Why I Put My Pronouns in My Social Media Bios

“Why does a grown ass man put pronouns in his bio?” –some Matt Walsh fan

“cuck” “soyboy” “pussy” “limp wrist” “loser” “pathetic” “beta” “insane idiot” –a bunch of other Matt Walsh fans

The fuck is Matt Walsh? Think Ben Shapiro with a beard. He’s a hyper religious nutjob with a far right show on Shapiro’s “Daily Wire”. He also has almost 700,000 followers on Twitter, most of whom are garbage human angry white males. Why is he popular? Author Robert Heinlein predicted it when he said, “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”

To the bigoted and transphobic, me putting pronouns in my bio seems illogical. My name is James, and this is my profile photo:

To most, it’s pretty obvious I’m a “he/him.” So why advertise it?

Let’s begin by examining population figures and historical terminology. For a long time, being trans was labeled a mental disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders called it “gender identity disorder” up until 2013, upon which they changed the term to gender dysphoria, dropping “disorder”. It’s when someone’s understanding of their own gender isn’t in line with what others assumed their gender was at birth based on what was between their legs, and this causes distress.

It’s important to note that not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a medical diagnosis of the emotional distress a person may experience that negatively affects their health and wellbeing when their understanding of their own gender isn’t the same as the gender they were assigned at birth. It can often be relieved by expressing one’s gender in a way that they are comfortable with.

There are also people who are gender non-conforming. As an example, these are people whose clothes, hairstyle, speech, hobbies etc. aren’t in line with societies expectations for what is “masculine” or “feminine”. Gender non-conforming people may or may not be trans. There are also non-binary people (also referred to as genderqueer) who don’t identify as being either “male” or “female.” There is also genderfluid, people whose gender identity is changeable over time. Gender isn’t black or white, penis or vagina.

Of course guys like Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and their garbage followers think this is all bullshit. They say “facts don’t care about your feelings” like it’s a “fact” that if you have a penis, you’re a man and if you have a vagina, you’re a woman. And they’ll hear no different, despite the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence showing otherwise. It’s difficult to ascertain how many trans people there are in the world, as the figure keeps growing as more people are comfortable in asserting their true gender. In 2016 the Williams Institute released a report revealing that 0.6% of the U.S. population was trans, which represented a doubling over the previous decade. This doesn’t even address how many people are non-binary. As society becomes more accepting, more people are comfortable with accepting that they are trans. It’s realistic to say that approximately 1% of the world’s population is trans. That’s about 80 million people, or about the same as the population of Germany.

And being trans is nothing new. The long history of trans people is well documented. Trans people have existed as long as people have existed.

Being trans is not a mental disorder, but it can cause mental and physical health issues because of the bigotry they experience over being trans. Discrimination and stigma are widespread. Many trans people lose families, jobs, loved ones, and opportunities. Harassment and violence over being trans is common.

It’s the intolerance of the legitimacy of being trans that is the problem. A 2016 National Transgender Discrimination Survey of 6,450 respondents found that a shocking 41% of trans people had attempted suicide at least once. This is compared to 1.6% for the general population.

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey of 27,715 people offers an explanation for the high suicide rate:

·       46% were verbally harassed in the last year for being trans.

·       9% were physically assaulted in the last year for being trans.

·       47% were sexually assaulted at one point in their life.

·       65% have experienced homelessness.

I repeat: the problem is the way many discriminate against and abuse trans people.

When trans people are victims of violence, police tend to ignore them. Healthcare workers often discriminate. People freak out over bathrooms despite there being no evidence of it being a problem. The only reason Jordan Peterson became famous is because he very vocally opposed a Canadian transgender rights bill. There are no shortage of comedians and podcasters who see the trans community as an easy target to gain popularity. Those two previous sentences confirm what Heinlein said about appealing to prejudices.

There is a popular saying that “Conservatives only know two jokes and neither of them are funny.” One of those jokes is about trans people along the lines of “I identify as an Apache attack helicopter.” No, you identify as a transphobic piece of shit.

So why do I put pronouns in my bio when it’s pretty obvious I’m he/him? There are three reasons:

1. When you consider how overwhelmingly common bigotry and violence is against trans people, putting pronouns in one’s bio shows that they are a safe person, and trans people often must be concerned over who is and is not safe.

2. As a cisgender male, me including my pronouns helps normalize the practice for those who are not cis. If lots of people are doing it, then it doesn’t stand out as unusual.

3. For me, at least, it helps identify garbage people when they insult me for my having pronouns in my bio. If that’s what you latch onto as an insult when you disagree with something I wrote, I automatically know that you should immediately be ignored.

Matt Walsh likes to weaponize his bigotry. He made a shitty comment about Pete Buttigieg taking parental leave that exposed what a lousy father and husband he must be, and I called him on it. The tweet and my reply:

And his response was to quote tweet me pointing out I had pronouns in my bio.

This initiated a dogpile by his bigoted followers. My mentions exploded with douchebaggery, and it lets me know that none of these people should be taken seriously.

In conclusion, I’d like to recommend that if you are cisgender, to put your pronouns in your bio to show the trans and non-binary community that you are safe, and to help normalize the practice. You will likely get heat for it from douchebags, so it’s up to you if that’s something you feel you can tolerate.

The block feature exists on social media for a reason. Feel free to use it liberally.

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