Jun 29, 2022 11:17 PM
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/29...-pronouns/
EXCERPTS (Joanna Williams): Look closely next time you pop into your local bank, department store or supermarket and you’ll notice an addition to the uniforms of put-upon cashiers and clerks: the pronoun badge. [...] Pronoun badges have been around for a few years now, but in that time they have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.
[...] Halifax is one of many banks that now expects employees to declare their pronouns. The company’s rainbow-flag adorned Twitter profile informs the world that ‘pronouns matter’ [...] According to the Food PR manager at Marks & Spencer, staff pronoun badges have ‘helped start some very necessary conversations around gender identity and non-binary experiences’...
[...] pronoun badges have come to epitomise woke virtue-signalling. On one level, they are a completely pointless gesture. No one really needs a badge to tell them that Barbara on checkout No4 is a woman or that Rob directing customers to the cash machines is a bloke. And if, on the rare occasion, there is any confusion, people have long proved capable of talking, laughing and apologising to each other.
Pronoun badges are pernicious. Expecting people to adorn themselves in ‘she/her/hers’ labels is degrading and infantilising. It suggests we are incapable of the most mundane social interactions without visual directives. Although companies often rush to point out that wearing badges is optional, staff who refuse to wear them risk being thought a contrarian at best or a bigot at worst.
The practice of pronoun declaring took off in US schools and colleges a few years ago. [...] This is a horrible, coercive practice to inflict upon children and young adults. It forces those who are struggling with their gender identity to out themselves in front of classmates and friends. And it leaves those who refuse to participate in the ritual open to being branded transphobic transgressors.
[...] As the advice to teachers shows, the aim of making pronoun declarations routine is to normalise the idea that everyone has a gender identity distinct from their sex...
But there are other reasons why pronoun badges have taken off. They provide a cheap way for big companies to show the world that they are up to speed with the latest woke thinking – that they are nice, progressive, inclusive organisations. Forget the fact that you are kept on hold for an hour when you try to phone your bank, or that your local branch has closed down. Instead, just bask in the warm glow of knowing that poorly paid call-handlers and clerks are trans-aware.
Despite the virtue-signalling, there is nothing nice about pronoun badges. [...] Donning a pronoun badge becomes an act of compliance, a sign of submission to woke values. This is a humiliating way for managers to control workers. It is no longer enough for employees to sell their time and be good at their job – they are now expected to hand over their identity and their values to their employer as well... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS (Joanna Williams): Look closely next time you pop into your local bank, department store or supermarket and you’ll notice an addition to the uniforms of put-upon cashiers and clerks: the pronoun badge. [...] Pronoun badges have been around for a few years now, but in that time they have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.
[...] Halifax is one of many banks that now expects employees to declare their pronouns. The company’s rainbow-flag adorned Twitter profile informs the world that ‘pronouns matter’ [...] According to the Food PR manager at Marks & Spencer, staff pronoun badges have ‘helped start some very necessary conversations around gender identity and non-binary experiences’...
[...] pronoun badges have come to epitomise woke virtue-signalling. On one level, they are a completely pointless gesture. No one really needs a badge to tell them that Barbara on checkout No4 is a woman or that Rob directing customers to the cash machines is a bloke. And if, on the rare occasion, there is any confusion, people have long proved capable of talking, laughing and apologising to each other.
Pronoun badges are pernicious. Expecting people to adorn themselves in ‘she/her/hers’ labels is degrading and infantilising. It suggests we are incapable of the most mundane social interactions without visual directives. Although companies often rush to point out that wearing badges is optional, staff who refuse to wear them risk being thought a contrarian at best or a bigot at worst.
The practice of pronoun declaring took off in US schools and colleges a few years ago. [...] This is a horrible, coercive practice to inflict upon children and young adults. It forces those who are struggling with their gender identity to out themselves in front of classmates and friends. And it leaves those who refuse to participate in the ritual open to being branded transphobic transgressors.
[...] As the advice to teachers shows, the aim of making pronoun declarations routine is to normalise the idea that everyone has a gender identity distinct from their sex...
But there are other reasons why pronoun badges have taken off. They provide a cheap way for big companies to show the world that they are up to speed with the latest woke thinking – that they are nice, progressive, inclusive organisations. Forget the fact that you are kept on hold for an hour when you try to phone your bank, or that your local branch has closed down. Instead, just bask in the warm glow of knowing that poorly paid call-handlers and clerks are trans-aware.
Despite the virtue-signalling, there is nothing nice about pronoun badges. [...] Donning a pronoun badge becomes an act of compliance, a sign of submission to woke values. This is a humiliating way for managers to control workers. It is no longer enough for employees to sell their time and be good at their job – they are now expected to hand over their identity and their values to their employer as well... (MORE - missing details)
