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?

OP it’s the old story - there’s no acceptable way of saying no.

It's indulging in an nonsense that it's possible to choose whether your male or female based on preference.

I don't believe this to be scientifically possible. Therefore why would I perpetuate a nonsense by participating in it?

Because dictating how other people talk about you when you aren’t there is tyrannical and self-obsessed. Also because it says that you believe in gender identity .

Let me correct that for you.

Options are:

1. State your pronouns. All the gender ideologues are happy and they don't care that you're not happy.
2. Refuse to do so and everyone just gets on with life as normal. This is the most likely scenario.
3. If you work for a zealot who creates a massive issue of your refusal and you end up fired, you take a wrongful dismissal and discrimination case against them and win as you are entitled by law to your GC views.

You'd consider yourself fortunate to be forced to disclose your 'gender identity' against your will? What about your sexual orientation? Can we demand that too now?

But I don't identify as anything. My sex is female. That is a biological fact.

This thread is great timing for me. Started new job with leading UK charity. Contract has an equal opps para which lists all the protected characteristics except Sex. Classic. Very gently commented to HR person that I thought it was missing.

Pronouns in signature mentioned, I avoided topic. But the initial No Thank You is noted with a follow up about women being discriminated against in the workplace...

This ☝. I am a woman, but I also think of myself and others as persons....I'm not bothered about gender.

Same reason I don’t include my star sign, my favourite food or my devotion to Our Lady.

I’d rather people mistook me for a man than part of the Gender Borg.

Say you are still deciding but this week you are feeling you might like to identify as a cat.

@JanesLittleGirl I think there may be patriarchal links with women not being expected to own property, rather being property. Hence only having the option of her/hers rather than him/his. In view of this I shall be adding an additional term of Shero e.g. She, Shero, Her

I don’t understand why pronoun preferences are even necessary. My preference is that people use my name when talking about me. I don’t think there is any reason for me to declare either my sex or gender in the workplace or anywhere else.

If I'm asked to do this at work I'm going to put

sex/matters

How about
My Leige
Your Leige

Ha haaa, well said.
People can make all the assumptions they want about my sex/gender/whatever. But I DO NOT want them assuming my level of intelligence!

Or how about 'my pronouns are sex based, like my oppression'?

If you do not have a preferred pronoun how can they make you do this? I would consider it borderline discrimination if they asked you to label youself as something you are not.

Tell them that you identify as asexual and the closest object that you identify as is a baked potato. Proceed to ask them how they would like you to amend your signature to include 'Baked potato'.

Fuck off seemed to work.

👏

Some brilliantly witty responses on this thread!

Exactly.

👌quite

Give them nowhere to go.

Tell them that you are so fluid that forcing you to define yourself in an arbitrary way is triggering, and literally an assault on your freedoms to have whatever opinion you feel like.

If pushed and looking for inspiration, there's a whole world of nounself and emojiself lists out there.

Yes. Emojiself.