The sender was a family member who works in the academic community. I am assuming the "gendering" text block was added automatically by the institution's email server, as this person is a strong conservative who grew up under communism.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there, other than that it got me thinking all kinds of things.
Like for example, what happens if a white transsexual is 'misgendered' by a POC? How does the complaint process go then?
I was thinking this also: what if — when I meet a person who introduces him or herself along with a "nonconventional" (or "nonobvious") gender specification — I stop the conversation right there and say "I notice your gender preference is one that I may have trouble remembering to use; for my own safety and yours, I need to know before we go any further what sort of consequences will you impose upon me if I accidentally misgender you?
Another thing I was wondering was this, what if I state that I wish to be referred to as "that n-word."
Many other interesting ideas flooded through my mind as I contemplated the brave new world toward which we are all hurtling, now that Rush Limbaugh is no longer here to hold these practices up to ridicule.
Signature blocks are created by the user. In academia there is tremendous peer pressure to add pronouns to one’e email signature block. Sometimes its easier to get along by going along.