NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, has issued its first-ever gender-neutral certificate to ‘Mx.’ Anindita Mukherjee.
NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, has issued its first-ever gender-neutral certificate to 'Mx.' Anindita Mukherjee.
What makes this certificate gender-neutral is the use of the honorific 'Mx.' instead of the usual Mr., Ms., and Mrs.
The title ‘Mx.’ (pronounced “mux” or “mix”) does not specify the gender of the individual referred to. It is commonly used by people who identify outside the conventional masculine-feminine gender binary.
The person who made this happen at Nalsar was none other than the student whose certificate it is, Anindita Mukherjee (Mukherjee prefers to be referred to as "they" instead of "he" or "she"). Here’s how they did it.
Anindita Mukherjee
"I made one request to the university administration, and the change was made. For me, this speaks to the immense power administrations have in making lives easier or more difficult for students. The fact that it is presumed I had to struggle points to how rarely we see them making life easier, and how common it is for meaningless hurdles to be created. This is the moment at which I doff my hat at NALSAR's present administration," they said.
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"The battle on the Mr. and Mrs. front has more to do with marital status and how honorifics are used to place women within roles. To use a gender-neutral honorific serves a somewhat different function, I think," Mukherjee further said in their email.
"Unfortunately, the way in which we name persons is also gendered, so there are other methods by which determinations can be made of the gender of a person.
Using a gender-neutral title in that context is more of a statement in that you're either saying that you do not identify as either a man or a woman, or you're saying that you think your gender is irrelevant in that context. Whether that assertion alone can undo the structures that constrain women professionally, I doubt, but it does open up spaces for conversations," they said.
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