The video educates sailors on how to “affirm” someone’s gender identity.
QUICK FACTS:
- Video footage from a pronoun instructional video produced by the Navy went viral Monday due to its progressive take on language in the workplace.
- The footage shows a lesson teaching sailors how to use “right” pronouns to “affirm” someone’s gender identity.
- The video indicates that the use of someone’s preferred pronouns is a way of accepting and respecting fellow service members.
- Inclusive language is crucial for doing just that, the video explains: “Instead of saying something like ‘Hey guys,’ you can say, ‘Hey everybody,'” Rozon explains.
- The instructional materials also encourage sailors to create a safe space for those around them, saying that inclusive language can create such an environment.
- Sailors were also encouraged to include pronouns in emails and when introducing themselves as a way of diminishing the risk of misgendering someone.
WHAT THE VIDEO ADVISED:
- “Using the right pronouns is a simple way to affirm someone’s identity,” Jony Rozon, an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, says in footage of the video posted online.” It is a signal of acceptance and respect.”
- However, if misgendering happens, the video says there are steps to take: “You correct yourself and move on, or you accept the correction and move on,” says Conchy Vasquez, an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. “The most important thing I can tell you is, do not put the burden of making you feel good about your mistake on the person you just misgendered.”
- While misgendering is terrible, one must not pressure another person into divulging that person’s pronouns, according to the video: “Some people may be going through the process of discovery, and they are not ready yet to tell you what their pronouns are, and that’s OK,” according to Vasquez.
BACKGROUND:
- The push for “woke” progressive trends in the military are a threat to unity and a catalyst for inefficiency within the armed forces, according to active-duty combat-arms office Robert Berg.
- The Washington Examiner reported they were unable to find evidence of pronoun or safe space training for other countries’ armed forces.
