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Pronoun pre-study

An email sent to Stanford students this month offered them the opportunity to speak their names into an audio database so that professors and other staff could study up on how to pronounce them, along with giving the pronoun by which they like to be called.

The simple human interaction of saying, "Actually, that's pronounced . . ." is too low-tech, too clumsy, for our time, and that's a shame. Pre-study of student names and gender identities makes everything feel safer and smoother--exactly what colleges don't need.

"Do people know how to pronounce your name correctly?" the Stanford missive opens. "Do you want to clarify what pronouns people should use to refer to you? We are pleased to introduce a new service that gives you the ability to let instructors, administrators, and other students pronounce your name correctly."

I'm sure it's a pain to correct people's pronunciation of your name, just as it's been a pain to repeat, "That's k-a- r-I-n" about 300 days a year.

On top of that, it must be awkward for students and staffers alike to explain that the gender with which one identifies isn't the one the other person sees right off the bat.

But awkward mini-conversations are a giant part of human interaction. And they are part of how we build bigger relationships, making mistakes, correcting them and in the process learning about others and communities with which we're not familiar.

It's an especially worthwhile little moment for college students. We are already in a dangerously hypersensitive era with too many students who think they shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable--by controversial course material, by other people's differing values, by buildings named for people who, despite their accomplishments, did some things that were very wrong. They might feel "triggered," or that college is not a "safe space" for them.

Bulletin: There is no safe space. And you're better off without one, anyway.

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Karin Klein is a freelance journalist in Orange County, California.

Editorial on 08/31/2016

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