Happy new semester, Smith College!
As we all know, a new semester here at Smith means new classes for everyone, and new pronouns for at least one person you know. In an effort to get to know their students and try and prevent misgendering, virtually every professor has decided to ask for everyone’s pronouns on the first day of class. This bold, but ultimately performative and empty move to support transgender students seems like a great step towards inclusivity. However, after thinking about it for longer than five seconds, it becomes clear that this also forces every single transgender or gender non-conforming student to make a choice: they either come out to their entire class, or explicitly misgender themself.
Some students, however, applaud this effort for a more inclusive classroom. “A lot of my teachers and classmates in high school were very transphobic,” said one first-year, “So I stayed closeted, and I was planning on doing the same here, at least until I got more comfortable. But during the pronoun circle, the overwhelming shame at the thought of outright misgendering myself really pushed me to out myself instead. So now I get addressed with my correct pronouns about 50% of the time, and I’ve never felt more respected!”
The trend of asking for pronouns doesn’t solely benefit transgender students either. While it certainly helps the extremely specific subset of students who are comfortable being out in all their classes, for professors the pronoun circle has other benefits.
“I find it’s a very useful way to make sure everyone’s paying attention to my horribly boring syllabus presentation,” said one Smith professor, who chose to remain anonymous but wants us to disclose that her pronouns are she/her and she fully supports the LGBT+ community. “Everyone’s tired on the first day, but the instant shock of fear over being forced to disclose very personal information to a room full of strangers really wakes some of those girls--and other gender minorities-- up.”
Acknowledging that forcibly outing students in class isn’t the ultimate solution to transphobia, Smith has now decided to expand their approach to gender inclusivity. Their unprecedented new policy aims to force students to out themselves not just in their classes, but throughout the entire Smith College campus. This new approach to inclusivity has even affected the Ponderer’s own staff: this article was originally scheduled to be published in September, but was delayed due to our reporter being unable to get into the library until they explained their gender identity to the OneCard scanner in excruciating detail. Students who use no pronouns continue to be trapped outside, as the scanner seems to be programmed to consider pronouns a required field.
Nancy '25, the only student able to explain her gender to the scanner
Which did you choose this semester: did you come out to your entire class? Or, did you lie and hate yourself? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments