Gender Pronouns
In recent years, gender pronouns have been a great discussion in this world. Gender pronouns are a pronoun for a person, where usually the person will choose it for themselves. It is used to refer to people in sentences. Gender pronouns itself cover she and he, her and him, hers and his, and herself and himself. Gender pronouns also could be plural including they, them, and their(s). People can identify as male, female, nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, or any number of other gender-expansive identities.
There are also “Preferred Gender Pronouns”. It is a pronoun that makes people have to address another person based on their preferences. Usually, these preferred gender pronouns belong to the LGBTQ community. So in the woke world, in short, if a biological female’s preferred pronouns are “he/his”, then when other people address her, they must use “he/his”. The fact here is no one knows where this “Preferred Gender Pronouns” come from, but it has increasing super fast lately.
There are a lot of issues because of these gender pronouns, especially in the woke world. From religion, confusion, lawsuits, discrimination, the need for special treatment, and scam. For example, Nike was sued by a former employee for discrimination against their gender identity. This issue is about a former computer engineer of the sportswear brand Nike named Jazz Lyles sued the company for discrimination. She is a transmasculine person and she wants her colleagues to use the personal pronouns “they/their/them”. But her colleagues misgendering her by using “her” as her gender pronoun.
We now live in a generation z’s life, where we are dealing with sensitive and impatient young people because they are being spoiled too much by their parents, where they can get whatever they want easily.
A lot of cases regarding gender pronouns reach the court, especially between the university and the professor. For example, Pamela Ricard, a former Kansas middle school teacher who continuously calling an LGBTQ student by the wrong gender pronouns and deadnaming them being suspended by the school. Then she sued the school, and in the end, she gets $95,000 afterward.
There are some solutions for these cases:
- Parents can prepare the child to be mentally ready for this hard world.
- Do not spoil them too much, parents can stop helicopter parenting and let them think of the solution to their own problems.
- Allow the child to experience what it is like to not get everything they desire.
By doing this, there will not be too many cases like misaddressing gender pronouns since they know it is normal to make mistakes.
In my opinion, based on the available cases, yes, gender pronouns for LGBTQ are important, but I think it is going too far. I think it is not necessary to punish people because they misaddressing someone since all people (especially professors in the university or school) will have a lot of students, and it is normal to forget about each student's gender pronouns.
In conclusion, stop the helicopter parenting and do not go too far about the notion of a genderless humanity. Start to make a better world for all people so we can live peacefully. Remember that is is not easy for people to remember every person’s preferred gender pronouns.
Paterson, Erin. “Accidentally Getting Someone’s Pronouns Wrong really isn’t a Disaster” Vogue.co.uk, October 30, 2021. https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/getting-pronouns-wrong
Jr., Leonard Pitts. “Is the Notion of a Genderless Humanity Going Too Far?” The Seattle Times, July 9, 2017. https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/is-the-notion-of-a-genderless-humanity-going-too-far/
Out TV. “Nike Sued by Former Employee for Discrimination Against Their Gender Identity” December 23, 2019. https://www.out.tv/en_IE/news/nike-sued-by-former-employee-for-discrimination-against-their-gender-identity/?acceptCookies=6476232af34bb
Dr. Mintle, Linda. “How to Parent the Snowflake Generation” CBN, February 2, 2018. https://www1.cbn.com/familymatters/how-to-parent-snowflake-generation
Harvard University. “Gender & Pronouns”. https://edib.harvard.edu/gender-pronouns
Bagul, Devesh V. “What are Gender Pronouns in the Woke World?” NewsBharati, March 16, 2023. https://www.newsbharati.com/Encyc/2023/3/16/Gender-pronouns.html
Cohen, Li. “Kansas Middle School Teacher who was Suspended for Repeatedly Misgendering Student Gets $95,000 from District in Lawsuit Settlement” CBS News, September 2, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/pamela-ricard-kansas-fort-riley-middle-school-teacher-disciplined-misgendering-student-95k-settlement/
