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| PC: Charlie Langton |
Matt Walsh, an influencer who credits himself as a voice for the young, religious right, posted a blog on the DailyWire with this title: "You Get Your Own Name. It Can Be Whatever You Want. But You Don’t Get Your Own Pronouns." His rationale can be summarized in these points.
1. The new pronouns such as "ze" are fabricated and make no coherent sense. Pronouns other than he/she are grammatically incorrect.
2. People don't use pronouns when they speak directly to a person, so the concept of using correct pronouns does not make sense anyway.
3. People genetically don't exist outside of male or female, so there is no reason to use these pronouns anyway.
He claims that the reason that he argues these points is, "Nobody can provide any proof for any of these claims or any coherent answers to any of the questions I have posed. We are supposed to just accept their assertions, however incoherent, and timidly cooperate as they mutilate our language and make nonsense out of everything." (https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-you-get-your-own-name-it-can-be-whatever-you-want-but-you-dont-get-your-own-pronouns/?fbclid=IwAR1HCp4ilYObwYvRndODtpfLMGYj3X33P2Py8ybmm4VZcs2P3HD__llVqmU)
Luckily, I have learned a lot from being in a community with non-binary and trans individuals (even one that studies linguistics). Hopefully, this does them justice:
Point 1: New pronouns exist because individuals argue against using "they/them" as a singular pronoun (although using the singular they is not actually grammatically and conventionally incorrect [https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they]). The use of non-gendered words exists in many languages as much as gendered words exists outside of humans such as the word "el lapiz"–the pencil in Spanish. As one of my lovely trans friends says, "If Spanish-speaking people can correctly gender a pencil, anyone can correctly gender me." There is also historic use of finding gender neutral pronouns outside of they/them for the last century (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/third-person-gender-neutral-pronoun-thon). The main reason people are angry about it now is because of the so-called destruction of language. As long as the subject is written before the predicate, the English language is as complicated and beautiful as it was before.
Point 2: Walsh is correct in saying that someone doesn't refer to an individual in conversation by their pronouns (unless more than two people are gathered). Still, it is not self-absorbed to refer to an individual by their preferred name and pronouns. Cisgender individuals do not enjoy being called the incorrect pronouns, so people will automatically correct an individual if they do not correctly identify that specific individual. That should not be different for our trans siblings in the community.Learning manners such as "please" and "thank you" does not come across as excessive and implying an arrogance to another person. It's simply polite to call people by their names and not misinform others about who they are.
Point 3: Although convoluting the synonymity sex and gender is another discussion that should be had across gender identities, gender has expanded beyond male and female in other cultures. For example, the indigenous people of North America employ the concept of two-spirited people, a third gender within their tribes (https://www.ihs.gov/lgbt/health/twospirit/). Likewise, sex itself goes beyond binary with intersex people. These are people that are born with both male and female genetic characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones, and even genitalia (https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001669.htm). Unfortunately, much backlash and intervention have occurred from cultural and physical assignment of gender and sex for people without their consent. This is a complicated subject that needs further individual discussion about what is best for them.
Overall, the world is more diverse and inclusive than it ever has been. There is also a tangible anger among people who have the privilege to refuse to accept other people as they are. Hopefully, individuals are able to look past the initial email signature that signifies "she/her/hers" pronouns and join in the conversation.
