Should access to mental health services depend on you saying pronouns?

[wanttoworkbut]

I think not...

I have been having a rough time of it lately and wanted to self refer to CBT. A chat bot greets me - fair enough, saves staff time taking down vital details.

But quite quickly you are asked for your gender, and not sex. Femail includes trans women, it says. OK, I could probably see why, if ones mental health difficulties related to have dysmorphia etc. But then you have to state pronouns, no option to say no or 'other' or skip question.

I've not continued, I can't face it. Therpay requires authenticity surely.

vitahealthgroup.co.uk/nhs-talking-therapies/newcastle/

There's a very big stretch between "asked if you want to be called him, her or they" and " "the therapist expects all clients to declare which set of gender stereotypes they most align to as a pre-requisite for accessing therapy". Which is actually saying "the therapist is expected to assign what they believe is the"normal" pronoun for my sex is I refuse to choose one".

Look, I don't think it should be a mandatory field but to deny yourself therapy on the basis of it is really extreme.

There's a very big stretch between "asked if you want to be called him, her or they" and " "the therapist expects all clients to declare which set of gender stereotypes they most align to as a pre-requisite for accessing therapy". Which is actually saying "the therapist is expected to assign what they believe is the"normal" pronoun for my sex is I refuse to choose one".

Yeah, no.

Asking people what pronoun they "prefer" is exactly the same thing as asking them which gender stereotypes they prefer. As soon as pronouns aren't simply aligned to sex, you unavoidably make them about gender.

You can't deny that, because it's literally the point of doing it. 😂

Whereas using sex aligned pronouns just means using pronouns aligned to sex. There's no additional meaning. In this usage the pronouns don't make a statement or an assumption about anyone's personality, they aren't a judgement, they just align to sex. So they can't be invalidating or offensive, unless the person being addressed has themselves added their own set of meanings on top of sex as well.

Do you understand this? Pronouns are only problematic in Genderist thought, because only Genderists ascribe weird levels of personality to them in the first place.

But when it is Genderist thought driving the conversation, as it is in this case, then pronouns become incredibly insulting to most people exactly because we know the Genderist sexist meaning is the one we are being expected to assign to ourselves.

It's very easy to see this simply by asking "what pronoun does an agender person of female body choose to communicate that she accepts the sex of her body but doesn't feel the same gender identity as a trans woman?" and realising "Oh, there isn't one" to understand how only one belief system is being respected here. It's like a Muslim client having to say if they are Catholic or Protestant.

Also pertinent - why ask for a person's sex/gender at all? Is it really necessary?

Look, I don't think it should be a mandatory field but to deny yourself therapy on the basis of it is really extreme.

Why is there such an inability to grasp that women have feelings and emotions?

We all understand - very, very well - that some people have special requirements about pronouns. The entirety of fucking western civilisation has been rejigged apparently to cater to these desires.

Women have spent years being abused, threatened, and vilified for failing to believe in genderism, and are still being told that their feelings, preferences, thoughts, and desires are not only immaterial, but extreme, unacceptable, 'hatred', 'mad'.

Women who don't accede to or agree with 'genderism' have had their 'gender critical' views tested and found worthy of respect in a democratic society.

Yet we are still being told that these beliefs are not okay to have. We're still told that we have to accept genderism, every time we get this bloody nonsense. And worse, we're not even supposed to care or mind or complain or speak up.

If a person wants their pronouns a certain way, everyone accedes.

If a person doesn't want to give pronouns, why do they then get attacked and vilified and told to shut up and get over it?

I really wish everyone would get over telling women what to do, think, and feel.

It's not well designed for anyone.

There is a 'prefer not to say' option on the gender question

But one can only be addressed as

Mr
Mrs
Miss
Ms
Dr
Rev
Prof
Mx

and the only available pronouns are

She/Her/Hers
He/Him/His
They/Them/Their
Ae/Aer/Aer
Ey/Em/Eir
Fae/Faer/Faer
Per/Per/Pers
Ve/Ver/Vers
Xe/Xem/Xyr
Ze/Hir/Hir

The correct question for a therapist is how would you like me to address you?
And "Would you like me to note a preferred pronoun?" (Although it's difficult to understand why a therapist would use any pronoun other than 'you').

However, I suspect the actual reason for the drop down menus is this question:

"Are you ok if Limbic uses your data anonymously to support the development of the product and research, which might be used for scientific publications?|"

So much more straightforward to organise data when the available options are limited.