Agreed, it's a fast changing world - and we will all have our own ways of navigating it. All we can do is try to bring an assumption of good intent, even if someone's phrasing is a bit clumsy. Even as a young lad, I've always thought gender was a crock of shit. I liked doing some things that were regarded as the sole preserve of males, as well as those regarded as feminine - and frankly was going to do them regardless.
Similarly, I've felt pronouns simply helped bake in societal expectations and weren't terribly helpful. I don't proactively share mine unlike many of my colleagues - and simply say I don't have a preference. If I'm in predominantly female space, and someone says, "Come on girls" I'm not going to feel offended. But can understand why it's better to use inclusive phrasing instead like "Come on everyone" and now use that by default. Also happy to go along with being simply polite and kind to others and using whatever pronouns they want me to use. It really costs me nothing to do so.
As a professional writer in the 90s/2000s/2010s, it's been interesting to see how language changed from a default assumption of he for many professions, to he/she to simply avoiding it all together eg Headmaster -> Headmaster/mistress -> Headteacher. Friends of mine still get people exclaiming, "What a male nurse?" They are in their 50s, imagine how tiresome it must be hearing that over the decades.
Like us the next generations won't get everything right, and frankly, I would not die on a hill for identity related causes when the biggest inequalities are along wealth and class lines (and often intergenerational) in this country. But I think they are not wrong about trying to be more inclusive of diverse perspectives and circumstances just as we were around women's changing roles in the workplace, choices like vegetarianism, greater acceptance of race and homosexuality, better understanding of human impact on our planet etc. Our generation laid the ground work for the current one to build upon.
Similarly, I've felt pronouns simply helped bake in societal expectations and weren't terribly helpful. I don't proactively share mine unlike many of my colleagues - and simply say I don't have a preference. If I'm in predominantly female space, and someone says, "Come on girls" I'm not going to feel offended. But can understand why it's better to use inclusive phrasing instead like "Come on everyone" and now use that by default. Also happy to go along with being simply polite and kind to others and using whatever pronouns they want me to use. It really costs me nothing to do so.
As a professional writer in the 90s/2000s/2010s, it's been interesting to see how language changed from a default assumption of he for many professions, to he/she to simply avoiding it all together eg Headmaster -> Headmaster/mistress -> Headteacher. Friends of mine still get people exclaiming, "What a male nurse?" They are in their 50s, imagine how tiresome it must be hearing that over the decades.
Like us the next generations won't get everything right, and frankly, I would not die on a hill for identity related causes when the biggest inequalities are along wealth and class lines (and often intergenerational) in this country. But I think they are not wrong about trying to be more inclusive of diverse perspectives and circumstances just as we were around women's changing roles in the workplace, choices like vegetarianism, greater acceptance of race and homosexuality, better understanding of human impact on our planet etc. Our generation laid the ground work for the current one to build upon.
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