Fact or exaggeration? Sources please.
<yes, but="" usa="" is="" the="" only="" place="" in="" world="" where="" you="" may="" loose="" your="" job="" for="" using="" once="" wrong="" pronoun.="" fact="" or="" exaggeration?="" sources="" please.=""></yes,>
Faculty is already required to remember and use the right pronouns. It is already part of the job responsibilities.
<no i="" don’t="" think="" mr.="" strobl="" needs="" to="" worry="" about="" anything.="" his="" point="" was="" well="" taken="" whether="" you="" agree="" with="" him="" or="" not.="" clearly="" the="" committee="" of="" 11="" and="" it="" team="" didn’t’="" stop="" say="" wait="" a="" minute,="" there="" problem="" letting="" every="" person="" come="" up="" their="" own="" personal="" pronoun.="" wasn’t="" “prank”…he="" making="" very="" clear="" that="" got="" missed="" by="" group="" educated="" personnel.="" prank="" is="" something="" different.="">
Agree
You claimed that using the wrong pronoun once would get someone fired. Sources, please, or that is a blatant lie.
bodangles, I have a question for you. I asked my high school SJW son the same question just now, and he fumbled. Let’s say that the pronoun issue is solved in English. But English is the native tongue for only about 6-7% of the world population. Also, the world is becoming more global by the day, and many of today’s college kids will be working outside the USA in new, emerging economies. Inevitably they will find issues in the local culture and language that they will find intolerable. How will they cope?
There is aggression and then there is micro-aggression. There is rage and then there is micro-rage. Have today’s SJWs figured out what is the right reaction of micro-aggression? For example, African Americans getting killed by cops in one social justice problem, someone not being called their preferred pronoun is yet another.
Just something to think about. I am a very liberal, and probably got just as angry as today’s kids over the injustices that I perceived when I was in college. But in hindsight, my friends and I didn’t always focus on the bigger issues and spent a lot of time and effort on minor issues. We have a couple of problems in contemporary USA that may be just a bit more serious than personal pronouns, e.g., racism, income inequality, and, for lack of a better word, corporate despotism.
@1Wife1Kid Other languages may be going through the same thing (ex. for Spanish: Latin@, Latinx, use of “e” instead of “o” or “a” on adjectives) – it’s not purely an American issue. Presumably if a nonbinary person goes to a culture where no such change is happening, they (look! singular they!) will figure something out. I don’t know enough about other languages to know if they have a similar usage to “they” – something colloquial that people use when gender is unknown, though it may not be in the dictionary that way. Either the student will create something, use existing alternative structures, or pick whichever usual pronoun in that language they can stomach. That’s as complete of an answer as I can construct, given the fact that I am and have always felt female. 
As far as big vs small issues: hence, intersectionality! People can care about more than one thing at once. I can be upset by the proposed pit bull ban in Montreal at the same time as I am upset about sexism. Both are important to me and I spend time advocating against both.
Edited to add, in case you meant “How will they cope?” in a more general sense:
Probably similarly to how they do at home. Cooperate to be polite until they morally/emotionally can’t anymore. At least that’s how I’d do it.
I think intersectionality means something different than people caring about more than one issue at a time. But I get your point. I was merely suggesting that SJWs like my son get micro-angry at micro-aggressions (pronouns), and angry at aggressions (cops and black lives). They can obviously get micro-angry and angry at the same time when caring about different issues, thus satisfying the needs of intersectionality, if you will. However, to their defense, I myself was not a good judge of the distinction when in college, and was angry at everything.
Yes, I don’t think I explained myself clearly there. I mean that a. obviously people have the brain capacity to care about more than one thing at a time, but also b. intersectionality means the issues are all related, which makes it easy to care about both big and small issues, because there are common threads in each.
I don’t really want to learn new pronouns, but I would definitely try if it would make the people around me more comfortable.
I do have to wonder where we draw the line, however. I just read about a type of identity called “otherkin” on one of the other threads, and had to look it up. And, apparently, these folks can come with a whole slew of “nounself” pronouns.
If we have to change/evolve our speech, I’d rather just go with one-size-fits-all pronouns; i.e., remove all identifiers.
Wait a second. They’re not making all of the kids choose pronouns, are they? Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask only the kids who think their gender might be unclear to choose pronouns? Then the teachers only have to remember a handful of students.
And can someone really get fired for using the wrong pronoun? Please tell me that they have to do it repeatedly, and with obvious malice.
I’m very sensitive to Intersex and transgender people, but we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to remove all inconveniences from everyone’s life. I’m all for people being able to notify teachers that their gender might not be clear and request to be called Ms. instead of Mr., but to have a committee for it does seem to be way over the top. And for people to be at risk of being fired in the absence of obvious cruelty - that’s just crazy.
Can someone post a list of colleges where the professors can’t get fired for this. Or can, whichever is shorter.
Californiaaa had no proof for that statement and was very clearly just making things up.
No one is getting fired for this. And students are not willy nilly making up their own personal pronouns. The transgender students I’ve taught communicated their wishes clearly and respectfully, and I respectfully abided by them. It ain’t rocket science, folks.
A professor can be denied tenure or not rehired for silly reasons. See the following article:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid
People like to scare themselves. It’s clown-sighting season, after all.
I do not fear student evaluations. And believe me, with the low grades I give out, there are plenty who have grievances, lol. And plenty with whom I don’t see eye to eye. Even so, I have a non-tenure track position which never has to be renewed, no protection at all, yet I sleep well at night, no pronoun nightmares.
No clowns sighted yet, either, despite the rumors.
Your reality is not the universal reality, as clowns with weapons have been sighted in other areas of your state. On police recommendation students have been kept inside schools for recess and gym class this week, and cops are asking for a state wide ban on clown costumes for Halloween. Are they doing this because of mere rumors?
As for getting fired, employers take claims of bias very seriously and accusations of bias may be placed in your file even if they are unproven and even if they are disputed by the supposed victim. It’s crazy.
The assertion has been made, and not yet in any way supported, that people are being fired for getting one pronoun wrong one time. And I maintain that is nonsense.
garland, What subject do you teach?
freshman comp.
That is a red herring. No college is going to come out and say they fired someone for saying she instead of ze. What will happen is a note will be placed in a file, and the instructors contract will not be renewed sometime after the fact.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I think we’ve exhausted the subtopic “Will someone get fired for using the wrong pronoun?” Let’s move on please.