They / Them Pronouns Are Confusing

About

They / Them Pronouns Are Confusing is a phrasal template used to mock cisgender people for sincerely or insultingly claim to not understand someone's personal pronouns by comparing them to a nonsequitur and/or abstract image or concept.

Origin

While there have been variations of the phrase "pronouns are confusing" online prior to the meme, the template did not arise until fall 2020. On September 19th, 2020, Twitter ^[1] user @yoongiuvvu tweeted, "americans be like 'they/them pronouns are confusing' bro what the fuck is a sophomore" (shown below).

Spread

Jokes about cisgender people not understanding grew in popularity following Elon Musk tweeting^[2] a joke about gender pronouns and calling them an "esthetic nightmare." On December 16th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @wally_zone tweeted a series of pictures mocking his confusion and writing, "cis people learning to pronounce X Æ A-12 vs cis people learning to refer to a singular person as 'they.'" The tweet received more than 5,000 likes and 840 retweets in less than four months (shown below).

In February 2021, the meme began spreading with the format "'they/them pronouns are so confusing'" followed by a question. On February 5th, 2021, Twitter user @fiImilf tweeted,^[4] "'they/them pronouns are so confusing' why the fuck cant we print more money" (shown below, left). The tweet received more than 173,000 likes and 18,900 retweets in less than two months. That day, Twitter^[5] user @froggyandrew tweeted, "'they/them pronouns are so confusing' what the fuck is lacrosse," which received more than 256,000 likes and 28,000 retweets in less than two months (shown below, right).

Throughout February and March 2021, people continued to post variations of the meme, adding photographs and asking what the photographs contain, implying that if cisgender people understand the image, they should be able to comprehend they/them pronouns. For example, on February 21st, Twitter^[6] user @cisjender tweeted a photo of a screenshot from the video game World of Warcraft, "'pronouns are confusing' bro wtf is this." The tweet received more than 213,000 likes and 33,000 retweets in less than one month (shown below).

On March 11th, 2021, the website Junkee^[7] published a report on the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References