It's really the smallest thing, like, if anything you could make the argument its too symbolic; but overall it's just helpful. Considering we have a lot of trans users, I imagine (as a c*s male) that having people, even online, refer to you by your proper pronouns could really make you feel good. We aren't a fucking Nazi website ffs, we have a lot of trans comrades and it's both helpful and (in my cis opinion) probably good to have a community that supports you (trans people) by mandating pronoun usage. It might seem small, but to the stupidpol types i ask you this - imagine you live in some Southern hellhole, and no one in your family or school uses your prefered pronouns. Now imagine you find a space like this - it's probably going to make you feel just a tiny bit better about yourself at least, even if it's just strangers online - at least it's something, y'know?
Love to all my trans comrades
Neil Gaiman wrote this years ago, and it's something I try to remember when these conversations come up:
"I was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase “In these days of political correctness…” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with ‘political correctness’. That’s just treating other people with respect.”
Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile.
You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening.
I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”
Literally costs you nothing to treat someone with respect by using their chosen pronouns.
I haven’t looked into him much, but Gaiman seems like a pretty good dude from what I’ve heard and the empathy in his writing.
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I binged that hard after reading American Gods. So good
Yeah, in a similar vein, I usually refer to it as being "impolite" a lot of the time when I'm talking about these topics with people who aren't exactly in the know about these things. It's both true and I don't think it carries as much of a moralizing/scolding tone when I really want someone to shut the fuck up without getting into a whole lecture about it.