On this basis is here a long discussion about gender and related topics- in short, it is rude to gender male by default.
(Someone made a prediction somewhere along the line of “by 20XX there will be a group norm to use neutral pronouns as strong as the taboo on politics is”, but I can`t find it.)
The ones that I find don’t stick out awkwardly (which I’ve seen around here, I think a few different posters) is to either use “their” (it’s really not that big a deal. I’ve never had someone call me out for “bad grammar” when using it without drawing attention to it), or “e” and “er” replacing she/he and his/her. They feel more natural to me than ve/ver/ze/zer/whatever, and because they look more like common typos than actual words the brain tends to skip over them completely.
That’s an interesting observation… maybe that’s an easy way to transition to them. Then again, people will assume “e” is a typo for “he”, and that “er” is a typo for “her”.
Data point: I have trained myself to naturally write using third person (their / they / them) in a grammatically ambiguous singular / plural sense. I find if you think about the example you’re going to use for ten seconds before you start writing, it is usually possible to start with an example that ‘sounds natural’ with third person pronouns.
(I did this because someone once, during a discussion about gender and sexuality norms, compared specifying gender to specifying sexuality. I thought, “it would be weird to talk about someone’s sexuality unless it was strictly relevant to what you were saying” and then couldn’t help finding specifying gender to be equally odd. Here’s hoping you find it odd too.)
I still fall prey to using gendered pronouns when the discussion is framed that way by someone else, though.
They probably will, but when they stop to pay more attention they may notice that you used them both in the same sentence, and did the same thing througout your entire essay. I think it works as a reasonable middle ground.
I’m just going off my own experience though. I’m curious if there’s a way to effectively test how people react.
In short; I reject the notion that it is “rude” to use the descriptivist standard of the language. Awkward? Certainly. But so too are all yet-proposed solutions to said problem.
I.e.; I didn’t assume anything. I used a gender-neutral pronoun.
What makes you assume the user is a male? I was secretly hoping that the user was, in fact, Destiny Hope Cyrus.
I was hoping it was former NBA superstar and Chicago Bull Michael Jordan.
That would be pretty cool.
On this basis is here a long discussion about gender and related topics- in short, it is rude to gender male by default.
(Someone made a prediction somewhere along the line of “by 20XX there will be a group norm to use neutral pronouns as strong as the taboo on politics is”, but I can`t find it.)
I’ve seen someone on LW use gender-neutral pronouns “ve” and “ver”. Is there a discussion about this anywhere?
There are discussions about this everywhere, Cthulhu eat us first.
Is that supposed to be the Lovecraftian variation on ‘God help us’?
The ones that I find don’t stick out awkwardly (which I’ve seen around here, I think a few different posters) is to either use “their” (it’s really not that big a deal. I’ve never had someone call me out for “bad grammar” when using it without drawing attention to it), or “e” and “er” replacing she/he and his/her. They feel more natural to me than ve/ver/ze/zer/whatever, and because they look more like common typos than actual words the brain tends to skip over them completely.
That’s an interesting observation… maybe that’s an easy way to transition to them. Then again, people will assume “e” is a typo for “he”, and that “er” is a typo for “her”.
Data point: I have trained myself to naturally write using third person (their / they / them) in a grammatically ambiguous singular / plural sense. I find if you think about the example you’re going to use for ten seconds before you start writing, it is usually possible to start with an example that ‘sounds natural’ with third person pronouns.
(I did this because someone once, during a discussion about gender and sexuality norms, compared specifying gender to specifying sexuality. I thought, “it would be weird to talk about someone’s sexuality unless it was strictly relevant to what you were saying” and then couldn’t help finding specifying gender to be equally odd. Here’s hoping you find it odd too.)
I still fall prey to using gendered pronouns when the discussion is framed that way by someone else, though.
They probably will, but when they stop to pay more attention they may notice that you used them both in the same sentence, and did the same thing througout your entire essay. I think it works as a reasonable middle ground.
I’m just going off my own experience though. I’m curious if there’s a way to effectively test how people react.
“He” remains a standard gender-neutral pronoun in common usage of the English language. Its use does not imply and should not be read to imply superiority of the masculine.
In short; I reject the notion that it is “rude” to use the descriptivist standard of the language. Awkward? Certainly. But so too are all yet-proposed solutions to said problem.
I.e.; I didn’t assume anything. I used a gender-neutral pronoun.