I have a question about the pronouns in profiles. I hope it won’t be perceived as transphobic, that’s not my intention. I’m not a native English speaker, so perhaps that’s where my misunderstanding (and possibly awkward turn of phrases) comes from.
Why specify the object pronoun when the subject pronoun is given?
For example, why display [she/her], and not just [she]?
Shouldn’t the slash be reserved for people who recognize themselves in more than one gender, like [she/they]?
To the best of my knowledge, the convention is based on history. In previous decades, neo-pronouns like
xe
were proposed to serve as gender-neutral alternatives tohe
andshe
, and since they were new coinages, they didn’t have commonly known objective and possessive forms, so all three forms where listed.The pattern was so established that it carried over to
he
,she
andthey
even though their declined forms are commonly known.And now this is also just how we communicate that the speaker is stating their own pronouns. If I put “Pseu he” as my username, there’s a high chance of confusion. If I put “Pseu he/him” as my username, it’s obvious what I’m trying to say.
Why not something like “Pseu [he]”?
At least in the areas where I see pronouns, they often do it in their status or the like and may not use brackets. “He/him” seems to be more widely understood than brackets or parentheses.
That works better in text, but doesn’t come across as well in spoken word
All this time I thought it would make learning the language easier for a non-native speaker, because it’s reinforcing which pronouns go together—her with she, him with he, they with them, etc. Funny I never saw it as being redundant until you pointed it out.
idk about the actual reason, but it’s easier for me to recognise that someone is specifying pronouns when it’s ‘she/her’ instead of just ‘she’
It’s redundant, that’s just how people do it.
To me, it’s an extension of spoken language. It’d sound a bit off and maybe actually have different connotation to say “I use he” instead of “I use he/him”.
So yeah, I think it’s to reduce confusion because outside of presenting your pronouns, two pronouns are unlikely?