And here is your pronoun badge
Edinburgh University student union officials will hand out pronoun badges to freshers so they know whether to refer to each other as “he”, “she” or “they”.
The move is intended to avoid any potential “misgendering” of non-binary or transgender students who may display the physical attributes of one gender, while associating more closely with another or none at all.
Or, rather, the move is intended to put the new students on notice that they must keep “gender” on their minds at all times from here on out.
The students’ union also published a guide to pronouns, which explains why it is important to “normalise” the practice of sharing gender pronouns.
“Many people assume that the pronouns they should use for an individual are obvious: people who look like men should be referred to using he/him, and people who look like women should be referred to as she/her,” it says.
The guide explains that making these assumptions can be “frustrating and harmful” for transgender on non-binary students, who may in fact prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns.
Or, rather, making these assumptions can be “frustrating and harmful” for transgender or non-binary students because it means people aren’t paying enough attention to them and their Gender Identity.
“If we choose to make assumptions about which pronouns are correct, we risk misgendering people and/or singling out trans people who want to clarify their pronouns,” it says.
The guide advises that saying you “don’t care” which pronoun is used is offensive, as it “suggests that trans folks are silly for requesting that their pronouns be respected”.
Asking people about their “preferred” pronoun should also be avoided, as it can imply that pronouns are a mere preference rather than a necessity. Using the term “preferred” can also “isolate and alienate” transgender people, it says.
And, to sum up, it would probably be a good idea to turn smartly around and go back where you came from, to seek out a university with a less deranged student union. Good luck with that!
So students who don’t care what pronoun is used are now being slighted, ignored, and oppressed! Seriously? You can’t even choose to not give a f***?
I have been frequently misgendered all my life. I have a somewhat androgynous voice on the phone, and a name that has often been given to males (in fact, my grandmother hated my name because it is usually a male name in England, or was at the time, and she felt it was inappropriate for a little girl). Once in a while, depending on my mood, I will correct the individual who has misgendered me, but I can’t imagine believing that they have committed an act of violence against me, in spite of the fact that I have struggled my whole life with violent abuse because I do not fit the stereotypes of my biological sex in every way. And when I say violent abuse, I do not mean people saying that I wasn’t a woman. No one actually said that, because I look female. I just do not do the “femininity” thing my mother, grandmother, and sisters expected of me…and the violence was real, it was painful, it left scars – physical and emotional – and I for one am feeling quite angry that trans-activists continually minimize the very real violence that I, and others like me, have suffered by dismissing it in favor of the “violent genocide” of using the words “pregnant woman” or “woman-only” or “women’s health issues”.
In spite of that anger and “alienation and isolation” by their refusal to acknowledge the real pain many natal women suffer, I do not intend to “stomp them to the curb” or bash them with a barbed wire covered bat or threaten them with all manner of nasty things or get them fired for saying nasty things about me. I am going to act like an adult about it, go home and eat an entire gallon of Neopolitan ice cream, and spend two hours in a bubble bath until all the rage soaks out.
Make it a pint! If it’s a whole gallon you’ll just puke it up.
How big an issue is this really? Second-person pronouns aren’t gendered in English, and aren’t there a limited number of circumstances in which you have occasion to use third-person pronouns in front of the person being referred to?
Where did the idea even come from that ‘misgendering’ someone or ‘assuming their gender’ is such a grave sin? If someone you just met guesses something wrong about you, the normal well-adjusted adult response is to realize they just drew the wrong conclusion because we’re not psychic. You correct them if you think you need to, or you just let it pass and go about your day.
To take religion for example, another ‘core identity’ thing for a lot of people; when have you ever heard someone claim they were ‘victims of violence’ because someone thought they were the ‘wrong’ religion.
I think Ophelia has it right and this is intended as a demand for attention and a warning rather than a request. For those who don’t heed this warning: Prepare to be dogpiled. And shunned. And vilified. And accused of any number of violent, genocidal crimes.
Ophelia, my husband ate all the Neopoliltan! Now I’m just going to have to settle for vanilla…only a pint, of course.
Screechy @ 3 – well exactly. It doesn’t even come up all that often, referring to someone as “she” or “he” in her or his presence. All this fuss and performance is just for its own sake. LOOKATMETHINKABOUTMEFRETABOUTMEITSALLABOUTME.
iknklast well be sure to refer to the vanilla by the correct pronouns while you eat it.
My pronouns are feminine, but I eschew binaries, including the nominative and accusative one. I combine the first bit of ‘she’ with the last bit of ‘her’ and make the new pronoun ‘ser’. What’s more, it does for second person too! E.g How is ser today? Would ser like a cup of coffee? What is your opinion, ser?
My favourite story about pronouns: TRAs blocked the stairway to a meeting room because NODEBATE, one was referred to as “she”, in response thundered “MY PRONOUNS ARE THEY, YOU C*NT”.
If only they had been wearing such a badge.
Gordon – ala Greg Bear’s Eon series?
learie – I was always a bit crap at that bit of English (1). Is “You C*NT” used in the descriptive, declarative or the accusative?
(1) And many other bits as well. Both of my parents were English teachers. As a scientist, I’m a severe disappointment to them.
Being the pedant that I am (it’s a cross I bear stoically) I would have had to have corrected ‘their’ use of the plural ‘are’ with the singular ‘I’.
I was at a social event, not even a score of people attending, with name/pronoun tags in place.
Why declare, face to face, the pronouns that you insist be used in 3rd person? Doesn’t this demand that everyone present rush about consulting the labels on each person whenever they’re mentioned? Sounds like a mixer game turned feeding frenzy.
Maybe we could just start referring to everybody as “it.”
#14 Oh, no. Long ago on some usenet newsgroup someone made that suggestion and got angry response from a number of parties objecting to being objectified as though they were no more than a thing rather than a person. Pointing out that it used to be the custom to so refer to small children under a certain age only made it worse.
In my slender, beardless youth when my hair reached my waist I, not a Miss, was occasionally mis-pronouned and mis-courtesy-titled. Never made a big deal of it although the offender often reacted as if expecting violence from me.
I’d be delighted if we could refer to everyone as “it”. Why does my gender have to be everyone’s business, anyway?
That would actually be a good compromise – not actual “it” perhaps but a new all-purpose third person singular pronoun.
Well we already have several candidates for that, don’t we.