When people talking about their gender pronouns, why do people use all 3 components?
For example, I identify myself as a male, so I understand the use of "HE", but why people use "HE/HIM/HIS"? Is it possible to have your gender pronoun as "HE/HER/THEM"?
(FYI, I'm not a native English speaker but fluent)
People who have gender identities that conform to their biological sex (oft referred to as "cisgendered") can show solidarity with the trans community by offering our own pronouns whenever appropriate, thereby helping to normalize the practice. If all trans people used "he," "she," or "they," simply giving a nomative pronoun would allow the listener to extrapolate all other pronouns. However, some trans people prefer to use Neopronouns, which don't always declinate in a intuitive way, such as e/em/es or thon/thon/thons. Neopronoun users give their nomative, accusitive and predicative possessive pronouns out of necessity, so those of us using standard pronouns follow suit.
There are now a number of additional pronouns, mostly used by people who identify as non-binary (neither 100% male, nor 100% female, or a third gender). Most people are not familiar with them, so don't know how to use them when only one is presented. If one pronoun is "xe" or "chis", what are the others? Can you work out the rules without being told?
The generally accepted pronouns are not regular, in fact they're highly irregular so they have to be memorised. Most people have not had enough exposure to these additional pronouns to have memorised them and be familiar with them.
This is why two, three, or even the full set of five pronouns will be mentioned.
Not all people want others to use the standard pronouns, whether masculine feminine or plural. Other possible pronouns exist such as ze, hir, zirs etc. Many people are unfamiliar with the usage of those and what the object and possessive forms are, so it makes sense to specify all of the ones you want to be called by in each circumstance.
The three pronoun format (e.g., "he/him/his") is an obvious and hard-to-misunderstand way of communicating a person's personal gender pronouns. It is just convention, and even then, the two pronoun format (e.g., "he/him", dropping the possessive) is even more popular now. Just "he" wouldn't be very obvious, and could even be mistaken for "she" when spoken. And, as an aside, I've never seen more than 3 forms of the same pronoun listed either, since that would just increase the amount of words used without making the message any more clear.
The reason personal gender pronouns are even stated at all is primarily fueled by the LGBTQ community, which has many members who are gender nonconforming and whose pronouns cannot be (easily) guessed. However, stating pronouns also benefits people outside the LGBTQ community, such as anyone with a gender-neutral name or appearance.
According to an NPR interview (no relation to me):
Why are pronouns typically given in the format "she/her" or "they/them" rather than just "she" or "they"?
The different iterations reflect that pronouns change based on how they're used in a sentence. And the "he/him" format is actually shorter than the previously common "he/him/his" format.
"People used to say all three and then it got down to two," Heng-Lehtinen [deputy executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality] laughs. He says staff at his organization was recently wondering if the custom will eventually shorten to just one pronoun. "There's no real rule about it. It's absolutely just been habit," he says.
But he notes a benefit of using he/him and she/her: He and she rhyme. "If somebody just says he or she, I could very easily mishear that and then still get it wrong."
The interview also explains what it means when there are two different pronouns listed, like "she/they": it's used to indicate the person wants to be referred to with either/both pronoun sets. (In the case of "she/they", that's "she/her" and "they/them".) While "he/her/them" (mixing cases of pronouns) would not be used, some people do go by the pronouns "he/she/they", like one person in the article How To Affirm the People in Your Life Who Use Multiple Sets of Pronouns. Another rare occurrence is people who go by "any pronouns", which is similar to "he/she/they" but technically includes neopronouns.
See also my answer to Is it correct to say your pronouns are "she/they" or should it be "she/them"?.
Isn't it patently obvious that it would not be she/him/they? Or could it? Seems like one pronoun would be sufficient to get the message across. I have only seen she/hers/her. Haven't seen any men (is that ok to say?) doing it.
There are badges and T-shirts on sale, each displaying the 3 forms of a pronoun, e.g. "she/her/hers". So that sort of set of 3 forms is what people display (those people who do that sort of thing), so that's what people see, so with positive feedback that's what's become popular.
Why those badges/T-shirts are made like that, I don't know -- that's a different question. It could be argued that another form, the -self form, should be included (e.g. himself, herself, xyrself). Then again, it could be argued that not only is that -self form needless, so is the -s form (e.g. hers).
