pronoun

From IndieWeb

This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.


A pronoun is a word that people often use to refer to other people or objects instead of their names; on the indieweb you can express which pronouns should be used to refer to you. English examples include she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs.

Why

Why put your pronouns in your profile? Some reasons summarized from this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/jaythenerdkid/status/861666628160765952

  • normalize the idea of declaring pronouns
  • challenge the assumption that everyone is the gender they present as
  • challenge the idea that everyone is cis until proven otherwise
  • remove ambiguity - people will know what to call you by

IndieWeb Examples

Implementation Examples

Publishing:

  • Former example: h-card as a service added pronoun fields (with auto import from h-card) on 2016-06-27

Consuming code:

  • Authl will parse the h-card of a logged-in user to provide a user profile to the site operator, and uses the p-pronouns property as human-readable pronouns. This can be seen in operation on fluffy's user profile page.
  • ...

Silo Examples

Pronoun Badges

Pronoun badges are physical pins, stickers, or buttons which attendees of events can attach to their lanyards or clothing to display their pronouns. Below are some examples of pronoun pins used at various events.

IndieWebCamp

Since many conferences are normalizing explicit self-display of personal pronouns with stickers, labels pins, we provide pronoun pins at IndieWebCamps too!

  • the inner black line represents the visible edge of the front of the button
  • the small white letters are visible on the side of the button

Design brainstorming:

  • use non-traditional or ungendered colors (see above examples)
    • consider using a color palette that accommodates various forms of colorblindness. see The viridis color palettes for an example of deriving an accessible color palette.
      • decided to not prioritize this over other factors like using our brand colors, since the information conveyed by the color is also conveyed via other prominent methods (text, shape/size of shadow)
  • print "indieweb.org/pronoun" in small print curved along the border (readable at in-person conversational distance) to provide a reference to find out more about where the pin came from
  • around the rim of the button, include links to the code of conduct, list of events, etc
  • ...


Donut.js

Donut.js has provided pronoun stickers for the meetups.

Sticker text:

  • "my pronoun:"
    • "he"
    • "she"
    • "they"
    • "ask me"


pronounribbons.org

Ribbon text:

  • "my pronouns are:"
    • "he/him"
    • "she/her"
    • "they/their"
    • "________"

pronoun stickers

The artwork below was created by Justine Arreche for other events to use. The artwork can be downloaded here.

Sticker text:

  • "my pronoun:"
    • "he"
    • "she"
    • "they"
    • "ask me"

There is deliberately no blank write-in option due to the risk of it being misused.

TravisCI

Button text:

  • "my pronoun:"
    • "he"
    • "she"
    • "they"
    • "ask me"

via @ctrlaltjustine

XOXO

XOXO has provided pronoun pins a number of years.

Button text:

  • Pronouns
    • he | him
    • she | her
    • they | them
    • ask me!

Pin text:

  • "I use _____ pronouns"
    • he / him
    • she / her
    • they / their
  • Please ask me my pronouns

The lack of distinguishing shapes or colors and the curly text caused these pronouns to get some negative feedback from attendees that it was difficult to read peoples' pronoun pins.

Techfed Nashville

Button text:

  • He Him His
  • She Her Hers
  • They Them Their
  • ___ ___ ___

Devconf.us

Devconf.us provided pronoun stickers as a sticker sheet.

Sticker text:

  • He Him His
  • She Her Hers
  • They Them Their

Lesbians Who Tech

Button text:

  • He/Him
  • She/Her
  • They/Them
  • #lwtsummit wrapped around the bottom

Affect Conf

Sticker text:

  • Pronoun
    • he
    • she
    • they
    • ask

DevOpsDays

DevOpsDays conferences have options for:

  • he/him
  • she/her
  • they/them

For example, DevOpsDays London stickers can be seen on this Tweet https://twitter.com/_AlexYates_/status/1042706442086756352

Brainstorming

Markup

Several ways to mark-up pronouns are discussed on Microformats.org’s h-card Brainstorming: Pronouns

See and contribute pronoun markup research and brainstorming to:

FAQ

Why not preferred pronoun

The reason we don't use "preferred gender pronoun" is because that can imply that the pronoun isn't their true pronoun.

Follow-up: Would "personal pronoun" be acceptable? As there is an implied "personal choice" aspect in that people are being offered physical pins/stickers for pronouns from which to choose from (sometimes write-in their own).

See Also

Retrieved from "https://indieweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=pronoun&oldid=85866"