apparently an unpopular opinion, but: I don't hate that I say 'does that make sense?' all the time in a professional context, it lets other people into the conversation & gives them the chance to ask questions. maybe sometimes feminised speech patterns are... good? helpful?

idk, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that 'masculine' approaches to the workplace are always the right ones and that women need to adapt to less 'feminine' responses. maybe sometimes collaborative and consensual working is better! I dunno, does that make sense?

And I'm not keen on the way that all these things relate to language in a way to tell women to be more declarative, more dominant, more loud and assertive. Maybe it would be better for men to, idk, listen more? Ask more questions? Leave room for doubt?

Feels like something of a double bind that women were maligned for years for talking too much (nagging! gossiping!) and that now we're in the workplace the way that feminised language has developed as an emollient and a social glue is somehow also 'wrong'.

For my next trick, I will explain why including multiple exclamation marks in work emails is Good and Professional, actually!!!!!

(Please stop notallmen/notonlywomen-ing me -- I'm not saying that only women speak like this or that all men do not, but this speech pattern is absolutely understood generally as feminised, and what's more, women are *more* penalised for using it in the workplace.)

There is a LOT of management/communications training that tells women to be more "masculine", there are heaps of studies showing women are seen as weak, ditzy or not authoritative when they speak like this, and I've taught female students who have been told to write "like a man".