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]?

  • agrammatic@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    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 to he and she, 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 and they even though their declined forms are commonly known.

    • Pseu@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      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.

        • Pseu@beehaw.orgEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          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.

  • indigojasper@kbin.social
    1·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • frogman [he/him]@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    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’

  • Lionir [he/him]@beehaw.org
    1·
    11 months ago

    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?