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BONUS E-EDITION 5 1 2 1 PAG 8 A personal pronoun is a form of speech that stands in for a per- son or group of people. She is having opinions online; they are fighting in the com- ments; and, of course, as in the Prince song made fa- mous by Sinead Compares 2 Nonbinary pronouns as well often the singular and have become widespread. A 2019 Pew Research study found already that 1 in 5 Ameri- cans knew someone who uses nonbinary pronouns. And then there are neo- pronouns. A neopronoun can be a word created to serve as a pronoun without expressing gender, like and A neopronoun can also be a so-called pro- in which a preexist- ing word is drafted into use as a pronoun.

Noun-self pro- nouns can refer to animals so your pronouns can be and Others refer to fantasy characters or even just com- mon slang, like How prevalent are neopronouns? Not very yet. A recent survey of pro- noun use among 40,000 LGBTQ young people by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing sui- cide among queer and trans youth, found that one-quar- ter of them used nonbinary pronouns. (Participants were recruited from late 2019 through early 2020 by ads on social media.) Most said they used common pro- nouns like and Just said they used neopronouns, including and often in combination with other pro- nouns. So, is this for real? Yes. And around any leading -edge behavior on- line, trolling, high jinks and bad faith collide indistinctly.

For those unfamiliar with the culture surrounding neopronouns right now, likely impossible to distin- guish between playful, deeply mean- ingful and people be- ing mean. Many neopronoun users are dead serious and are also part of online communi- ties that are quick to react swiftly to offenses. They are deeply versed in the style and mores of contemporary identity politics conversa- tions. A popular Twitch streamer who goes by AndiVMG recently apolo- gized after jokingly tweeting that her pronouns were which led many neopronoun users to ac- cuse her of transphobic in- validation of their identities. AndiVMG did not respond to a request for comment for this article but wrote on Twitter, meant to mock people who use neo- pronouns.

However I have since educated myself on the matter and spoken to people who use neopro- nouns and I see why what I said was Critics persist. not going to call or just bc think its one TikToker wrote in a video caption. are a form of identity not an But the difference between an aesthetic and an identity, anyway? How do you know pronouns? Neopronoun users may publish strict boundaries and preferences around be- haviors, enthusiasms and hatreds. Many of them have defined lists of behaviors they find unacceptable around privacy or cruelty sometimes referred to as lists, short for not which they of- ten outline in posts on Carrd, a service that makes single-page websites. Carrd grew in scope during the protest move- ments of 2020; these days, many of its more than 2 mil- lion pages are used primarily for expressions of fandom and personhood.

So a social media bio will often include a link to an identity resume on Carrd, often with a pro- noun usage guide. (One sam- ple: likes things belong to wants to work by One Carrd explains neo- pronouns at length. In its FAQ section, it provides a re- sponse used often in the neopronoun community when talking to people who claim neopronouns real literally every word is made up! Neo- pronouns are real because they carry meaning and are understood by Many people who use neopronouns just use one set. They select a hand- ful and show off their collec- tions on websites like Pronouny.xyz, a site that provides usage examples for neopronouns. Users make their own Pronouny pages, which includes self, and bunself.

if I have too many the creator wrote. can use just one set or just them if too Why are neopronouns so heated right now? Online conversation gath- ered steam in November with some contentious Tik- Toks about neopronouns. neopronouns are gonna break the English lan- said a young Tik- Toker in November who goes by in a video that racked up hundreds of thousands of likes.) But noun-self pronouns are not exactly new; they emerged from an online hot- bed for avant-garde ideas around gender expression. noun-self pronouns emerged on Tumblr starting around 2012, said Jason a linguist and queer scholar who has a substantial following on TikTok for videos about gen- der and identity issues. a unique way of ex- ploring understand- ing of their own (who takes the nonbinary references them- self) said the social media discourse around neoprou- nouns to some ex- tent around 2014 before resurfacing recently; they theorized that increasing in- terest may be a result of the coronavirus forcing people indoors.

we go about in the world, we have to perform gender in ways that are typi- cal and normative over and over and over again, but be- cause a lot of us have been in our houses for the last year, we had to per- form they said. the link between the perfor- mance and the self is weak- I think this is weird or not OK! OK. Horror at noun-self pronoun usage is so common that it has spurred a meme in the neo- pronoun community. In it, people compare neopro- nouns to all kinds of things we take for granted. Neopronoun users say new terms allow them to en- gage with gender or other aspects of identity in a way that aligns with how they feel.

In some cases, neopro- nouns are met with frustra- tion because their use shows people divorcing themselves from continuing, unfinished gender business between men and women. Neopronoun users are try- ing to something new and different that have the same soci- etal said, as the traditional gender bi- nary: almost like gender Can a pronoun address identity beyond gender? Considering their Tumblr origins, not surprising that many noun-self pro- noun user overlap with fandoms, including anime, K-pop and Minecraft YouTuber stars like Dream. Intense fandoms are rife with neopronoun use. Neopronouns are also prominent among some communities of young peo- ple who identify as neurodi- vergent, which includes diagnoses or descriptions like syndrome and autism. said that one reason people on the au- tism spectrum may use neopronouns could be cause they feel like their re- lationship with gender is different than the neurotyp- ical Neopronouns give people who feel different from the rest of the world a way to avoid all its boxes at once.

What do neopronoun users say about all this? We wanted people to tell us in their own words about why and how they used neo- pronouns. Because they are very young, we agreed to let them use only their first names. neurodivergent, I tend to perceive how a word makes me feel rather than just seeing the noun- self user Gum, 13, wrote in a direct message on Twitter. chose my pro- nouns because they remind me of clowns. Clowns and harlequin dolls make me very neurodivergent, you are more likely to have a complicated relationship with your gender identity and expression, and pro- nouns are just one part of gender Elijah, 17, wrote.

I first encountered them I actually agree with wrote one 15-year-old neopronoun user. I met a lot of people online who used them and decided to edu- cate myself further and real- ized that they were perfectly valid and just another way of expressing your gender to others. I chose the ones I use as I feel a connection to them, EG pro- nouns I feel a connection to vampires and that in a way feels connected to my What are the limits of neopronouns? Limits? What are those? Some people even use emo- jis. A 2018 post on the Tumblr emojiselfpronouns explains how the paw emoji may be used as a pronoun. And how would you say that anyway? were not meant to be said in the first the post explained.

Emoji- self pronouns meant to be fun, and are meant to stand against what we see as and But there actually are some limits. Neopronoun users have shut down the notion of using terms related to Black Lives Matter, like as neopronouns, ar- guing that it is inappropriate for people to use these terms in this way. Others have claimed that using as a neopronoun is culturally appropriative from pagan communities (this claim, as they say, is disputed). And not everyone in the wider queer community sup- ports noun-self pronouns. a trans man, I think neopronouns are getting way out of Asa Pegler, 17, said in a TikTok from November.

By Ezra Marcus New York Times neopronounsA guide to NEW YORK TIM ES ILLUSTRATI ONS For those unfamiliar with the culture, likely impossible to distinguish between playful, deeply meaningful and people being mean.