2/25/16

Skit: pronouns for Cis people

Some are of the belief that Cis people shouldn't use gender neutral pronouns. Gender plays a huge role in most societies and languages. Gender allows us to make a lot of assumptions about a person. It helps some of decide how we treat a person and how we react to how they treat us.  For example how a guy might open the door for someone they gender female instead of for someone they gender male. Or if you are repeatedly told to do something by someone you gender as female you feel that they are a nag as opposed to if you if you gender them male.  Today the Trans Student Educational Resources on Facebook posted " If you're cisgender, don't use "they" pronouns". I don't completely agree. I don't believe any group, even the oppressed group, should tell another group of people what they can not do, unless said action is hurting the group.  How did this all start though? Well it began with the idea of ownership of words. People of color can use certian words without assumption that they are using the word to be hurtful. White people can't do that.  So the idea that certain pronouns belong to certain gender identities makes a bit of sense coming from that background.  He belongs to male/ masculine identifed people.  If you use the pronoun He the assumption is that you belong to those groups.  Similarly if you use the pronoun She you belong to the female/feminine gender identities. But what about the rest of us. What pronouns belong to us. Ze, Xi aren't widely known or used.  Non binary people want a word that is equal to He, She. The only options available are it and they.  It being seen as dehumanizing that leaves They.  They is neutral and already widely used as a singular pronoun. The people who go by They don't feel as though they fit the binary genders. A non binary person might feel oppressed and misgendered by being forced to refer to themselves with gendered pronouns. To me it's empowering to go by They as I'm constantly trying to find words for my gender identity. So it feels like they looses it's power when a cisgender person uses They.  I feel like the person is treating it as an alternative and is delegitimizing They as a serious singular pronoun in its own right. Cisgender people never had to fight to have thier gender identity recognized, they have never had thier gender policed, and they never had to fight for words or pronouns to express thier gender. So it feels wrong and like Cisgender people are using thier privilege when they use the pronoun They singularly to refer to themselves, instead of using the one they born with and identify with, he or she. Misusing They feels like appropriation of the non binary community which is hurtful. So even though nobody is going to tell a person what pronouns a person can or should use, unless the person ask, we should think about what it means to use a the pronoun. What community does this pronoun belong to? Do I identify with that community? Am I using this pronoun becuase its defining me and empowering for me to use or am I just treating the pronoun and thus the community as an alternative? We need to think about our words before we use them because words have the power to lift up or tear down. 

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