A year ago on Quora a concerned poster delicately seeking not to offend asked, “As a cis person, should I add my pronouns in my Twitter bio, or would it be offensive?”
To which someone replied, “I can’t think of any occasion when declaring your pronouns in your Twitter profile would be offensive, regardless of whether you are cis or trans.”
Apparently, many blue check marks on Twitter agree, as it has become increasingly and quite fashionable among progressives – even among the former Democratic presidential candidates – to display profile pronouns.
But Georgia State University demonstrates the absurdity of the extremes.
The college’s business school offers a program called WomenLead, a mix of courses, forums and networking that offers women instruction on becoming better business executives. As its website says, “Students can learn what executive leadership entails and how the panel participants … got to their position. … Since its spring 2015 inception, more than 950 students have participated in the program, ensuring that the future for female business leaders is bright.”
Both perhaps, but the first thing these young women will have to learn is about what pronoun they want to choose.
The WomenLead application document offers variations on 10 different pronouns.
One option for women is the traditional forms of “she” or “her.”
These female students could also pick different styles of “he” or “they.”
But then there is also “co,” “en,” “ey,” “xie,” “yo,” “ze” and “ve.”
So, women in the WomenLead program are not just “her.” They can also be “vir,” “zer,” or “yoself.”
And if that’s not enough, the application has a space at the bottom for “other.”
So in essence, much like the very potential of the applicants, the sky seems to be the limit on how a woman at GSU’s WomenLead program can ID herself, or “coself,” or “emself.”
According to the conservative group Campus Reform, which first reported on the many pronoun picks, the WomenLead director said her – if it is “her” – program “invites all students who meet the requirements regardless of gender.”
GSU administrators could not be reached for comment.