{"id":30890,"date":"2021-01-27T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=30890"},"modified":"2021-01-17T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T13:54:59","slug":"how-many-christmas-new-year-cards-did-you-get-that-specified-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/27\/how-many-christmas-new-year-cards-did-you-get-that-specified-pronouns\/","title":{"rendered":"How many Christmas\/New Year cards did you get that specified pronouns?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wonder if we can track trends via Christmas\/New Year’s cards. Out of roughly 100 cards, we received one with explicit pronouns. This was from a Ph.D. engineer (colleague of Dr. Jill Biden, MD?) who opened by characterizing 2020 as “bizarre” (the Swedish MD\/PhDs<\/a> might agree with him that it is bizarre for middle aged people to cower in place for a year to avoid a 0.1% chance of nasty flu symptoms or worse). Here’s an excerpt from the letter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[usually-female name] (they\/them) left [Company A] to join [Company B]\u2026 a few months later they left [Company B] to become a consultant for [Company C]\u2026 they have the distinction of having been hired twice of having been hired twice during a difficult time for employment generally. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pronouns are also specified for two additional children, the author (“he\/him”) and the mother of the three kids (“she\/her”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have gotten accustomed to receiving business correspondence, e.g., from Linode, festooned with pronoun specifications, but can’t recall too many previous personal letters containing them (their\/theirs). Readers: what did you get in your mailboxes this year in terms of pronoun specs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wonder if we can track trends via Christmas\/New Year’s cards. Out of roughly 100 cards, we received one with explicit pronouns. 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