Do Pronouns Really Matter?

Pronoun usage has taken over businesses, schools, social media platforms, banks, and many more institutions. It has become an ideological identity to attach yourself to your pronoun, something the woke have even hashtagged as “#pronouns matter” and #itsapeoplething. Now, even certain banks and woke institutions have included employee name tags being completed with “she/her/hers’ ‘ designation. Some have complained that the pronoun outpour has led to virtue signaling, alienating others, creating a cult of gender ideology, and using the perplexity of the pronoun craze to change everything about person-to-person communication. 

Institutions, on the other hand, have claimed that they strive for inclusion and equality, adding that those who disagree with their values can leave their businesses. Halifax Bank, for example, wrote that they want to create a “safe and accepting environment” that opens the conversation for gender identity, adding that it is a very simple solution to accidental misgendering. 

Others, such as CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, adding that Democrats have spent all of their time obsessing over what pronouns they prefer rather than the real issues at hand. Zakaria wrote that Democrats need to become the party to get stuff done, build things, and make governments work, instead of focusing on using the right pronouns. He claimed that they have been paralyzed by their own ideas and interest groups, adding that no one seems able to break through.

Liberal podcaster Kimberley Johnson, on the other hand, claimed that no Democratic candidate was making pronouns part of their platform, adding that the article is lazy journalism and transphobic. Zakaria defended his article and said that many Democrat politicians and voters have been more focused on divisive cultural issues than everyday concerns, like inflation. 

Experts have even gone on to warn how gender-neutral language puts people, particularly women, at risk. Replacing words like “women” with terms like “birth-giver” or “pregnant people” have increased serious health and medical implications. Health experts add that the language is “othering” and “dehumanizing” as they replace terms with alternate gender-inclusive terms that normally involve body parts. Another example of this is “lactating parents” or “chest feeding” in place of breastfeeding. The Centers for Disease Control * Prevention even has a section on “Care for Breastfeeding People,” in which the state health department offers advice on “chest feeding.” 

Conversations have used the term “birthing people” to ignite a fire of criticism online, including the word “mothers” with “birthing people” in a section about public health funding in the White House’s 2022 fiscal year budget. Even the wife of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted that she was not the “birthing person” of five boys, but their mother. The term “birthing families” may even suggest that other family members can have rights regarding a woman’s decisions during and after birth. 

Jenny Gamble, a professor at midwifery with Coventry University, added tat confusing the idea of gender identity is an insidious discrimination against women. Personal pronouns have pushed the limits of “he” or “she” to now include “they” or “them,’ which has been an effort to please the small group of people offended by the term “mother.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union also tweeted an alarm about abortion rights, in which they failed to mention a relevant demographic” women. They mentioned Black Indigenous and other people of color, the L.G.B.T.Q. community, immigrants, young people, those working to make ends meet, and people with disabilities. The significance in language is astounding. Just two years ago, NARAL issued a guide to activists on abortion in which they stressed talking about a “woman’s choice.” Now, the same guide is emphasizing a need for gender-neutral language. A British medical magazine even apologized for referring to women as “bodies with vaginas” rather than “women.” The American Cancer society website also recommends cancer screenings for “people with a cervix.”

Many people have continued to question the cult of the pronoun, adding how no one should be forced to declare their pronouns. Some say that pronoun badges are pernicious, degrading, and infantilizing, adding that humans are incapable of the most mundane social interactions without visual directives. Staff who refused to wear their badges were thought to be a bigot. Others have added that the practice being inflicted upon young adults and children is horrible, adding that it forces people to struggle with their gender identity and refuse to participate. 

The aim of pronouns is to normalize the idea that everyone has a gender identity distinct from their sex. Some add that it is also a humiliating way for managers to control workers, sell their time, and hand over their identity and values. There has been such an obsession with pronouns that there is even National Pronoun Day, with some students on college campuses saying that it is required in every class to introduce yourself and your pronouns. 

Declaring your pronouns has been the most common way to pledge allegiance to identity-obsessed left politics and religion. But even some in the transgender community have claimed that the pronoun war creates a false impression that gender identity ideology is the norm. Refusing to state your pronouns has been misrepresented as a conservative talking point when it’s really just about standing up to those who insist on imposing their values on everyone else.