# Pronouns in bio question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704 "2022-01-31T21:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/1 "2022-01-31T21:27:18Z")
By now I think we’re all accustomed to seeing folks who put pronouns in their bio, for whatever reason. She/her, he/him, they/them, etc. I understand what motivates people to designate “he” or “she” or “they”, but I don’t understand the purpose of listing them in pairs of subjective/accusative. Like, I think we’re all clear that the object form of “they” is “them”. And to confound matters, I’ve seen some folks using “they/their” instead of “they/them”. I assume nobody is actually trying to tinker with the very concept of grammatical case, i.e. “send an email to their” I found it odd, so I thought I’d ask if I’m missing something before I start carping about it. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/2 "2022-01-31T21:34:04Z")
I assume it started as clarity by repetition and in case of typing errors. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/3 "2022-01-31T21:48:45Z")
Because if someone wants to use novel pronouns, they need to specify them. For example, “E/em”. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/4 "2022-01-31T21:50:40Z")
Then I would expect someone to do that for “E/em” (which I personally have never seen). It doesn’t explain why people do it for “They/them”. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/5 "2022-01-31T21:51:09Z")
I think it’s for clarity too, but in a different way. There’s a growing convention that e.g. “they/them” is a pronoun declaration. “They” by itself is used very commonly. So, using “they” only might look like some kind of mistake, or like something didn’t print, etc etc. And using pronouns on resumes is a wonderful thing to do. If all of us did it, even though many of us get gendered correctly all the time, then it’s way easier for somebody who really needs to use pronoun specification to be able to. Let’s make it commonplace! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/6 "2022-01-31T21:59:55Z")
I personally think it’s the latest fad in popular cultural isms. Eventually it will settle into a more normal use and we’ll forget about the grammatical problems it has created. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/7 "2022-01-31T22:02:12Z")
It makes it clearer that they are pronouns being listed rather than part of their name. It may have started out from people speaking. If someone says “I’m Quinn Davis She”, it’s not clear if ‘She’ is the last name or Quinn’s preferred pronoun. But if you hear “I’m Quinn Davis She Her”, you’re much more likely to realize that her name is Quinn Davis and she prefers the pronouns She/Her. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/8 "2022-01-31T22:18:57Z")
It standardizes how they are presented, without showing a preference to the binary gender pronouns. You see two pronouns or unrecognized short words separated by slashes in a bio near the name, and you know those are their pronouns, and not a part of their name. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/9 "2022-01-31T22:40:07Z")
I’m waiting for someone to specify thee and thine. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/10 "2022-02-01T05:10:38Z")
At the risk of sounding like a troglodyte, when I’m on a public meeting Zoom I feel like the only pronoun anyone would ever need for me is “you.” So specifying anything else seems like an unnecessary insertion of our personal lives. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/11 "2022-02-01T08:24:53Z")
You’re never in a meeting when you might refer to someone else in the meeting? ‘Can I introduce Sarah, she’s been integral to helping me put this presentation together’? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/12 "2022-02-01T15:05:29Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > At the risk of sounding like a troglodyte, when I’m on a public meeting Zoom I feel like the only pronoun anyone would ever need for me is “you.” So specifying anything else seems like an unnecessary insertion of our personal lives. From what I’ve seen in my workplace, I get the feeling that most people putting pronouns in their profiles, Zoom handles, signatures, etc. are doing so more to show support to the gender community rather than to express their personal pronoun preference. The handful of people I’ve seen do it are visibly cis-gendered and are using the pronouns which would be the obvious choice for the gender they present as. But it can also be useful in the workplace if you work for a global company. Not everyone is going to know the typical genders for names from around the world. We may know that a name like Tony is typically for a male, but someone in India might not. And in the same way someone in India knows what the typical gender is for a person named Sirini but we probably don’t. Listing pronouns can be helpful in the environments where you may only communicate with someone over email and chat systems and don’t know what they look like or sound like. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/13 "2022-02-01T17:09:35Z")
A little off topic, but amusing. A cow-orker was on the Customer email team and received a complaint from an individual who signed their name with a “hippy” signature: Sunglow Moonbeam (not the real name, but it’ll do). The response email was sent back as “Dear Mr Moonbeam etc etc.” Well! We received back an all-caps email, highly indignant. “HOW DARE YOU CALL ME MR! _OBVIOUSLY_ MY NAME IS FEMALE!” We now use the “firstname lastname” model for our responses, especially because our client base is increasingly international and it’s really really hard to tell sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/14 "2022-02-02T00:20:47Z")
> [@Daithi\_Lacha](#): > > cow-orker Is this missing a “p”? _runs away_ ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/15 "2022-02-02T01:22:28Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I’m waiting for someone to specify thee and thine. You mean either thou/thee or thou/thy. I’m not sure because I don’t know which grammatical forms are supposed to be listed. Is it nominative/objective or nominative/possesive? I’ve seen both. Now to be really obscure except to maybe some linguists, put hit/him or hit/his (depending on which is the correct form). For those unfamiliar, _hit_, _him_, and _his_ were the Middle English third person neuter pronouns. You can find them used in Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/16 "2022-02-02T01:44:40Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Then I would expect someone to do that for “E/em” (which I personally have never seen). I believe our own @Acsenray prefers E/em. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/17 "2022-02-02T01:51:46Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I don’t understand the purpose of listing them in pairs of subjective/accusative. It’s shorter than the old nom/acc/gen form. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/18 "2022-02-03T00:56:59Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > It makes it clearer that they are pronouns being listed rather than part of their name. It may have started out from people speaking. If someone says “I’m Quinn Davis She”, it’s not clear if ‘She’ is the last name or Quinn’s preferred pronoun. But if you hear “I’m Quinn Davis She Her”, you’re much more likely to realize that her name is Quinn Davis and she prefers the pronouns She/Her. Sorry, was that Quinn Davis Xi or Quinn Davis Scheer? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/19 "2022-05-23T14:44:23Z")
Since starting this OP, I have taken a job where alternate pronouns are a widespread and normal part of the culture, and I think I have an answer/answers now. 1. Some people feel that more than one pronoun describes them: Pat willingly answers to “she” and “they”, so she puts “she/they”. Most of the duals I have seen are she/they, though I assume there are also he/they and probably a few he/she. 2. Some people use contrived pronouns whose declension is not well-established. What is the object form of “ze”? If I’ve never used it, I can’t know unless someone tells me. Even if someone tells me it’s “zir”, another person may prefer “hir”. It would be nice if this was standardized, but that probably isn’t happening, so people need to list their own preference. 3. Conformance of binaries. We binaries really only need one pronoun. In person you would safely assume that I am “he”. But online, my name is ambiguous, so I need to tell you that I’m “he”. There is a blank in my employee bio for pronouns, but it looks weird just to put “he” in there. I feel dumb adding the unnecessary “him”, but the tradeoff is that it seems more awkward to use a disembodied “he”, so I use “he/him” to imitate the style of others who actually do need it. So this is how I came to understand alternate pronouns. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2022, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704/20 "2022-05-25T05:40:57Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > At the risk of sounding like a troglodyte, when I’m on a public meeting Zoom I feel like the only pronoun anyone would ever need for me is “you.” So specifying anything else seems like an unnecessary insertion of our personal lives. In modern English (and I think at least some other modern Western languages), the entire need to specify pronouns lies with the third-person pronouns only, which are the only ones that are gendered. There is never any need to specify one’s first-person and second-person pronouns. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronouns-in-bio-question/958704.md?page=2)