There should be a specific field on both student and faculty profiles for individuals to add in their preferred pronouns. It does not have to be a mandatory field, but the option to have your pronouns listed either beside or under the profile name would be nice. Ideally this would not only show up when you click on the profile, but also be in lighter letters beside the name when comments on lessons or discussions are being made. We as a society are getting better at normalizing the use of personal pronouns in introductions, not just for trans folks but cisgender people as well. It would be really nice if Populi decided to make this important shift towards inclusivity too.
This is critical because not stating pronouns during introductions supports the precedent that there is a societal "norm" for how a male or female should look, which we should be able to assume pronouns based upon. However, this is not the case. It is important that we realized that all people can wear makeup or have short hair or make any other choice with their bodies; and humans do not need to stay confined within the status quo that has been impressed upon us. Furthermore, only encouraging those who do not identify with the gender assigned at their birth to state pronouns is only alienating them more. If 10 people are introducing themselves in a Populi discussion thread and only one states their pronouns then they are going to stick out from the group way more than if everyone were to quickly throw their pronouns into the chat.
Thanks!
