[pX3q54Q55945w7E]

I work at a very left-leaning SV unicorn. Most people don’t advertise their pronouns, but quite a few do. I’m mildly peeved by this. To me the practice feels like taking off one’s lower body half garment to expose the genitalia. “See? This is my gender.” What difference does this make in a professional context? Our culture has put so much emphasis on treating all genders (or no gender) exactly the same: that was the right thing to do. Then why should we be wallowing in who has what and how they use it? It’s an irrelevant distraction. Do the job, go home, and be whatever you want.

[_dark_matter_]

I don't understand this point if view. I see it like stating your name - it lets people know what to call you. It doesn't have any relationship to what your genitalia are.

[draugadrotten]

In addition to stating the name as the identity, it would be best to state gender, pronoun, and why not also race and religion? They are all part of identity.

Better not. The professional signature is not mean to show your private identity. It is supposed to identify your professional identity, which should not include race or gender. Your private e-mail signature can include unicorns, your work signature should be kept professional and that means excluding private data.

In some job functions, you do not even state the name - you are simply a representative of the company. First line support is often like that. The "Jane" you think you meet in a support chat may be Asmee or Ananya in real life.

[alpaca128]

> your work signature should be kept professional and that means excluding private data.

Unless you live in complete isolation your gender is not private. As soon as someone sees your appearance or hears your voice they will subconsciously associate you with a gender. And if that association is often incorrect then what's wrong with avoiding awkward situations?

We don't mention ethnicity or religion because they're not relevant for communication with business partners. Genders are, due to how our language works.

I wouldn't enforce mentioning pronouns as in the majority of cases it's simply unnecessary, but if someone has a problem with that detail in an email signature that tells a lot more about them, enough for me to reconsider working with them. Because no, it's not an important thing for me, but if someone thinks themselves as too professional for such little things they're probably not a pleasant person.

[hasmolo]

you don't use race or religion when referring to someone in polite conversation. i've never heard someone say "well that's not what black islamic he thinks" because it's unnatural. a pronoun serves as a shorthand or generalization to inform the listener about whom you're speaking of, in a way that is general but specific enough to choose an actor out of the context.

[UncleMeat]

The other side of this is that transgender people do exist and there can be some benefit to having many people announce their pronouns rather than just expecting transgender people to call attention to themselves by doing so. People have various opinions about whether this sort of cover is helpful, but this is the motivation behind encouraging cis people to share their pronouns.

[ceejayoz]

> To me the practice feels like taking off one’s lower body half garment to expose the genitalia.

Do you feel the same way about Mr/Mrs titles?

[lamontcg]

Yeah it feels incredibly old fashioned and stilted when someone refers to me as "Mister" or "Sir" or anything like that.

[flash_tier]

Well we have to use he/she all the time in the English language in a professional context so i don't really see how it's waving your gender in everyone's face.

I do agree that there is a lot of attention focused on use of pronouns at the moment though, which is why i posed the question to learn more about community opinion in the first place.

[alpaca128]

Frequent communication with coworkers is part of doing the job, and just like you wouldn't refer to a male boss with "Mrs." some people would prefer being called differently than what most would assume by default. I don't see how that is wrong.

And usually it's not about being "whatever you want", people are what they are.

[hasmolo]

gender and sex are not correlated. one is a preference and the other a biological status. gender indicates to people where you view your place in the social structure, sex describes your physical or hormonal status

(not one to one correlation, good points)

[ceejayoz]

They're absolutely correlated. The correlation coefficient isn't 1.0, though.

[mbg721]

I don't think "correlated" is the word you're looking for here.