The tweet went viral, prompting the school to issue a statement and social media users to input their own two cents on the matter.

Ask me about my pronouns.The New York Post reported about a North Carolina medical student who made headlines after allegedly tweeting about sticking a needle into a patient twice after he mocked her ‘Pronoun pin’. Wear your pronoun pin, but don’t stop there. Wear your pronoun pin, only if you can back it up with actions. Wear your pronoun pin because you are ready and willing to have a conversation about it. Pronoun pins matter, which is why wearing one should not be a trend to follow, but a commitment to keep. I am not trying to dissuade you from wearing your pronoun pin - far from it.

I still hear casual and deliberate misgendering I still see instances of transphobia in the classroom I still feel a general apathy around queer and trans rights at Whitman. It is not a stand-in for any real action that needs to be taken on campus to promote the equitable treatment of trans and GNC folk. Your pronoun pin does not excuse you from doing the hard work of being an ally. Pronoun pins are about survival, about challenging gender expectations and creating a space for marginalized bodies in this world. They are a product of a society that punishes those who don’t fit neatly into categories, or those who deny the existence of those categories altogether. Pronoun pins are not “woke.” They are a product of a society where we are forced to define ourselves, a society that necessitates labeling. For several on this campus, these pronoun pins are about liberal aesthetic more than they’re about, you know, pronouns. They have become so commodified, so fashionable, that the presence of pronoun pins seem to dilute their relevancy. Wearing a pronoun pin to show that you are a fine, upstanding white liberal trivializes the purpose of the pins as much as it supports the cause. They are not meant to be a political statement, no matter how politicized queer bodies are, and they are certainly not meant to be a fashion statement, no matter how creative they are. Pronoun pins ultimately favor cis-gendered people because it gives them social capital, while it potentially diminishes the status of trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) folk.Ĭlearly, these pins aren’t enough. When we wear them without realizing their impact, we do a disservice to those the pins were created for. They are no longer necessarily a sign of dedication to the normalization of trans identity, but a sign that you are stylish and socially aware. While pronoun pins are all but required for some queer folk, they have also become, for lack of a better word, trendy. This makes pronoun pins nearly mandatory for trans and gender non-conforming people if they wish to be recognized in the public sphere. We take the pins to be the definitive designation of our identities if someone chooses not to wear pronoun pins, as I do, we assume they are cis-gendered. These pins effectively shut down communication about pronouns unless your pin says “Ask Me About My Pronouns,” in which case, no one ever does.

Ever since pronoun pins have become so popular, we’ve stopped talking about pronouns almost altogether.