Tag Archives: University

Oxford University Tells All Students to Refer to Each Other with Gender-Neutral Pronouns

In the U.K., the Oxford University administration has encouraged students to use the pronoun “ze” instead of “he” or “she” in order to avoid misgendering transgender students.

“Ze” is a gender-neutral pronoun that is typically used to refer to someone whose gender does not fall on a spectrum; this includes genderqueer, bigender and agender students. The conjugation of ze is ze/zir/zir/zirs/zirself. The examples provided by the organization GenderNeutralPronouns are as follows:

  • Ze laughed / I called zir / zir eyes gleam / that object is zirs / ze likes zirself.

Other gender-neutral pronouns include Xe/xem/xyr/xyrs/xemself, and lesser-used variatons such as ne, ve and spivak. Some genderqueer people prefer to use the pronoun “they.”

The university is encouraging students to use “ze” in social settings, and is also encouraging professors to use “ze” when referring to students and historical figures in lectures and seminars.

Purposefully calling a transgender person by the incorrect pronoun is now considered a punishable offense on campus.

Cambridge University has instated a similar gender-neutral pronoun policy. All event speakers who come to Cambridge introduce themselves using gender-neutral pronouns in order to “make the [student] union intersectional,” Cambridge’s welfare officer told a local newspaper.

According to human rights activist Peter Tatchell, “This issue isn’t about being politically correct. It’s about respecting people’s right to define themselves as neither male nor female.”

This new policy raises some questions – does mandating the use of “ze” negate the identities of transgender students who want to be seen on a male-female binary? Does mandating gender-neutral pronouns diminish the work of female activists who have been working hard to have their female identities validated by the male populations on campus?

The policy is not legally binding; administrators maintain that they cannot police whether students use these pronouns in private social settings. But they hope that it will make Oxford a more inclusive environment for people of all genders.

University Challenges: How LGBT Students Suffer

A sobering new survey from the National Union  of Students has found that 1 in 5 LGB students in Britain have been harassed or bullied. The picture is even bleaker for trans students: 1 in 3 of them have suffered abuse on a university campus in the last year.

Almost 4,000 students from 80 different academies participated in the study. Other revelations include the fact that almost 60% of LGBs and a staggering 80% of trans do not feel “completely safe” while at university. Half the trans respondents have seriously thought about dropping out for good, such has been the negativity of their experiences.

The NUS officers responsible for LGB affairs, Finn McGoldrick and Sky Yarlett, said: ‘This research confirms our fears about the impact that isolation, discrimination and coming out has on LGBT students. It’s appalling to hear that LGBT students don’t feel safe in an educational environment and are experiencing bullying just because of who they are.

‘Many LGBT students continue to feel alone in education and society as a whole. Many suffer mental health and financial issues, and all too often we hear cases of LGBT students leaving education altogether as an indirect result of their identity.

‘We can no longer ignore the plight of LGBT students. We absolutely need to enforce zero tolerance policies for homophobic and transphobic behaviour, ‘banter’, and bullying to make sure our campuses are inclusive and that all students, regardless of their sexuality or identity, have a chance to succeed.’

Stonewall’s Head of Education, Luke Tryl, has called upon British universities to take these statistics seriously and ‘implement the recommendations of the report.’ Stonewall is committed to working with the Higher Education system to improve the experience of LGBT students.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has also waded into the debate, calling homophobic abuse ‘always unacceptable and totally wrong.’