The politically correct, grammatically incorrect, campus police are at it again – this time on Harvard’s campus. The Ivy League school now allows students to pick their preferred gender pronouns. According to the Harvard Crimson, this action is in place to “make students more comfortable with their gender identity.”
While some believe that institutions of higher education should be focusing on higher education, Harvard has decided to use made up verbiage and pronouns that grammatically speaking, are plural and not singular, in order to increase diversity. Some of the pronouns that students can choose from include, “ze, hir, hirs” and “they, them, theirs.”
While students can also choose from the pronouns directly related to being either a male or female, students can select from a wide array of options and can even make up their own pronouns.
This move comes out of a collaboration with multiple campus affiliations, such as the Harvard Trans* Task Force and the College’s Office of BGLTQ Student Life. In addition to making people feel more comfortable with their gender identity, the additional pronouns may have been added to deter microaggressions.
According to the Boston Globe, Genny Beemyn, the director of the Stonewall Center said misidentifying an individual’s gender is a “microaggression.” This means that accidentally calling a woman a “she” who identifies as a “ze” is offensive and discrimination.
A person identified as Henri G-D ’16, told the Harvard Crimson that misidentifying a person’s gender can lead to “awkward conversations” for students.
Harvard is not the first school to encourage political correctness through the use of self-selected gender pronouns. Recently, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville encouraged its students and faculty to use gender neutral pronouns, prompting intense criticism from several state lawmakers.
Michael Hensley, the chair of UT’s Young Americans for Freedom, released a statement saying in part, “I will respect those who consider themselves transgender—but I will not change my entire vocabulary as suggested by the Office for Diversity and Inclusion. Here in East Tennessee, there is a way we can respect one another and engage in civil discourse without making such radical changes.”
As the culture has shifted towards political correctness, the use of gender neutral pronouns is continuing to show up on campuses across the nation. If it has not hit your campus already, gender neutral pronouns might be coming to your school next.
This article is from Red Alert Politics’ Campus Correspondent Program. Would you like to contribute a story from your school? Apply here to be a Campus Correspondent for RAP!
