The Impact of Gender and Pronoun Use on Unfamiliar Situations: How Language Can Create a More Inclusive Environment

The misuse of personal pronouns when referring to individuals has increased immensely, and as a result, misgendering has become commonplace. This creates uncomfortable social situations and can exacerbate already stressful situations such as meeting new people or traveling to new places. Taking information from my own experiences with these issues when abroad and combining with personal experiences from other individuals, the added stress due to misgendering can be addressed effectively. Data collection occurred in order to address awareness of situations, inclusivity of locations, and language when referring to people. A survey was used as a medium to gather the data. Questions asked related to the relationship between inclusivity and misgendering as well as unfamiliarity and travel. Information gathered in this study yielded two major takeaways: misgendering occurs similarly between individuals familiar and unfamiliar with the knowledge of gender-inclusivity and misgendering, and that further awareness of misgendering should be brought to the public. Further suggestions were created to better address the conclusions. The simplest action is to ask for an individual’s personal pronouns or gender identity when meeting them for the first time. This eliminates the chance of misgendering by unfamiliarity by making the other party familiar with the gender identity. The second suggestion is to use more words that do not address one gender in particular.