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Forcing Everyone to Memorize Neopronouns is Ableist
As gender identity becomes more and more complex, numerous terms have arisen to refer to people based on this continuously evolving system. In English, such fluctuations in culture have led to the evolution of new third person pronouns to refer to people of different identities. In an effort to create more inclusive pronouns, the list has simply grown. While it’s important to respect peoples’ identities, the growing list presents a problem for people like me.
I have terrible memory. When it comes to names, it takes me forever to learn more than a handful. Having people on Facebook as friends helps because I see them all the time. But for a large part, if you think I know your name, I’m sorry. I probably don’t. It’s not because I don’t care to learn it. It’s simply because my memory is a bit wonky. It always has been. I’m not 100% sure why, but it could be related to the ASD or ADD.
There is some research on high functioning autism and pronoun use, but it’s limited to studying the production of pronouns rather than studying whether a person can distinguish between the types of third person pronouns. Moreover, the cause seems to relate to theory of mind rather than memory. Still, it’s an interesting study.
