“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.”
I am a cis white female, and look the part. I started using pronouns both because of what you said and also it helps me. My name is Kevyn, and when people see my name without my face, they assume I'm male. I'm very tired of all the "I was so surprised!" comments, so using pronouns usually eliminates that.
I'm obviously a cis female in appearance, 60 years of age is starting to be around an increasingly short corner**, and I just can't understand why providing my gender pronouns is such a big deal. Good for you using your position at the top of the privilege totem pole this way.
**Just in case anyone tries to whine about how hard it is to keep with these things "at my age." Well, at my age I'm old enough to remember when conservatives at least pretended to believe in respect for others.
As I've gotten older, and now that I'm pursuing a career in the history of medicine, I find myself landing very firmly (perhaps even in the superhero pose) in the gender is a social construct field. I used to hate the term cis-gendered, but largely because it seemed silly to have a word that covered a majority of people, not out of any sort of hate for trans individuals.
Now, at the age of 36, I sit here feeling more as though I fit more into a fluid state of gender. I largely present and identify with being a woman, but I also really embrace my more masculine traits and finding my own personal style. I also have found myself identifying more as pansexual than just bisexual (as I have identified in the past) because I absolutely find myself more interested in who someone is at their core than their genitals specifically.
I added my pronouns (which, for the sake of simplicity, are just she/her since I largely identify as cis in most situations) because I wanted my trans friends or my queer friends to know that I support them, I will stand up for them, and I am here for them.
I have used pronouns in my twitter profile, almost since I joined. Twitter has its problems, but it's such a large platform that I've also learned a lot from people I never would have met in real life, even before Covid, including those who taught me why pronouns are important. Learning to listen, and to listen critically, is a skill I try to work on a lot.
Most of my company (~200 in Canada) now uses pronouns in their email signatures. The reason that did it for me was that when it becomes normal for everyone, it won’t seem out of place or “outing” to trans or non-binary people. It’s literally no skin off my teeth to add my pronouns if it makes someone else more comfortable.
Thanks, James. I've been an educator on trans issues for a couple of decades. About the only thing I take issue with is you saying you are obviously a cisgender male. It's actually not obvious. Can you tell I'm a trans male or a cisgender one? There is no specific "look" trans people have. While I hate the term, trans masculine folks usually have "passing privilege" - something that SOME trans women don't have. But there are lots of trans women out there that do measure up to our fucked up ideas of femininity and there are lots of cisgender women who look pretty masculine. Everything else was spot on.
I had pronouns in my work email signature to show support. I added them to my FB profile. I love the idea that shitbags will self-identify by complaining about it.
Maybe before you just lump a few hundred thousand humans together and label them all "garbage" you could go get coffee with someone who disagrees and learn to talk about disagreements… You say it is bad to appeal to predjudices but this entire post does does just that.
I was a Census enumerator for the 2020 U.S. Census last summer. One of the less comfortable questions we had to ask respondents was whether they were male or female and the same question for everyone in their family. They could have a 3' beard and we still had to ask. They could refuse to answer. It would have been easier if we just asked their pronouns! In fact, they could refuse to answer everything except for if this was the correct address and how many people live there--that is the only answer required by law. I would always start with "We have to ask everyone this . . . " and then proceed. We also had to ask about race and ethnicity, and those were also tough for some people to answer. We were required to record whatever the person said ("What race to you consider yourself?"). It was interesting side hustle for a few months--you really learn a lot about your community.
I already thought you were an awesome author and person, now I think you are even more amazing! Thank you for being a glimmer of intelligent hope in this world! I appreciate you!!
My name (as spelled) is, in Latin cultures, decidedly male, so I often get responses that are slanted as cis male to cis male. It can really be quite telling when I correct them. The backpedaling they often do is quite a gymnastic feat. 😂
I always love the ignorant tools that can't handle they/them/their pronouns, complaining that those are only used for groups of people. I respond, remember when you saw a parked car with the headlights still on and your friend said, "Oh look, they left their headlights on. I hope they don't end up with their battery dead. I wish I could find them and let them know they left their lights on." And then you replied, "What in the ever living fuck are you talking about? Just how many damn people do you think were driving that fucking car? I'm so confused right now! Can't you just say "he/she left his/her headlights on. I hope he/she doesn't end up with his/her battery dead. I wish I could find him/her and let him/her know he/she left his/her lights on." It would be so much less confusing." ...
There was a terf who invaded. I blocked them. Bye, terf.
