I started a conversation on social media about gender neutral pronouns. My initiation was a proposition to use “your majesty” or “comrade” as a way of avoiding using a gender specific pronoun when addressing students. This is all intended as a matter of respect for everyone in all of my classes. The conversation was quite educational. This inspired some online research and I learned a great deal.
I place these here as a list to help remind me of terms that I want to use in classes. Feel free to contact me so that I might add to this list. I will also try to place some educational links on this page over time. I will also link all of my classes to this page.
- comrade or co or tvarische
- your excellency
- human
- humanoid
- biped with continuous external integument (which is already in my chrome dictionary btw, but btw is not)
- my friend (i will use this sparingly. i don’t need emotional entanglements with my students, nor sexual harassment lawsuits)
- yes dear (see comment for ‘my friend’)
- you again (also only to people i have already had in a class)
- y’all (if appropriate for a single person)
- sup
- fuck you want (see comment for ‘you again’)
- “And what does our esteemed friend in the back think about this?”
- padawan
Here is the list:
- “Emotive electrochemical stimulus response; cranial plate; bipedal locomotion; endo-skeletal contiguous external integument.”
- “I’m Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the Federation starship Enterprise.”
- “Hierarchical collective command structure.”
- “Who are you?”
- “Interrogative!”
Here are some ironic examples:
Queer Staff & Faculty Retention Program at HSU
- The Queer Staff & Faculty Retention Program at HSU has a page that explains a proper use of various pronouns here. Below is the table presented on their page. The following is content from their page.
- Subject: [1] laughed at the notion of a gender binary.
- Object: They tried to convince [2] that asexuality does not exist.
- Possessive: [3] favorite color is unknown.
- Possessive Pronoun: The pronoun card is [4].
- Reflexive: [1] thinks highly of [5].
Pronouns—A How-To Guide
Teen Vogue has a great page on this topic here.