Instead of (or in addition to*) he, she, they and all of the more fine-grained pronouns such as xir, we could just invent one for everyone that doesn’t require prior knowledge of the person to which it’s being applied.

* I could see a neutral pronoun being used until you know for sure what regular gendered pronoun the person prefers. That way, you can always just play it safe with the neutral one if you want. No harm done.

By way of example, let’s say we used “it/it’s/its”. Obviously we wouldn’t use that because it sounds dehumanising, but it would work for every person with no chance of offence or bigotry (I think?). It doesn’t deny the person’s identity, it just makes their identity untethered to one small part of casual language in the same way it is now.

Do you agree, and if not, why not? I’m not sure where I would stand on such a proposal, so I’m interested to hear the for and against, particularly from the non-binary and trans folks.

P.S. I’m not saying we do away with gendered language entirely, just those introductory pronouns; the part of language that requires the speaker to make a snap judgement about the person’s identity based on unreliable visual and aural clues.

  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m not saying it’s a reason to give up on it completely. I support neutral pronouns, and I’ve been trying to say they exclusively for everyone I do not personally know, but understanding why potential allies are reluctant and helping them get where you are will lead to much less resistance than “DO IT OUR WAY OR FUCK OFF AND DIE”.

    Sure, the assholes will never get on board, and fuck them anyway, but there are people who want to be supportive, but are uncomfortable with certain things because they are new to them. Understanding needs to go both ways in order to expand support.