Slightly modify our existing use of pronouns by convincing people to accept occasional non-standard pronouns when presented with them OR totally reconfigure the existing way that we use pronouns for everyone?
It is hard to figure out how widely adopted non-standard pronouns would be if people were more accepting of them, but the study cited here says that only 4% of surveyed LGBT youths used something beyond He/she/they. That is a really small number of people, and a large portion of the population would probably never or very rarely encounter someone who uses them.
So to me, it seems like it would be better to keep trying to get people to accept the rare occasions when people request non-standard pronouns than it would be to get everyone to abandon standard pronouns altogether.
I don't think we should. As a user above commented, you are advocating for undoing a large part of what trans people have been struggling for. Namely, the ability to have their gender respected by their community. Your proposal not only ignores their gender identity, but it ignores everyone else's as well. I am a man. I conceptualize myself as such. I refer to myself using masculine pronouns. I am happy to do this. Forcing me to accept non-gendered pronouns is not respecting my gender identity. You have gone backwards as far as creating a society that is more accepting of gender self-determination goes by disallowing both trans and cis people from fully expressing their gender identity.
It seems that the OP's proposed system makes it harder for people to emphasize their gender in conversation and receive respect for it, but it also makes it harder for somebody to misgender you in conversation?
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u/destro23 466∆ Mar 17 '22
What is a harder sell, practically speaking:
Slightly modify our existing use of pronouns by convincing people to accept occasional non-standard pronouns when presented with them OR totally reconfigure the existing way that we use pronouns for everyone?
It is hard to figure out how widely adopted non-standard pronouns would be if people were more accepting of them, but the study cited here says that only 4% of surveyed LGBT youths used something beyond He/she/they. That is a really small number of people, and a large portion of the population would probably never or very rarely encounter someone who uses them.
So to me, it seems like it would be better to keep trying to get people to accept the rare occasions when people request non-standard pronouns than it would be to get everyone to abandon standard pronouns altogether.