I am a cis white female, and look the part. I started using pronouns both because of what you said and also it helps me. My name is Kevyn, and when people see my name without my face, they assume I'm male. I'm very tired of all the "I was so surprised!" comments, so using pronouns usually eliminates that.
I'm obviously a cis female in appearance, 60 years of age is starting to be around an increasingly short corner**, and I just can't understand why providing my gender pronouns is such a big deal. Good for you using your position at the top of the privilege totem pole this way.
**Just in case anyone tries to whine about how hard it is to keep with these things "at my age." Well, at my age I'm old enough to remember when conservatives at least pretended to believe in respect for others.
As I've gotten older, and now that I'm pursuing a career in the history of medicine, I find myself landing very firmly (perhaps even in the superhero pose) in the gender is a social construct field. I used to hate the term cis-gendered, but largely because it seemed silly to have a word that covered a majority of people, not out of any sort of hate for trans individuals.
Now, at the age of 36, I sit here feeling more as though I fit more into a fluid state of gender. I largely present and identify with being a woman, but I also really embrace my more masculine traits and finding my own personal style. I also have found myself identifying more as pansexual than just bisexual (as I have identified in the past) because I absolutely find myself more interested in who someone is at their core than their genitals specifically.
I added my pronouns (which, for the sake of simplicity, are just she/her since I largely identify as cis in most situations) because I wanted my trans friends or my queer friends to know that I support them, I will stand up for them, and I am here for them.
This post was absolutely worth my money to subscribe. (Mom of a trans son)
I have used pronouns in my twitter profile, almost since I joined. Twitter has its problems, but it's such a large platform that I've also learned a lot from people I never would have met in real life, even before Covid, including those who taught me why pronouns are important. Learning to listen, and to listen critically, is a skill I try to work on a lot.
Just added pronouns to my bio. Thanks for being a voice of reason in this cold, dark time.
Most of my company (~200 in Canada) now uses pronouns in their email signatures. The reason that did it for me was that when it becomes normal for everyone, it won’t seem out of place or “outing” to trans or non-binary people. It’s literally no skin off my teeth to add my pronouns if it makes someone else more comfortable.
Thanks, James. I've been an educator on trans issues for a couple of decades. About the only thing I take issue with is you saying you are obviously a cisgender male. It's actually not obvious. Can you tell I'm a trans male or a cisgender one? There is no specific "look" trans people have. While I hate the term, trans masculine folks usually have "passing privilege" - something that SOME trans women don't have. But there are lots of trans women out there that do measure up to our fucked up ideas of femininity and there are lots of cisgender women who look pretty masculine. Everything else was spot on.
I had pronouns in my work email signature to show support. I added them to my FB profile. I love the idea that shitbags will self-identify by complaining about it.
Maybe before you just lump a few hundred thousand humans together and label them all "garbage" you could go get coffee with someone who disagrees and learn to talk about disagreements… You say it is bad to appeal to predjudices but this entire post does does just that.
I was a Census enumerator for the 2020 U.S. Census last summer. One of the less comfortable questions we had to ask respondents was whether they were male or female and the same question for everyone in their family. They could have a 3' beard and we still had to ask. They could refuse to answer. It would have been easier if we just asked their pronouns! In fact, they could refuse to answer everything except for if this was the correct address and how many people live there--that is the only answer required by law. I would always start with "We have to ask everyone this . . . " and then proceed. We also had to ask about race and ethnicity, and those were also tough for some people to answer. We were required to record whatever the person said ("What race to you consider yourself?"). It was interesting side hustle for a few months--you really learn a lot about your community.
I already thought you were an awesome author and person, now I think you are even more amazing! Thank you for being a glimmer of intelligent hope in this world! I appreciate you!!
My name (as spelled) is, in Latin cultures, decidedly male, so I often get responses that are slanted as cis male to cis male. It can really be quite telling when I correct them. The backpedaling they often do is quite a gymnastic feat. 😂
As someone who transitioned 30+ years ago in rural Georgia, I thank you for this. 💜
I always love the ignorant tools that can't handle they/them/their pronouns, complaining that those are only used for groups of people. I respond, remember when you saw a parked car with the headlights still on and your friend said, "Oh look, they left their headlights on. I hope they don't end up with their battery dead. I wish I could find them and let them know they left their lights on." And then you replied, "What in the ever living fuck are you talking about? Just how many damn people do you think were driving that fucking car? I'm so confused right now! Can't you just say "he/she left his/her headlights on. I hope he/she doesn't end up with his/her battery dead. I wish I could find him/her and let him/her know he/she left his/her lights on." It would be so much less confusing." ...