The quality of life of countless people
Being woke on the cheap – the very, very cheap.
It’s about those pronouns.
If everyone stated their pronouns, allowing those with a non-traditional gender identity to blend into the crowd, the quality of life of countless people could improve markedly, with negligible inconvenience caused to everyone else.
I am a cisgender, straight, white, male, middle-class Tory. If even I can muster enough self-awareness to recognise the uniqueness of others’ experiences and make small changes to the way I behave as a result, such as adding “he/him” to my social media bios, then you definitely can too. There is no basis for defying this that is both rational and compassionate.
It’s so easy – aka cheap. He can go on being Tory and thus ignore all the material difficulties that hinder people who are not middle-class and white and male, but at the same time he can “state his pronouns” and thus feel like a good conscientious person.
To refuse flat-out to even entertain the notion that others might have experiences and perspectives that you, an unimaginably privileged cisgender person, does not is indicative of calamitous levels of single-mindedness and bigotry. An unwillingness to do something so simple as stating your pronouns irrespective of its demonstrably momentous positive effect suggests a stark absence of humility and compassion.
Ah yes, we unimaginably privileged cisgender women, how dare we not “state our pronouns” in solidarity with men who want to “identify as” women and steal all their athletic prizes.
Privileged people like myself who identify as cisgender can never even begin to comprehend the experiences of by those who do not.
I begin to suspect this is satire. Why is this shiny prosperous dude in such a lather about the agonies of trans people while he’s so indifferent to every other kind of marginalization there is?
Jason Reed is a student, freelance writer and treasurer of the LSE Conservative Society.
Something in the water at LSE?
I will unabashedly demonstrate my “calamitous levels of single-mindedness and bigotry” by saying I really don’t care what pronouns he uses to refer to me.
I prefer nouns to pronouns; there is so much more information content in a noun. I will use pronouns because things get clunky if you constantly have to say “Ophelia Benson is such a good writer that Ophelia Benson should be read by every thinking person. Ophelia Benson needs to be listened to.” Clunky!!!! That being said, pronouns are vastly overused, and using any pronoun other than “you” when talking face-to-face with someone (or monitor-to-monitor, or phone-to-phone) is nothing short of ridiculous. If we are not talking to you, but to someone else about you, what the hell does it matter what pronouns we use, anyway? Get a life!
That being said, from now on all my social media profiles (should I ever create any) will announce my pronouns as HRM, and I expect to be referred to in that way, and will start to refer to myself as “we”. It is my royal prerogative.
“Thee, thou.”
What/who
Every language provides its speakers with tools to make an incredibly complex task a little simpler. Every language picks out certain aspects of the communicative context to grammaticalize. In English, for example, verbs are marked for tense (present or past) and aspect (simple, progressive, perfect, perfect progressive); we also have several modal verbs (will, must, may, etc.) that add shades of meaning. These grammaticalizations let speakers convey, and listeners construct, aspects of the intended message without much effort, so that attention can be paid to more salient points.
Putting so much emphasis on pronouns defeats their purpose. They exist not to be noticed (most languages dispense with them altogether if the context makes them redundant); paying too much attention to them actually impedes communication.
If I needed any further convincing that ghosts do not exist, the fact that George Carlin has not come back to haunt us all would do it.
Due to my first name, I get misgendered now and then by people who have not seen my unambiguously male appearance. It is not calamitous. Calamitous! Get the fuck over it.
And yes, it is notable that this is ‘activism’ that changes nothing.
Holms, I have the same thing (opposite, actually, since I am unmistakably female). In fact, I have had people assume my name is a nickname, and address me by what they presume is my real name, a male name. It is not. Like you, I am not devastated. In fact, I am usually amused.
How long (if it hasn’t happened already) before a failure or refusal to publicly state one’s pronouns is taken as prima facie evidence that one does not recognize, accept, or validate the pronouns (and therefore the gender identity claims) of others? This is policing how others refer to people when they are not present, and depends upon others reporting your speech to Authorities who may act on those reports, with the likes of Morgane Oger brandishing his government issued credentials that he is a woman. Items like this one, by a Tory in progressive clothing (but no beard!) present a not-so-subtle pressure in exactly that direction.
“It’s just one little thing. See, if I can do it, so can you, right? No? But why not? Such a little thing. The only reason you don’t must be because you are an awful person. Why are you such an awful person? Do you want to be an awful person? You don’t want to be an awfulperson, do you? Just one little thing. Swallow it and you’ll be accepted. We will no longer shun you. We won’t try to get you no-platformed, or banned or fired. Just swallow it. Go ahead. Such a little thing.
We’re waiting.”
Fuck that shit.
For those who have not read this: Pronouns are Rohypnol
https://fairplayforwomen.com/pronouns/
I don’t need to have a she/her pronoun to be gentle and kind, nor do you need a he/his pronoun to be bold and forceful. No one does and it’s sexist to think you should. Pronouns that serve to foster stereotypes about women and men are doing harm by implicitly endorsing sexism.