Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1405706
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 AUGUST 2021 NEWS LAURA CALLEJA TO people who have never had to worry about which pronoun others use to refer to them, gen- der pronouns might not seem important. Even for – most probably – many readers here, their singu- lar and visible gender identity is a privilege they have never needed to question. Yet as gen- der identity entered even the Maltese legislative books in the last decade, so has the conver- sation about people's gender pronouns grown. And for those referred to with the wrong pro- noun, they can feel disrespect- ed and invalidated. But for many whose lives have been determined by a singular, cis-gender pronoun of "he" or "she", encountering gender pronouns which cannot be de- termined just by looking at a person may seem like a 'new' phenomenon. Gender-neutral English-lan- guage pronouns today make space not just for two genders, but for many more, serving as a way for people who fall outside the binary of "man" and "wom- an" to describe themselves. They provide an identity for a singular person who does not identify as he/him or she/her. "They" is used as a gender-neu- tral singular pronoun – even though some critics argue that "they" should really only be used to refer to plural nouns. In recent years especially, they've become a staple of dating apps, college campuses, and email signatures. On Twitter, personalities and politicians as well as ordinary users are listing their pro- nounces on their social media bio – he/him, she/her or they/ them – a basic set of pronouns that is not even the exclusive expression of the LGBT+ com- munity. This is part of a new language of identity that lets peo- ple know that you are not going to assume their gender, avoid- ing getting someone's gender wrong, as well as benefiting the LBGT+ community. "It might have started off as a trend, but nowadays it seems to have caught on enough to be used as a way to normalise the use of non-binary pronouns while also helping trans people not be accidentally misgen- dered," Amanda Cossai (she/ her), a transgender woman, tells MaltaToday. "The only people who were doing it were trans and non-bi- nary people, and by doing that, they painted a target on their back. So, for example, even if I didn't know that a person was trans, if you saw pronouns on their bio a few years back, you could make a confident guess that they were transgender," Cossai said. Nowadays, Cossai says even allies from outside the LBGT+ community, are stating their pronouns, making its usage more effective. "Even people who think it is unnecessary should start do- ing this as a show of support and respect towards the commu- nity. A cis- person (someone who is not trans-gender) who feels threatened when asked to state their pronouns is some- one who does not understand the importance of referring to people by their desired name and pronouns." But it has been a dou- ble-edged sword. Online misgendering, the use of incorrect pronouns, has become a way of attacking others based on their gender identity. "Adopting a sys- tem like this that is normalising the use of a person's correct pro- nouns will help in making such verbal attacks less accepted," Cossai says. Activist Mina Jack Tolu (they/them), a former Green Party candidate for Europe in Malta, uses non-gendered pronouns, and points out that media companies have also embraced putting pronouns in social media bios. "Instagram has introduced a setting to add your pronouns so as not to be included in the character lim- it of social media bios – so the idea of putting pronouns in social media is also being in- troduced from the top down," Tolu explains. But putting pronouns in social media bios has been something LBGT+ activists have been doing for years, and it's not something new. But now even companies like Zoom have in- troduced inclusive tools for individuals to post their pro- nouns on their profiles, which eliminates confusion during meetings or the discomfort of being misgendered. Tolu described their own strug- gle of being mis- gendered, due to their outward appearance, a frustrating expe- rience considering they haven't used fem- inine pronouns since 2015. "I think cis allies put- ting their pronouns For many whose lives have been determined by a singular, cis-gender pronoun of "he" or "she", encountering gender pronouns which cannot be determined just by looking at a person may seem like a 'new' phenomenon. Amanda Cossai (she/her) Cyrus Engerer (he/him) "It creates a safe space for all and not just those who never had to worry about which pronouns others use to refer to them. As a cis- gender male, I've been privileged in society having a singular and visible gender identity. However, not everyone owns that privilege" - Cyrus Engerer Why gender- neutral pronouns matter