Grammar nerd post! I know this touches on both hot button traditional language and cultural topics, but I think moving from “he/she/his/her/him/her” to “they/their/them” for singular references in writing is an elegant solution to a decades old problem.
Historically, “he/his/him” was the “non-gendered” version one would use in writing to reference a single person of indeterminant gender (e.g., “when an individual writes a story, his grammatical choices are important). That fell out of favor as it was seen as a male-biased way to use “gender neutral” language. Many writers then adopted “his/her” variants as a substitute (his or her grammatical choices are important). They/them/their was used in plural reference, as those are traditionally plural terms in English.
But constantly having to write “his or her” or similar variants was quite cumbersome. Likewise, adopting “her” as the neutral term or rotating “his” and “her” to provide balance either suffered from the opposite “gendered” problem or was really painful.
They/them/their are not great terms to use as singular references. They break my heart a little as someone who loves the English language. And their use has become a culture war topic as we battle over gender and sex references in the broader culture. But honestly adopting the practice of those being appropriate for singular references in writing is probably the least bad option to resolve the “his or her” inelegance on a world in which a gendered neutral singular (his/him/he) simply doesn’t fly anymore.
Regardless of your beliefs on the broader cultural topics around gender this might be a helpful evolution of the language for writers that can make English language writing simpler, more stable, and more universal.
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I hate the use of “they” because it’s so unclear how many people we are talking about. It would work in most context, yet make other context very hard to understand.
I don’t get all the hate for simply using the masculine form. It has nothing to do with patriarchy or lack of inclusivity. It’s just because it’s simpler. People need to stop being offended at everything.
I agree with this. It may not be grammatically correct but it’s an easy out to adjust how we see gender. That being said the world is so split on progress in gender identity that some people will die on this hill just for the sake of social conservatism.
What gendered problem?
I’m so glad that I live in a country where still bullshit doesnt even exist
I’ll call someone whatever. It’s no skin off my back. But certain uses of the singular they can be confusing.
“All students should turn in their projects by Friday.” Fine.
When you specifically don’t want to name the gender. “Who did it? Was it Sarah or David?” “I’m not saying who they are.”
It sounds weird when used as a singular personal pronoun though. Darren wants to go to dinner but they don’t like sushi. Like… okay man, I’ll call you they if you want but I think we need something else in that particular case.