You share a very similar stance with me on this issue. Personally, I’m not going to hate someone just because they might use preferred pronouns, but I do not like the idea of preferred pronouns as a whole. Why? It heavily goes against my beliefs, I believe one should respect and accept what they are, as cool as it would for me to sprout wings and fly like a hawk, I know I can’t do that, and I accept that and it helps come to terms with it better. I’ve seen a lot of people claim “you’re a bigot!” if you do not use someone’s preferred pronouns, and to that I say, there is no argument to be made for one side of the coin to be a bigot but not the other on this issue. If I do not want to use someone’s preferred pronouns and they say I am a bigot for not respecting what they want to be, I can swing that right back at them with “Well, wouldn’t that also make you a bigot for not respecting what you are biologically?”. They/Them can be used in a singular sense, yes, as I have been using it in this comment, but it cannot be used in the way these people try to make it. Preferred pronouns is usually implemented to try to eliminate what someone is biologically, and it doesn’t work that way because there are only two genders, and nothing can change that. They/Them can however be used to refer to someone who’s gender is unknown, such as if I saw someone steal something out of my car but I did not make out the details on if they were a male or female, if given a report I would say “They looked tall” because I did not see what gender they were, therefore “they” is indicating I do not know the gender.
At the end of the day, I don’t expect everyone to have the same beliefs as me, but really I just don’t think preferred pronouns should be mandatory, there will be people who don’t mind using them, but forcing it into media really isn’t a good look.
I do think you have two grades of this: the people that just follow along to keep everyone happy, and the ones that are genuinely using it as a cudgel to conversationally beat someone into submission. It lets them get in 'oh they don't respect me' without actually having to offer it themselves. Honestly, if it is just 'no big deal', then not having pronouns or not participating shouldn't be looked at as some major social blunder. The fact that they were so insistent on it makes them come off more as close-minded if not control freaks than anything else, and trying to pretend it wasn't just makes them seem more duplicitous. It feels even more intrusive when considering how people on the internet now demand details about you and your life, and openly advertise their own to a worrying degree, when anonymity used to be the name of the game.
Some folks wanna be left alone, and some wanna get up in everyone's business, it seems.
You share a very similar stance with me on this issue. Personally, I’m not going to hate someone just because they might use preferred pronouns, but I do not like the idea of preferred pronouns as a whole. Why? It heavily goes against my beliefs, I believe one should respect and accept what they are, as cool as it would for me to sprout wings and fly like a hawk, I know I can’t do that, and I accept that and it helps come to terms with it better. I’ve seen a lot of people claim “you’re a bigot!” if you do not use someone’s preferred pronouns, and to that I say, there is no argument to be made for one side of the coin to be a bigot but not the other on this issue. If I do not want to use someone’s preferred pronouns and they say I am a bigot for not respecting what they want to be, I can swing that right back at them with “Well, wouldn’t that also make you a bigot for not respecting what you are biologically?”. They/Them can be used in a singular sense, yes, as I have been using it in this comment, but it cannot be used in the way these people try to make it. Preferred pronouns is usually implemented to try to eliminate what someone is biologically, and it doesn’t work that way because there are only two genders, and nothing can change that. They/Them can however be used to refer to someone who’s gender is unknown, such as if I saw someone steal something out of my car but I did not make out the details on if they were a male or female, if given a report I would say “They looked tall” because I did not see what gender they were, therefore “they” is indicating I do not know the gender.
At the end of the day, I don’t expect everyone to have the same beliefs as me, but really I just don’t think preferred pronouns should be mandatory, there will be people who don’t mind using them, but forcing it into media really isn’t a good look.
I do think you have two grades of this: the people that just follow along to keep everyone happy, and the ones that are genuinely using it as a cudgel to conversationally beat someone into submission. It lets them get in 'oh they don't respect me' without actually having to offer it themselves. Honestly, if it is just 'no big deal', then not having pronouns or not participating shouldn't be looked at as some major social blunder. The fact that they were so insistent on it makes them come off more as close-minded if not control freaks than anything else, and trying to pretend it wasn't just makes them seem more duplicitous. It feels even more intrusive when considering how people on the internet now demand details about you and your life, and openly advertise their own to a worrying degree, when anonymity used to be the name of the game.
Some folks wanna be left alone, and some wanna get up in everyone's business, it seems.