Gender-Neutral Pronouns Debate
The cluster focuses on debates about using singular 'they/them' as a gender-neutral pronoun when a person's preferred pronouns or gender are unknown, including discussions on misgendering, grammar, etiquette, and non-native speaker challenges.
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Why is it acceptable to use the wrong pronoun, such as "they", for someone who chooses the pronoun "she" or "he"?
As I'm not aware of what pronouns they personally prefer, I fall back to using the singular, gender-neutral, "they/them/their". It's a fairly new usage in colloquial English but I find it to be common enough so as to not impair understanding.
If their preferred pronoun is non-gendered, how can using singular "they" misgender them?
Well, it would be atleast polite to use gender neutral pronouns.
The proper personal, gender-neutral pronoun in English is "they"
The pronoun "they" is enough if you don't know the person's gender[1] ;).[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Not a native speaker. Pronoun use was intended to represent neuter/indeterminate gender. Would alter to 'them' if this interpretation had high priors. Unfortunately this forum software does not permit edits past some short duration.
Without knowledge of preferred pronouns, "they" seems appropriate.
Interesting that you used he/him initially (with a question mark), then switch to they/them in the next clause.
Until very recently, using "he" in an article was considered sexist because it assumed the subject was a men. So the recommendation was to use "he/she".Today, using "he/she" is considered transphobic, as in this SE case, since it assumes the subject is binary. So the present recommendation is to use "they".Is this an accurate representation of the current state of affairs?What's the proper pronoun to use today, if you don't kno