Declining to put my preferred pronouns in my email signature

[HowDoIGetThisThingOff]

It's finally happened, I've been "told" to put my preferred pronouns in my email signature at work.

I've emailed back saying my preference is that I don't do this. But I'm feeling a bit anxious 😬.

Please can I get some advice on what to say if they come back with questions or pressure to comply?

I feel the same as @Ourladycheesusedatum. I find it impossible to care what pronouns people use about me, especially when I'm not present.

And that, ladies, is how you deal with daft requests.

'No' is a complete sentence, as they say round here.

Someone who I’ve never met emailed me an invoice at work the other day. Her email footer says “my pronouns are private”. I like her already!

Presumably someone at her work asked her to complete the sentence in her footer but hasn’t even bothered to read it!

Only trans people and handmaidens care.

Give it 5 years, the bandwagoners will get bored and move onto furries or adult babies or similar.

Oh that’s priceless.

Felix asked Naomi to declare her pronouns (he actually said “her”, because he can see she’s a woman.)

Naomi declined, and later said to Vanessa “it’s not necessary for you or me to declare our pronouns, because everyone can see what we are.”

And the Felix referred to Naomi as “they/them - because I don’t know their pronouns.”

It’s a little bit bonkers.

I think Felix said “my pronouns are he/them”, but I may have misheard that.

A relevant tangent; those declaring their pronouns at my workplace also have a link under the pronouns saying "why I declare my pronouns" which goes to a site to explain.

I'm wondering whether to put "Why I don't declare my pronouns in my signature". Anyone got a good website to link to? Or maybe I could just put a statement in a word doc

I rec the article above 'Pronouns are Rohypnol'.

Respectfully, yes. It's a play stupid games, win stupid prizes situation for trying to force somebody to declare them when they don't want to. Because they will lose, hoist by their own petard.

Better not to insist upon it in the first place - you know, like they have to offer a decline option on ethnicity monitoring. You can't demand somebody specifies their ethnicity (although the NHS manager demanding that I tell her whether I'm Traveller or not in 2005 because I looked like it wasn't fantastic) or sexual preferences in every email. You can't demand that they announce whether their reproductive organs have resulted or are soon going to result in issue in every meeting request on Teams.

Try to make me tell you information when it's only ever resulted in discrimination and there will be trouble.

That article came to mind when I was reading about the current Employment Tribunal on Tribunal Tweets. There was someone complaining about misgendering only for the judge to misgender whilst questioning it and the complainer went onto misgender.

Once you try to disconnect the word from its meaning, strange things happen to people's brains. 🤔

https://fairplayforwomen.com/pronouns/

If forced to do this at any point I'm going to choose a stupid one and then complain loudly to HR every time I'm misgendered.

You could be a bit more subtle and offer gee/cee.

Best pronouns yet!

This is his bicycle. It belongs to him. It is his.

This is her bicycle. It belongs to her. It is hers.

His is just an abbreviation of hims. It's just easier to get your lips around.

This is his bicycle. It belongs to him. It is his. It it is him's.
This is her bicycle. It belongs to her. It is hers. It is her's.
This is their bicycle. It belongs to them. It is theirs. It is their's.

Contraction of English since about 1500.

Male possessive pronoun - his.
Plural possessive pronoun - their.
Female possessive pronoun - her.

But I was actually just taking the piss.

But I was actually just taking the piss.

I wasn’t being entirely serious either.

I'm trying to learn a language on Duolingo at the moment and these sentences are reminiscent of the ones I've been struggling over I.e. 'the chocolate biscuits, which are old, are in the box'. I'm blaming you lot for giving me the fear that I've dropped down the league!

@ArabeIIaScott 😂where😂here rid that list come from

@Transparent2 Sorry, sometimes I forget how to let go and I let the trivial shit get in front of the important stuff.

I saw the email signature of a man in a Hawaiian shirt with a full beard and moustache the other day had the pronouns she/they. I've never understood that, how do you know which one they want you to call them? I can get my head around using she in front of a female presenting transwomen to be polite but this was just...a dude.

Stop!! You're making my head explode!!!

Thank you for this, it will keep me smiling all week :)

Thanks! It might be a bit forward for my workplace, I think I'd get into trouble rather than opening a dialogue about other ways of thinking. There was a post above about there being two trains of thought regarding pronouns being based on sex or a gendered mind which I might add to a word document and link to in my email which I think lays out the argument in a way my seniors might digest with more acceptance

I work for a big tech outfit with 30k fellow workers. Recently we were offered free rainbow lanyards to virtue signal demonstrate our inclusivity chops.
I thought hmm seems like blue hair graduate make-work to me .
I sent an upbeat email saying yes please, because rainbows are cool, and if somehow me wearing a rainbow makes certain colleagues feel more at ease in the pale stale male corporate jungle, great!
I gave mine to my 5yo daughter. I work 100% from home and have never yet been to my office. When that day comes, I'll say to reception that I forgot mine and blag another one to wear.
I'm waiting for pronouns to come up. Mine will not be forthcoming.