In recent years, pronoun sharing has become a staple of everyday life for UO students. Whether it’s part of a “get to know you” activity on the first day of classes, an email signature or a Zoom screen name, normalizing pronouns can minimize the misgendering of students by their professors and peers while also fostering a more inclusive environment.
Being misgendered can have long-term mental health consequences. A 2014 study found that people who were regularly misgendered experienced heightened anxiety and stigmatization, lower self-esteem and a sense of devalidation when it came to their own identity — especially in the case of trans and non-binary respondents.
“Being misgendered takes you out of the learning environment,” Dr. Andrea Herrera, a UO professor of sociology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said. “It can feel uncomfortable, jarring, disorienting and overall it adds an unfortunate additional burden for the person being misgendered that is probably invisible to everybody else in the classroom.”
In spite of these negative outcomes, compulsory pronoun sharing can prove harmful in other ways. While cisgender students might generally feel more comfortable publicly sharing their pronouns, the process for trans and non-binary students can involve outing themselves in unfamiliar settings. A 2015 survey found that 24% of genderqueer students on college campuses reported feeling unsafe or experiencing mistreatment in an academic environment on the basis of their gender identity. This number may have fluctuated in the years since, but there is still likely a large number of students who don’t feel comfortable publicly disclosing their pronouns.
For Caryn Zaner, a psychologist with UO Counseling Services specializing in work with queer students, the question of pronoun sharing is incredibly complex.
“As far as required pronoun sharing, my take is don’t. Don’t do that,” Zaner said. “It is an incredibly complex issue, and queer, trans, non-binary people are not a monolith. Students I have worked with are out in some settings and not in others because safety is such a concern.”
Rather than outright enforcing pronoun sharing, Zaner believes professors should foster an environment of safety in the classroom that encourages students to share their own pronouns, while also meeting students where they are at an individual level.
“I think having one-on-one conversations discussing how you’d like to be referred to is the best path to move forward,” Zaner said.
Herrera questioned why gender is assumed to be an immutable characteristic for so many when compared to other identity categories. They noted that, while many queer students feel their gender identity is important, other people simply don’t have a set or important gender identity.
“There has been an increasing medicalization of gender, and with that comes the idea that we can discover our true genders through medicine and science and that leads to a want to categorize people into boxes,” Herrera said. “But then what are the pros and cons of having gender be so central to our senses of self in the first place?”
As a professor, Herrera’s policy attempts to be collaborative with their students. They allow pronoun sharing to be optional and also have students fill out a sheet that Herrera reviews before the second day of class. This allows them to keep a list of students’ names, pronouns and whether they are comfortable using said pronouns or being called on and referred to in class.
“I want (cisgender) teachers to have these same conversations. Talk about these issues! Demystifying the process is good for the students’ comfort level and the teachers’ as well,” Herrera said.
Zaner encouraged genderqueer students to feel validated in their own identities, regardless of how they choose to express them.
“Internalized cis-sexism is very real, and I fully encourage people to feel empowered to do what is necessary to remain safe andbe their authentic self,” Zaner said. “No one is owed your performance of gender. Share it with the people who care about you.”
Queer people in need of mental health support have access to a number of resources:
The Trevor Project (1-866-488-7386) focuses on crisis counseling and suicide prevention efforts for queer youth.
The Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) is a peer support network and crisis hotline operated by trans and non-binary people to support trans and non-binary people.
UO students specifically are also encouraged to reach out to Gender Support Services at UO Counseling Services, which offers general mental health support and helps students receive letters in support of gender-affirming medical care.
