3 ms·

For the rest of us, it's trying to make people feel like they're not singling themselves out for expressing their preferences. Me putting "He/Him" on my name ta

by Fomite 5y ago

For the rest of us, it's trying to make people feel like they're not singling themselves out for expressing their preferences. Me putting "He/Him" on my name tag is an extremely low cost/low effort thing.

datavirtue 5y ago
Agreed. Super cheap.
ALittleLight 5y ago
I'm not sure about this. For one thing, it's odd to try and pretend that aspects unique to a small group of people are common to everyone. For example, some people with crone's disease might put that in their bio - are you going to start including health information in your bio to make them feel more at home? Either trans people pass, in which case they, by definition, aren't singled out, or they don't pass in which case regardless of what's in your Twitter bio they will still be singled out. I heard about a situation where five or six women stood up to speak and said their pronouns and then a trans person stood up and shared theirs. The trans person said it felt awkward - like every person began by calling attention to the fact that some pronouns are obvious and others aren't. To me it seems much more like signalling. In 99+% of instances I can guess the appropriate pronouns. When I can't then it makes sense to state them.
gonehome 5y ago
I don’t do it because I think most of the time it’s more about signaling political affiliation than actually solving a problem. It also tends to then extend to things like pretending there are no sex differences and that everything is socially constructed (which I think is nonsense). I used to think this was a strawman, but the Lia Thomas story shows it isn’t imo: https://overcast.fm/+vpWbPtN0o https://overcast.fm/+vpWbPtN0o This is obviously a third rail internet topic and people can do what they like, but I won’t put pronouns in my bio and I won’t submit to pressure to do so in order to pass some sort of political morality test.
- jmcgough 5y ago
  > It also tends to then extend to things like pretending there are no sex differences and that everything is socially constructed (which I think is nonsense) Only a small minority of people believe that. > I won’t put pronouns in my bio and I won’t submit to pressure to do so in order to pass some sort of political morality test. Literally no one is trying to force you to do that.
  - zo1 5y ago
    > Literally no one is trying to force you to do that. Not OP, but I had to do a conference talk on some or other live-stream platform and pronouns were 100% required for all speakers. This is societal level, passive or "mild" bullying that the feminists have been complaining as a symptom of patriarchy for many years, yet here we are, reverse perpetuating things that we will most likely be judged on in coming generations.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - gonehome 5y ago
    That small minority seem to have disproportionate power (at least in the case of Lia Thomas). I’m not sure how small it is and I don’t want to enable it. There are people forcing/pressuring participation in the public display of pronouns/say your pronouns thing (you may just live somewhere insulated from it). I’ve had it happen in Silicon Valley interviews and I know some groups at Stanford require it.

by Fomite 5y ago

datavirtue 5y ago

Agreed. Super cheap.

ALittleLight 5y ago

I'm not sure about this. For one thing, it's odd to try and pretend that aspects unique to a small group of people are common to everyone. For example, some people with crone's disease might put that in their bio - are you going to start including health information in your bio to make them feel more at home? Either trans people pass, in which case they, by definition, aren't singled out, or they don't pass in which case regardless of what's in your Twitter bio they will still be singled out. I heard about a situation where five or six women stood up to speak and said their pronouns and then a trans person stood up and shared theirs. The trans person said it felt awkward - like every person began by calling attention to the fact that some pronouns are obvious and others aren't. To me it seems much more like signalling. In 99+% of instances I can guess the appropriate pronouns. When I can't then it makes sense to state them.

gonehome 5y ago

I don’t do it because I think most of the time it’s more about signaling political affiliation than actually solving a problem. It also tends to then extend to things like pretending there are no sex differences and that everything is socially constructed (which I think is nonsense). I used to think this was a strawman, but the Lia Thomas story shows it isn’t imo: https://overcast.fm/+vpWbPtN0o https://overcast.fm/+vpWbPtN0o This is obviously a third rail internet topic and people can do what they like, but I won’t put pronouns in my bio and I won’t submit to pressure to do so in order to pass some sort of political morality test.

jmcgough 5y ago
> It also tends to then extend to things like pretending there are no sex differences and that everything is socially constructed (which I think is nonsense) Only a small minority of people believe that. > I won’t put pronouns in my bio and I won’t submit to pressure to do so in order to pass some sort of political morality test. Literally no one is trying to force you to do that.
- zo1 5y ago
  > Literally no one is trying to force you to do that. Not OP, but I had to do a conference talk on some or other live-stream platform and pronouns were 100% required for all speakers. This is societal level, passive or "mild" bullying that the feminists have been complaining as a symptom of patriarchy for many years, yet here we are, reverse perpetuating things that we will most likely be judged on in coming generations.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- gonehome 5y ago
  That small minority seem to have disproportionate power (at least in the case of Lia Thomas). I’m not sure how small it is and I don’t want to enable it. There are people forcing/pressuring participation in the public display of pronouns/say your pronouns thing (you may just live somewhere insulated from it). I’ve had it happen in Silicon Valley interviews and I know some groups at Stanford require it.