JULES HOEPTING
Managing Editor
You grew up in a small town. The town formed around a canal or a railroad, but now is reduced to fields. The most exciting thing in the town is whatever the high school is doing. There are a few families who have been there forever, seemingly, and have their say in just about everything.
Maybe it wasn’t a small town. Maybe you were in a huge city but surrounded by people with concrete binary definitions of gender. You were in a place where the acceptance of new ideas was limited, and often mocked.
Now you’re at Fredonia and you’re asked to introduce yourself with your pronouns.
Pronouns? You’ve never been told you shouldn’t assume someone’s gender identity. The concept seems odd, but that is just because you haven’t heard of it before: it’s new to you. Remember, “new” is not a synonym for “weird” or “wrong.”
Then you hear that not everyone identifies as a male or a female: some people identify somewhere between male and female or their identity fluctuates between male and female. This identification is known as being genderqueer or gender fluid.
The concept of gender identification being on a spectrum is nothing new — the difference is we now have the vocabulary to describe these identifications. Thus, people can now put into terms how they have been identifying their whole lives. As more people openly identify as genderqueer, the identification will continue to become normalized. And you won’t give the identification a second thought!
Perhaps you have always identified with the gender genetically assigned to you at birth — this identity is known as being cisgender. Being cisgender is totally fine and normal. Being genderqueer is also totally fine and normal.
Every person’s life is made up of unique experiences. The best thing you can do is treat other people with respect — which means calling someone by the pronouns they identify with. It means asking people what their pronouns are when you meet them instead of assuming their gender identification.
When people are genderqueer or gender fluid they often identify with the pronouns of singular “they/them.” Initially, using “they” as a singular pronoun may seem odd to you, but, again, that is just because it is a new concept to you. You may even think using “they” as a singular pronoun is grammatically incorrect. But it is not.
In fact, you are already more familiar with hearing singular “they” than you realize. For example, “A student can choose what classes they want to take next semester.”
Interestingly enough, there is already a pronoun in English that doubles as a singular and plural pronoun. The pronouns “thee/thou/thy” used to take the place of singular “you.” Now, we use “you” to refer to a single person or a group of people. You can figure out how many “yous” are being spoken to by context.
If you’re still confused, I’ll put it this way: You probably went to school with someone who commonly went by a different name than what their birth certificate said. I went to school with a student named “Brianna” that everyone lovingly called “Beetle.” Did I call the student “Brianna?” Of course not! Their name was “Beetle.”
It’s really quite simple: call people by their preferred names and use their correct pronouns when talking about them.
In an effort to respect students, Fredonia has created a Chosen Name program which allows students to change their first name as it appears on class rosters, OnCourse, Fredonia email, FredCards and in the student directory. For more information on the program and guides on how to ask for people’s pronouns, visit the “Chosen Name Initiative” page under the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.