[lg policy] The problem with pronoun policies

[Harold Schiffman]

The problem with pronoun policies

he University of Sussex Students’ Union made headlines this week when
the *Daily
Mail* got a hold of its Gender Inclusive Language Policy
<https://www.sussexstudent.com/democracy/policies/gender-inclusive-language/>.
According to the policy, all societies, campaign materials and student
media outlets must use gender-neutral language, and all students must state
their preferred pronouns at the beginning of meetings. The SU advises that
no assumptions on gender should be made, and encourages the use of ‘them’
and ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’ when addressing a person whose gender
identity has not been stated.

An SU officer told the *Independent*
<http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/sussex-university-gender-neutral-pronouns-transgender-lgbt-rights-brighton-sexuality-politics-a7505671.html>
that the policy was introduced in a bid to ‘make the students’ union a more
inclusive and comfortable environment for trans and non-binary students’.
Many transgender activists argue that the enforcement of these new rules is
crucial to the health and mental wellbeing of trans and non-binary
students, linking so-called misgendering with suicide rates within the
transgender community.

But though they are presented as compassionate, these policies have
sinister implications. It is wrong to lay the blame for suicide in the
transgender community on non-trans people making perfectly rational
assumptions about people’s gender. When people ‘misgender’ a trans person
it is not ill-intentioned – it is based in accepted biological fact. The
issue at hand isn’t one of ‘bullying’, but of non-trans people making
‘mistakes’, by, for example, addressing as male an individual who looks
male, and is biologically male, but who may not actually identify as male.
It’s a rational assumption, based on what we know and understand. These
policies effectively tell people that facts don’t matter, and that people’s
imagined fantasies and preferences must become accepted reality.

What’s more, these policies promote the notion that transgender people are
too weak and vulnerable to be addressed incorrectly, even by accident; that
they need to be accommodated by everyone and every institution in society,
lest they are driven to kill themselves. Suicide rates among certain groups
should of course be taken seriously. But they shouldn’t be used to
blackmail people into accepting a view on gender – or a particular person’s
self-image – that they may not share. It speaks to the narcissistic
undertone of the trans movement: it demands not simply rights, but
recognition, even if that means disregarding accepted scientific and social
categories.

Worst of all, pronoun policies place restrictions on freedom of speech –
they allow the language of the majority to be dictated by the perceived
emotional needs of a tiny minority. In a truly liberal society, no one
should have control over how people express themselves. Transgender people
should be free to identify however they please, but the rest of us should
also be free to take a different view. Rather than opening people up to
issues within the transgender community, these policies do quite the
opposite: they shut down debate and further alienate individuals from one
another.
Related categories Free speech
<http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/section/C19> Life
<http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/section/C9> Science and technology
<http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/section/C12>

*Deniz Karaman* is a writer and student.
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-problem-with-pronoun-policies/19175#.WHEQ6lw17Y0

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