Things I don’t understand

Gender pronouns

My first confusion is with the current trend to include gender pronouns in communications. People have taken to identifying their gender in their signature blocks, on name tags, business cards, and so on. I get that in doing so they are aligning themselves with acceptance of freedom in representation and in acknowledgement that gender should not/cannot be presumed. But I don’t understand how inclusion of the pronouns at the head of a personal communication actually helps. Surely the author will refer to themselves as “I/me”, and the responder will use “you.” The only time he/her/she/him will come into play is when the third person is invoked. So, I don’t see how these pronouncements help.

American accents

I don’t understand why I don’t hear strong American accents through movies and TV shows, yet their accent is immediately apparent when meeting with someone face to face. What’s going on with that?

Halloween pumpkins

Why? Just Why?

Mental Health “experts”

I do not understand why people think they should speak as treatment experts about conditions and experiences simply because they have personal experience as sufferers. I see the benefits of them communicating how they feel and how the condition manifests in their lives, but treatment advice is a step too far.

We seem to accept the right of those with mental issues to take on a spokesperson role even though mental health is a uniquely individual experience and so unlikely to be experienced entirely consistently for different people. But the biggest problem for me is the notion that experience with a condition is reasonable to equate with credentials for expertise with its treatment. If it were a physical malady … a broken arm, a heart condition, etc, we would never assume that having experience with the condition equates to treatment expertise. Typically, if help were required, there would be consultation with an actual treatment expert, who was not necessarily a sufferer of the same issue.

I must say, mental health concerns, invisible and stigmatised as they often are, do need to be spoken about openly. We all need to know about the experiences, multifaceted challenges, and how these issues disrupt lives. We need to understand how we can behave and support people who have mental health needs …. but let us not confuse this with a playbook for treatment… let us not encourage those with mental health or neurodivergent diagnoses to see themselves as therapists. Many resources and public speaking events are based on this very flawed notion. I do not understand how this situation has come about.