last day (16 days later) » 

19:19
8
Q: What should I do if an academic says "no pronouns please" in their bio?

Ran"No pronouns please" was the first line in the academic's bio after their nameā€”it was included in an invitation to attend their presentation. No other data. What if you slipped and used a pronoun when you were addressing them? How could you handle it? It turned out after the event that the person...

I assume that "no pronouns" actually means no "gender specific pronouns". In other words, don't write things that imply my gender.
@Ran Now you've actually been to the event, and it's clear that neither of the answers really fit the bill, please could you answer you're own question with your experiences? This would have confused me too, and I consider myself quite up to date in social etiquette.
@Buffy I doubt that. There are a significant number of non-binary people who genuinely prefer that people not use personal pronouns in reference to that person. In such situations it would generally be preferred to choose your phrasing so as to avoid the necessity of personal pronouns, or to use the person's name. It's an unusual choice, and one that often doesn't come naturally, so I (as a non-binary person, albeit one who does use pronouns, they/them) am sure anyone who makes such a request will understand that even people acting in good faith will sometimes make mistakes
"You used a pronoun when you were addressing them" - the only pronoun I know to address somebody is "you". That's not a problem, is it? Or did you talk about them, in third person, to someone else? Did they even notice?
@Tristan Do such people eschew the use of 1st-person pronouns and dislike being addressed with 2nd-person pronouns? Or is it just the 3rd-person?
19:19
Would simply not use pronouns when communicating with. If doesn't want to hear or read pronouns then don't see why should try to force to.
@Kimball usually such people only object to third person pronouns, and are fine with first or second person ones, despite the statement "no pronouns please" obviously also including those
@Bergi Technically, there are languages with gendered second person pronouns, and not all of them are obscure ;)
It's better if everyone, non-binary or not, sticks to using gender neutral pronouns. Then pronouns are no longer associated with gender and there won't be request for not using pronouns. Sweden ) is well on its way toward becoming a gender neutral country.
Uwe
Uwe
@CountIblis Some languages don't even have gender-neutral verb forms, at least in certain tenses. (Arabic, Hebrew, Slavic languages). Even if you refer to a person by name, rather than by pronoun, you cannot avoid mentioning their gender.
I would have thought an important factor would be how much you want to or need to keep on this person's right side. If someone asked me not to wear any dark clothing to their presentation, for example, I would weigh up whether I am willing to comply with them by wearing my usual dark clothing, or not, and then decide whether to not to go to the presentation. It the person is in a position to help or hurt me greatly, I would comply with almost any request/demand, if I had to go to the presentation.
19:19
@Uwe And some languages have different word forms based on how you know something (directly, via gossip, etc), it's called "evidentiality". That's not particularly relevant here, though, since we're clearly talking about English, which doesn't have word endings for gender or evidentiality, so avoiding both is relatively straight-forward.
 
1 hour later…
Uwe
Uwe
20:48
@IMSop The last time I visited a conference, some people talked to each other in languages different from English during the lunch break. Sometimes they talked about the presentations in the morning session.
 
2 hours later…
22:50
@CountIblis Why would it be better if everyone stuck to "gender neutral" pronouns?

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