If someone tells you they don't care about pronoun usage, believe them. I'm nonbinary and don't care what pronoun people use for me, because I identify as both male and female. Most people default to "he" for me because of my beard, but others use "they" because of my proclivity for wearing skirts, nail polish, and lipstick. Rarely I'll have someone use "she" (or I'll use it myself), but ultimately, I'm just a person who exists outside of the gender spectrum (or right in the middle), and pronouns are just a grammatical tool to save time, so I prefer that people use whatever comes most naturally to them.
Asklemmy
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
if they say they donβt care what pronouns I use for them
I'm taking it at face value then and using whatever I think is appropriate. There's no point in wasting time playing games with this.
As an enby myself, Iβd probably default to they/them but try to sprinkle in gendered pronouns when I saw them presenting more one way or another.
Depending on how close your relationship is, you can ask them if they have certain times that they prefer particular pronouns or not.
I'm tomboyish queer chick, probably wouldve seriously considered transitioning if born in later decades. Get called sir, man a lot. Doesn't bother me. I got used to playing mmorpgs, everyone is assumed to be male, I never took issue with it, sometimes had fun with it.
My understanding is... if you're a minority with special requests. You're gonna know people might be confused. Don't judge harshly. Give people a chance to understand. If you want to be referred to a certain way, it's up to you to say that up front. And be prepared not everyone will be receptive.
I'm not speaking for everyone, or people wanting any, all pronouns used. This is more for the people wanting to accommodate, worried they'll offend.
As someone whose pronouns are any/all I genuinely don't care, I'm not going to be offended if you pick one pronoun and stick with it - I am lazy and present male, being AMAB, so people default to he/him anyway - or just use the first one that springs to mind everytime you refer to me. Obviously I can't speak for everyone who is any/all but I imagine if most people cared they wouldn't go with any/all
I'm probably the least qualified person to comment on this, but I would probably just default to their name.
That's Bob's coffee
Those are Sarah's keys.
Less chance of fucking it up, IMO
What do the people who are bad with names do?
Audibly shit their pants, obviously
Get my name wrong all the fucking time. "oh I bet you get that a lot"
Jesus fuck I wish people would just misgender me so I could get righteously indigent instead of constantly correcting people with a smile.
As a nonbinary someone who accepts any/all I would say whatever comes naturally or is your preference. I've identified as agender since I was young and so personally I don't really like defining myself to other people in terms of gendered language. I would say if someone tells you their pronouns are any/all to trust them that they are actually fine with that.
Thanks, I do believe that they're fine with whatever pronouns I call them by, this was more of a me problem about not knowing what to actually call them in that case lol. Like paradox of choice kind of, except I also wonder about what my choice might indicate to them and whether I should randomise it or base it on something.
I'm a man, I give my pronouns as any/all, because I'm comfortable with all.
I have a coworker who only uses feminine pronouns for me, because that's what she uses for everyone, including herself. She is also a man. I also use feminine pronouns for myself sometimes, eg. when quoting something I find analogous to myself that was written using feminine pronouns.
Obviously both male and neutral pronouns are fine as well.
Gender is a social construct, and IMO most men who get offended by being referred to by feminine words do so because they really believe being a woman is lesser to being a man. I'm not about that.
Yes, you are wrong. "Any" means you can arbitrarily choose whatever you like without them being fussed. It does not grant you (or anyone else) the power or responsibility to choose a gender for them.
they them is basically always safe! If someone specifically requests against it then don't but they/them is what I always use if I don't know or have multiple options. All I might add is that a lot of queer people get tired of being only called their AGAB's pronouns, so maybe don't exclusively use those.