Dennis Prager explains his rule for pronouns: he uses them based on outward appearance, not on what someone tells him. He says asking about gender or genitalia is inappropriate, and he won't use preferred pronouns when someone mixes traditionally gendered signals like a beard and a skirt.
My attitude on what, on how to refer to a person is very simple. What do you look like? In, in all of life, do you ever debate, you're checking in your bags at the airport, do you debate whether it's a man or a woman checking you? If it looks like a woman, you, you, you, you assume it's a woman. If it looks like a man, you assume it's a man. On rare occasions, I will admit, and it's happened to most people, You can't tell for some reason, right? Is that a man or a woman? I have said that to my wife on maybe 2 or 3 occasions in 20 years, and that may be more than most people have. It's exceedingly rare that we don't have an immediate impression— this is a man, this is a woman. So if you're a transgender woman, you're a man who thinks you're a woman, You look like a woman, you talk like a woman, you dress like a woman, you have a woman's name. Why would I even think to ask, gee, are you transgender? What genitalia do you have? What, what, what, right? So I don't even know why it comes up. It shouldn't come up. You look like a woman, I think I say she. You look like a man, I say he. But if you want to fake us all out, and trivialize the distinctions between men and women. In other words, you have a beard and you wear a skirt, I'm not going to say she. Then I am playing along with your charade. But my solution is the common sense solution. What do you look like? That's how I refer to you. For the full episode of The Dennis Prager Show, go to pragertopia.com, sign up, and become a full member.
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