I want to be respectful but if they say they don’t care what pronouns I use for them, that feels like it puts the decision on me to choose what to call them and I guess I would probably default to “they” because choosing a gender for them feels weird… am I wrong?
if they say they don’t care what pronouns I use for them
I’m taking it at face value then and using whatever I think is appropriate. There’s no point in wasting time playing games with this.
If someone tells you they don’t care about pronoun usage, believe them. I’m nonbinary and don’t care what pronoun people use for me, because I identify as both male and female. Most people default to “he” for me because of my beard, but others use “they” because of my proclivity for wearing skirts, nail polish, and lipstick. Rarely I’ll have someone use “she” (or I’ll use it myself), but ultimately, I’m just a person who exists outside of the gender spectrum (or right in the middle), and pronouns are just a grammatical tool to save time, so I prefer that people use whatever comes most naturally to them.
As someone whose pronouns are any/all I genuinely don’t care, I’m not going to be offended if you pick one pronoun and stick with it - I am lazy and present male, being AMAB, so people default to he/him anyway - or just use the first one that springs to mind everytime you refer to me. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone who is any/all but I imagine if most people cared they wouldn’t go with any/all
I’m in that box, I’m generally She/her, but I have friends who use he/him for me which I take as a compliment tbf from those people for various reasons. If a complete stranger started with a he/him I’d be bemused but not upset at all. I understand that’s not ‘standard’ but I’m genuinely not that bothered.
As a nonbinary someone who accepts any/all I would say whatever comes naturally or is your preference. I’ve identified as agender since I was young and so personally I don’t really like defining myself to other people in terms of gendered language. I would say if someone tells you their pronouns are any/all to trust them that they are actually fine with that.
Thanks, I do believe that they’re fine with whatever pronouns I call them by, this was more of a me problem about not knowing what to actually call them in that case lol. Like paradox of choice kind of, except I also wonder about what my choice might indicate to them and whether I should randomise it or base it on something.
I’m probably the least qualified person to comment on this, but I would probably just default to their name.
That’s Bob’s coffee
Those are Sarah’s keys.
Less chance of fucking it up, IMO