Pushing They

November 18th, 2014
degendering, gender, ling, they
In the comments on yesterdays post a few people brought up ideas like, paraphrasing:
When a cisgender person says they don't care what pronouns people use for them they trivialize the experiences of people living with the dysphoria that comes from constant misgendering. To a cis person this isn't real, it isn't raw, it doesn't matter. For a cis person to express a pronoun "preference" ignores that for lots of people it's not a preference, it's a core part of their identity.
This is a major reason why we should get gender out of language. Right now, every time you use a pronoun there's the potential to hurt someone; we're hanging core parts of people's identities out for constant affirmation or disaffirmation. As long as pronouns have gender implications this is going to be a problem. We should push English toward having a single pronoun for everyone: no one will feel dysphoric when hearing it used for them because it will have no gender implications a all.

Some ways cis people can use their privilege to help get gender out of language:

And as long as pronouns do still indicate gender, respect people's pronouns and really work at using the correct ones.

Referenced in:

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Against Lyman Stone On Animal Welfare

Demographer Lyman Stone writes:

via Thing of Things March 21, 2025

Product in the age of AI

We’re seeing AI features pop up in every product we use. Slack, Google Drive, etc.

via Home March 18, 2025

How I've run major projects

focus • maintain a detailed plan for victory • run a fast OODA loop • overcommunicate • break off subprojects • have fun • bonus content: my project management starter kit

via benkuhn.net March 16, 2025

more     (via openring)