Who would say that after all the horrible things going on in the world, people would really hit the ceiling with something as simple as pronouns?! For the past couple of years, the using of pronouns has become of utmost importance for the LGBTQ+ community to express their real identity and how they want to be addressed by the world.
Celebrities like Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, and Halsey, have expressed publicly the pronouns they want to be addressed with causing both, admiration and backlash (yes, because some people find it very hard to change a few words in their everyday life). Demi Lovato has been quite vocal about their gender identity in the past couple of years, and this time she expressed how they feel today in an interview with GQ Hype Spain.
Demi’s public journey started in 2021 when they announced they identified as non-binary and added they would use they/them pronouns from then on. Just one year later, they expressed that although they preferred they/them pronouns, they didn’t mind the feminine one since they were starting to feel more feminine at the time. Two years have passed since they first came out as non-binary, and Demi has now explained the reason why they’re using both pronouns nowadays.
In the interview, they explain how the constant need to explain themselves to others has been an exhaustive process making it easy to allow others to refer to them as she/her. “I constantly had to educate people and explain why I identified with those pronouns. It was absolutely exhausting. And that is one of the reasons that have led me to also feel comfortable with the feminine pronoun,” said the singer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs9ycT8vRHe/
However, they also made an important remark, and that is that although it has been tiresome for them and they have abided to using their former pronouns that doesn’t mean that should be the case for everybody. “I just got tired. But for that very reason I know that it is important to continue spreading the word. If you misgender me — that’s okay. I accidentally misgender myself sometimes. It’s a huge transition to change the pronouns I’ve used for myself my entire life. And it’s difficult to remember sometimes!”
All in all, what Demi expressed with this change is that language is all about creating a safe space for everybody. There are a lot of people struggling to find themselves in the world and understand who they really are, and a couple of words could make them feel accepted and beloved.
Now this goes beyond pronouns and Demi is well aware of that. Non-binary people aren’t only looking for the right usage of their pronouns, they want recognition in even more basic matters like neutral bathrooms or even paperwork. As they explained “You only have two options, male and female, and I feel like none of that makes sense to me. I see myself conditioned to choose a woman because there are no more. I think this has to change. Hopefully, with time, there will be more options.”
Demi Lovato has received a lot of backlash in the past years claiming that they have been inconsistent with their gender identity, especially now that they have re-adopted their feminine pronouns, but this appreciation is actually false. Although they have been very clear as to why they took the decision, we also have to understand that gender is fluid and that, above all, no one owes an explanation to anyone but themselves.
