Anyone hear of "pronoun buttons"?

[suzifrommd]

One of my students came out as gender fluid this week. She's got a set of buttons that tell people what pronouns she wants used on any given day. If she (or he or hir) feels male on any given day, she wears a he/him button. If she feels female, she wears a she/her button. If she's feeling androgynous, she wears a button with androgynous pronouns.

Has anyone heard of this before?

What do we think of asking people to use a different set of pronouns based on what someone is feeling on any given day?

[alabamagirl]

Well, I'd do it. Use whatever pronouns they had on their button that day, I mean. But I do wonder how many cis people would actually comply with such a request. Or how many people would even notice what the button says without specifically having their attention directed at it. How well does it work for them? Did they say?

[ativan]

These buttons are available at my therapists office and I have seen them at the center where my psychologist is.
I see nothing wrong with them, but I do see that having expectations that a button will solve the pronoun thing, might not work.
People may not notice them, or even ignore them, still calling a person whatever they are comfortable with.
I personally looked at the half dozen or so ones at my therapists office.
She told me to grab the one I wanted, but I had to laugh,.. I told her I would pretty much need one of each.
I've seen them around a few times in the college town near me.
Ativan

[Asche]

As others have said, just having a button doesn't mean people will automatically gender you the way you want.  People aren't used to hunting around for a button to figure out what pronouns, and nouns, and even adjectives to use when talking about you.

It gets even worse if they see it one day and train themselves to do it one way, only to have to retrain themselves the next day.

Me, I have enough trouble using the correct gendered words even in cis society.  (I've found myself saying "her father" when I meant "his mother.")  I think I'd be hopelessly lost if I had to deal with someone whose gender changed daily.

And if you were talking about the person when zie wasn't around and you hadn't seen that day's button, how would you know which gender to use?

I think this is a recipe for getting misgendered.  (Of course, if that's what floats your boat....)

[skin]

I honestly think it's a bit pointless.  When would you ever refer to a person using a third person pronoun while within view of their button? 

[Kimberley Beauregard]

I don't mind being referred to as "he", "she" or "they" but people outside of Chameleons groups call me "he" and always will.  I think it simplifies things a bit.

[Cindy]

I think it is a great idea for a young person trying to get their head around fluidity. remember kids can and do adapt to this sort of stuff a lot quicker than us old phoggies.

Now a question for Suzi. Has this person managed to approach their fluidity because that have such an awesome teacher who has lead by brave example?