And here you thought it couldn’t get much crazier than universities sending out directives to students and faculty in re using “preferred gender pronouns,” even going to far as to threaten them for failing to do so.
Well, to coin a phrase, ze ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. A tweet from one Ian Miles Cheong, an editor at the gaming site gameranx, notes that Vandebilt University has begun distributing nameplates for staff members that include the pronoun by which they prefer to be identified (h/t Weasel Zippers):
Vanderbilt University now has gender pronouns on staff nameplates. Get me out of this Berenstain universe. pic.twitter.com/TuSmeY4XhY
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 8, 2016
I’m guessing that Anna Flagg, Elsa Haile, Harold Brown, and Jacob Coeur are all comfortable in their own skin and, so, opt for the traditional personal pronouns. If they’re not — i.e., they’re just be lazy about mastering the newly devised pronouns — one expects the university to take punitive action against them.
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Vandebilt takes genderism very seriously. In June, the school added gender-reassignment surgeries to students’ insurance plans, and last September the university’s Women’s Center lectured men on “healthy masculinities.”
As for the current move, don’t be surprised if other institutions of higher learning follow Vandebilt’s lead.