouns are try/me.

The more I try to understand pronouns, the more confused I become.🙁

You really take accidental misgendering as a "micro aggression"? 🤯
Life must be so incredibly hard for people as fragile as you. How do you make it through the day?

Love it 😁

Of course, whereas 'die in a grease fire/suck my lady dick/decapitate terfs' is hearts and rainbow aggression!

I am with you OP. i am old school. When I meet someone I ask them their name, and tell them mine. I am actually not remotely interested in their gender, it is nothing to do with me.

I've just joined a Discord community. The only ones who have pronouns after their names are Americans. Rest of the community, from all over the world, nada. Thank goodness.

Oh, and I remembered zoom session of another community and the only person who stated their pronouns was high up at a university. Yup he/him - white middle aged bloke. Plonker.