The New Virtue Signaling: Noting One's Preferred Personal Pronouns In Email Postscript
Paul Schwennesen writes at the Online Library of Law & Liberty:
Identity and political power have allied themselves in the modern academy in troubling ways. Exemplifying this is the new "personal pronoun" overture. I recently had to attend a seminar, as a part of my doctoral studies, on "microaggressions and diversity," and a discussion leader greeted us with: "Hello, my name is Simon, and my personal pronouns are 'He, Him, His.'"This strange, preemptive declaration of one's preferred gender identity is apparently intended to ward off "microaggressions" from potentially confused colleagues. Indeed, über-elites on campus include it as a postscript to their email signatures, declaring to the world (or at least to their correspondents) that they possess a nuanced grasp of identity-framing. Personal pronouns are a new poststructuralist calling card for the gender movement, which, along with persistent feminist attacks upon "structural sexism," signal a general suppression of discourse and thought in the academy.
via @instapundit
Dear Snowflakes:
See, I'm starting this with a gender neutral salutation, so you can't object while sitting in the dorm room or your parents' basement couch. Soon you will max out your student loans and your caring and sensitive college administrators will boot your ass out so they can milk the next crop of naive fools of money to maintain their standards of living. Out in the cold, cruel real world, we transact business. Your gender identity politics are, at best, irrelevant to transactions. Our objective is to efficiently conclude our transactions and take our earnings to pay for our standards of living. We don't give a rat's ass about your identity issues. If you obstruct efficiency by inserting them, we'll take our business elsewhere and your standard of living will remain sleeping on a basement couch while trying to pay your student loans (which are non-dischargable in bankruptcy) and, after age 26 (which will creep up very fast) your ObamaCare premiums (and should you need care, the huge annual deductible, as well). Remember that the customer is always right because the customer is paying for goods and services, which do not include your gender identity politics issues. This probably was not what you were taught in your victims studies classes, just as you were not taught that you are unimportant and you don't get gold stars, participation trophies or - much more importantly - earnings, merely for showing up.
With warmest and kindest personal regards (which is the polite way of saying that I really don't give a damn about you as a person),
The Real World (where you'll spend the rest of your life in the success or failure you are responsible for creating for yourself).
Wfjag at March 21, 2017 12:41 AM
In addition: bullets, sea pressure, high-voltage, altitude, killing cold et al do not even care about your name, much less some silly construct of English.
Good luck, should you encounter any of the above.
Radwaste at March 21, 2017 5:15 AM
"...your caring and sensitive college administrators will boot your ass out so they can milk the next crop of naive fools of money to maintain their standards of living."
It starts in H.S. and before but the "teachers" and administration really believe they are right. They ignore the jobless rate of their H.S. grads and blame it on "industry" instead of the fact that they have not prepared their "customers" for real life.
No reason to since their Union protects them.
Bob in Texas at March 21, 2017 6:16 AM
I now have a reply prepared in advance, should I ever encounter this situation:
"Hello, my name is Brad, and I do not presume to tell you what words you may use."
Brad R at March 21, 2017 6:41 AM
Hi, I'm Cousin Dave, and my preferred pronouns are "Asshole, Asshole, and Asshole's". Actually, the trend seems to be to take the male pronouns and substitute some other letter for the 'H'. So we get the likes of:
Ze, Zim, Zis
Ve, Vim, Vis
Ne, Nim, Nis (presumably that person is a knight)
De, Dim, Dis (does someone really want to be addressed as "dim" and "dis"?)
Etc. However, being that there are only so many letters in the Roman alphabet, pretty soon a lot of people will be having to use ones that other people have already claimed. Can't have that, so what next? Cyrillic? Katakana? Pretty soon, you're going to see comparative-lit majors conducting raids on the Unicode character set, or trying to, if they can figure out which end of the metaphor the bullet comes out of.
Eventually, they'll go full Led Zeppelin, and adopt unknown symbols for their pronouns. The better to play the gotcha game with, when you try to guess how to pronounce it and you get it wrong.
Cousin Dave at March 21, 2017 6:53 AM
Hello. My name is Ken. My preferred personal pronouns are thou, thee, thine, ye and thy. Taketh note: those are all second-person, so be on thy toes lest thou offendeth me.
I deal with this every single day at work and it's getting to be a pain in the ass. When talking to otherly-gendered patients or staff members it's not that difficult, since the pronouns in question are third person and not used when talking to the person. It's when thou art talking or writing about someone to hyper-PC/progressive staff members who flaunt their sensitivity that it becomes a pain in the ass. And it get's confusing when someone insists on the pronouns they, their, theirs and them (i.e. gender-neutral plural) or it and its. Try reading or listening to an account of an event involving two or more people when one or more of them insist on plural or non-gendered pronouns.
Cis-gender heterosexuals are getting in on the act too by insisting on gender-neutral pronouns, or any of dozens of others like the examples given above by Cousin Dave. These often have nothing to do with gender identity or any other observable characteristic of the person. One male-gender, heterosexual teenage boy wanted female pronouns as an expression of solidarity with victims of patriarchal oppression. I suspect he'll end up as a neutered sub on the end of a leash held by some bigoted bitch-feminist like Lara "Nit" Witt.
I think people who insist on nontraditional pronouns should meet the rest of us half way by writing them on their foreheads.
Ken R at March 21, 2017 8:41 AM
"Hello, my name is Simon"...Well come on guys, he's a stick figure drawn in chalk. Unless some misogynist penciled in a skirt or a basketball, how would the audience know his gender pronouns?
smurfy at March 21, 2017 9:49 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmwqnqL3Hbg
Well isn't that special.
Bob in Texas at March 21, 2017 10:18 AM
a discussion leader greeted us with: "Hello, my name is Simon, and my personal pronouns are 'He, Him, His.'"
I think the gentlemanly thing to do is reply, "How nice for you," and escape the conversation as quickly as possible so as not to cause inadvertent offense.
Again, though: I don't travel in these circles. Never have I had someone do some sort of pronoun dance upon meeting. I suspect this is like the transgender toilet thing — a matter of great consequence for some, and a chance for others to go 'round and 'round about something that is of no consequence to most.
Kevin at March 21, 2017 10:39 AM
" I suspect he'll end up as a neutered sub on the end of a leash held by some bigoted bitch-feminist like Lara "Nit" Witt."
There is a whiff of the Weimar to the whole movement. Those were the good old days, eh?
Canvasback at March 21, 2017 12:43 PM
I'm sorry, but wouldnt those all technically be second person pronouns?
lujlp at March 21, 2017 3:43 PM
1st person: I, me, mine, we, us, ours.
2nd person: you, yours, thou, thee, thy, thine, ye.
3rd person: he, she, him, her, his, hers, they, them, theirs.
Ken R at March 22, 2017 6:33 AM
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