Dear Hinge, Sharing My Pronouns on My Profile Makes Zero Sense
Thoughts on performative corporate wokeness and cultural sanity
About a week ago I decided to take a morning scroll. I went through my social media and dating apps, motivated by the typical mixture of loneliness, boredom, and hopelessly naive optimism. Hinge has been my go-to for dating. (I’m too cheap for E-harmony and not nearly hot enough for Tinder). I opened it up to find a pop-up screen containing a prompt about updating my profile.
It said that “in order to make Hinge a more inclusive space we recommend specifying your preferred pronouns.” (quoting from memory)
I thought this was odd since in my profile I had already stated that I was man. It says so clearly next to my age. I also declared that I was looking for women.
It seemed even more odd when I considered the fact that all conversations on dating apps are one-on-one. The only pronouns typically used are I, me, and you, unless referring to someone else.
Perhaps Hinge wants me to be inclusive of people who refer to themselves, and the people they’re talking to, in the third person? Maybe they’re the same ones who might use gender pronouns that are opposite of the sex that they identify clearly on their profiles?
