CubsBullsBears wrote:
For the most part I am a full blown liberal/progressive person, however there are a few certain aspects of certain topics that I have had a harder time understanding. One of which is related to the use of pronouns. Now, this isn’t even about the trans community or people who perfer they/them pronouns(meaning, people who are non-binary). I have no problem using people’s preferred pronouns. However, I have noticed that people who are not in those categories stating their pronouns. Honestly, whenever I come across that I can’t help but think “this is unnecessary. I can tell what your pronouns are just by looking at you”.
The usual thing I’ve heard is that they do that to be “inclusive”. I kind of see what they’re saying, but I think it’s ok to live in a world where people have to advocate for themselves regarding their pronouns. If someone tells me they want to be referred to as a certain pronoun, I will respect that. But for the rest of us, I’m just not feeling on board with that part of it.
One last note, even my mom tells people her pronouns at her work. That’s wild to me that much older people have gotten on board with it.
I hope to get some good responses on this. I’d love to discuss this with other people as long as they’re not making me out to be a total scumbag.
There are a few things to consider.
The first is, much of the time these things happen in instances when it isn't possible to tell someone's gender, like online (I've never seen it in meatspace, only in things like email signatures, Twitter bios, and Discord roles). If your name is JRR Tolkien, Sam Fox, or The_Walrus, it's not immediately obvious what your gender is. Similarly, names aren't necessarily cross-cultural - it might be obvious to you that "John" is a man, but maybe it isn't obvious to Cixin or Namwali. And to be clear, I'm saying this
before we get into the trans stuff, but that does of course feed in here as well. Sometimes your assumptions about someone's gender will be wrong, whether that's just because they're a masculine cis woman, because they're a feminine cis man, or because they're variously trans.
The second argument is simply that if only trans people are declaring their pronouns, then suddenly the act of declaring your pronouns is not a normal act, and it catches people by surprise. Related, but a cis person stating their pronouns not only normalises the act of declaring their pronouns, but is also a nice, gentle way of saying, "hey, if you're trans then I support you".
I guess the ultimate thing is that it simply doesn't hurt you at all if other people have their pronouns in their email signature. It might seem a little odd at first, but it's just a little thing people do to be kind.