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Singular they rule
(pawb.social)
ALT TEXT:
- Panel 1: A person with the text "Singular 'they'" written on them smiling with open arms.
- Panel 2: "Singular 'They'" beaten up by others who said, "Singular they is ungrammatical. It's too confusing," "How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular," and "Every pronoun should only have one purpose."
- Panel 3: "You" hiding from the mob who was beating "Singular 'They'"
- Panel 4: "German 'Sie'" hiding with even more fear next to "You"
I honestly have never understood why people take the effort to write he/she instead of singular they? Like it's 2 words instead of 1, why bother? Even in academic articles which typically have word count limits lol
Not an expert, but I've followed the growth of this word a little on-and-off.
Disambiguity can be important in a language. But it's complicated. Many times we use "he", "she", or "he/she", gender is not required. Back in the 1800's, the standard was to use "he" when gender was uncertain, unimportant, or ambiguous to a conversation. Obviously it had to do with the presumed defaultness of the male gender.
For a while, people toyed with "it" or "which". Honestly, my personal feeling is that it was the way insult could easily be taken (or given) with "it" that it died out.
"They" probably should not be used in cases a less ambiguous word is more appropriate... But that's when the bigots come out. In most cases, the most appropriate word to reference a person is that person's preferred pronoun if you know it, even if it's a genderfluid pronoun. Why? It's significantly more descriptive than "him" or "her". But these same people who consider "they" too general would break down to acknowledge any person having a gender identity different from their birth sex (and probably their genital birth sex for intersex folks, at that).
What all the offense is REALLY about is that they want to pretend some people are fiction, or subhuman. I think "it" would settle well with those folks. Which is why I'm glad that isn't a default.
In German, there is no singular they, so enbies often have to use "it". Fun times, really.
https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/1382981
If I have to write a he/she, I usually write it as "(s)he", but I usually avoid that too, because to me it seems like I assume a male, but maybe female, which defacto puts an implication on the term that women are not as good as, or equal to their male counterparts.
The whole thing is ridiculous.
The only argument I've ever heard from anyone about why they don't want to use "they" as a singular pronoun is that it feels wrong, or that it's a plural pronoun (which it is not, and never has been). Neither argument is valid IMO, and the entire practice shifts the discomfort of the chosen pronoun from listener to speaker or vice-versa, depending on the situation. If someone wants you to use the pronouns they/them, and you have any respect for them at all, you'll do it, and suffer that discomfort for their benefit.