Pronoun Identification, Civil Codes, and Symbolic Structures

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 This image reads “My pronouns are assigned by God” in bold letters and is decorated with imagery of the American flag on its borders, with a blue border and three white stars lining the left side, and a white stripe between two red stripes on the right side. The bold lettering reflects a strong standpoint and positioning on this statement, and the usage of American flag imagery reflects an alignment with patriotism or nationalist pride. The most striking part of this statement is the term “assigned by God” because it directly challenges the underlying meaning of this statement, which is that one is assigning their own pronouns to themselves by stating what they are to others. This statement undermines this deeper meaning by stating that they are assigned by another body rather than by the individual, and the fact that this body is a religious figure, “God”, also reflects an alignment to a religious belief. 



I view this image as a “civil code” that contains weighted symbolic content that reflects a structuring of national communities. Alexander’s description of the structuring of national communities evoked the division between our liberal and conservative national communities on the issue of gender identity politics. Currently in the United States, there is intense social and political division about the acceptance of diverse gender identities, which we are seeing reflected in recent legislation. Though this division in beliefs between national communities is broad and complex, a distinct example of this larger division can be seen in usage of pronouns. The liberal community is known to embrace and affirm pronoun usage, whereas the conservative community has often demonstrated refusal to acknowledge the validity of pronouns. 


Alexander discusses civil societies as containing an “internal symbolic structure of civil code” (Alexander, 2006:55), that creates social groupings that organize individuals and place them inside or outside of a social grouping. Discussing civil societies, he describes members of national communities that “firmly believe that “the world”, and this notably includes their own nation, is filled with people who either do not deserve freedom and communal support or are not capable of sustaining them” (Alexander, 2006:55). I reflected on Alexander’s discussion of the symbolic contents of civil codes and chose this image because its statement exemplifies both that civil codes represent larger symbolic codes that are created on the basis of social structures of exclusion and inclusion, and at the same time, civil codes are rich with weighted symbolic contents. This image is an example of a rejection of the validity of pronouns by professing a commitment to a religious belief. As Durkheim describes, the alignment with a religious belief “presuppose[s] a classification of all things, real and idea, of which men think, into two classes or opposed groups” (Edels and Appelrouth:Durkheim, 151), which creates the polarity of sacred and profane beliefs. Though the practice of this civil code in our communities is expressed through a statement, “My pronouns are…” this statement represents a deeper history of interconnected beliefs between religious, political, and social groups. Therefore, a statement of one’s pronouns represents a commitment to a larger civil structure: “..The code’s symbolic contents are, in fact, the historical residue of a long and diverse series of nitty-gritty movements in social, intellectual, and religious life-classical Republican ideas, of Judaism, Christianity, and Protestantism of Enlightenment and liberal thought, of the revolutionary, socialist, and common law traditions” (Alexander, 2006:56). Even within the movements of these religious and political groupings, there are still more complex structures within them that this statement represents an alignment to, such as the conservative community within Christianity and Republican ideas. 



Works Cited 


Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Edles, Laura Desfor, and Scott Appelrouth. 2015. Sociological Theory in the Classical Era: Text and Readings. Third edition. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Anon. n.d. “Amazon.Com: My Pronouns Are Assigned by God Bumper Sticker My Pronouns Are Assigned by God Sticker Decal : Automotive.” Retrieved March 28, 2025 (https://www.amazon.com/Pronouns-Assigned-Bumper-Sticker-Decal/dp/B0C8Y7M33H).

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