[PERMANENTLY CLOSED] Gender Neutral Terms Suggested for use at University

[SuperCloud]

Full article: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015...veryone-to-use-gender-inclusive-pronouns.html

Call me 'ze,' not 'he': University wants everyone to use 'gender inclusive' pronouns

“There are dozens of gender-neutral pronouns,” she declared.

For all you folks who went to school back when there were only him and her – here’s a primer: some of the new gender neutral pronouns are ze, hir, zir, xe, xem and xyr.

Is this even English?

 

[Vylo]

I'm gonna stick with her, him, and they.

 

[KitKatMatt]

They, their, and them is the most inclusive pronoun set that I can think of.

Hits everything off the bat. I tend to default to it all the time because I can't remember anything.

 

[Armoured]

They, their, and them is the most inclusive pronoun set that I can think of.

Hits everything off the bat. I tend to default to it all the time because I can't remember anything.

*Wince* I understand your intention, but I just can't bring myself to use plural as a singular. Call me old fashioned if you want. "He" has always been grammatically correct for nonspecific singular pronoun. Getting upset about it as though it were an actual reference to actual biological gender is on roughly the same level of getting upset about le and la being gendered.

 

[KitKatMatt]

I never really viewed "they, their, them" as always plural, but that's personally. I'm not an English major, lol.

 

[Armoured]

I never really viewed "they, their, them" as always plural, but that's personally. I'm not an English major, lol.

I'm not an English major either, BOTH my parents, however, took advanced degrees in English... for fun. Growing up, I was kind of exposed to a lot of pedantry. Objectively I understand that spoken language is a living, changing thing, and that many (most) people happily use "they, their, them" as non specific singular pronouns. Subjectively, I'll be dead in the cold cold ground before I accept it as "correct". You may as well try to get me to spell "aluminium" the way Americans insist on misspelling it. It's not really an important issue in the greater scheme of things, maybe, but here we are.

 

[KitKatMatt]

It's listed as "aluminum" on all periodic tables I've seen here. That's weird.

http://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PeriodicTableMuted.png

I've never seen it spelled "aluminium".

 

[Armoured]

It's listed as "aluminum" on all periodic tables I've seen here. That's weird.

http://sciencenotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PeriodicTableMuted.png

I've never seen it spelled "aluminium".

That's why I mentioned how Americans insist on spelling it wrong. The correct spelling, and pronunciation, of course, is "aluminium".

 

[KitKatMatt]

All I can think when I tried to pronounce it like that was "condominium". I wonder why it's different here and there? Like when the break was made.

 

[dysert]

The conclusion of the article pretty well sums it all up:

There you have it, folks. His and Hers is no longer good enough at the University of Tennessee – where they are willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of gender inclusivity – including common sense.

I wonder if they’ve got a gender neutral word for idiot?

Talk about taking political correctness to the extreme! When you're being introduced to someone, go ahead and ask them what pronouns you should use for them. They'll look at you like you have three heads.

 

[Armoured]

All I can think when I tried to pronounce it like that was "condominium". I wonder why it's different here and there? Like when the break was made.

Don't say I never do nuthin for ya

http://grammarist.com/spelling/aluminium-aluminum/

 

[KitKatMatt]

Don't say I never do nuthin for ya

http://grammarist.com/spelling/aluminium-aluminum/

Awesome, thank you!

No matter how we spell it or say it, perhaps we can agree that it's silly to refer to aluminum foil as "tin foil", seeing as it's not tin at all.

 

[Armoured]

Awesome, thank you!

No matter how we spell it or say it, perhaps we can agree that it's silly to refer to aluminum foil as "tin foil", seeing as it's not tin at all.

On this we can indeed agree.

 

[Citanul]

That's why I mentioned how Americans insist on spelling it wrong. The correct spelling, and pronunciation, of course, is "aluminium".

I'm with you on "aluminium", but there's historical support for the use of "they" as a singular as apparently Chaucer and Shakespeare (amongst others) used it that way: https://motivatedgrammar.wordpress....ar-they-and-the-many-reasons-why-its-correct/

 

[Armoured]

I'm with you on "aluminium", but there's historical support for the use of "they" as a singular as apparently Chaucer and Shakespeare (amongst others) used it that way: https://motivatedgrammar.wordpress....ar-they-and-the-many-reasons-why-its-correct/

Interesting. Of course, Shakespeare couldn't even spell his name the same way twice, so, you know...

 

[trunks2k]

English needs a gender neutral pronoun because, well, you don't always know the gender of who you are talking about. As mentioned above, it is common to use "they", "their", and "they're", but I fall in the camp of thinking "they" is plural and sounds weird when used as a singular pronoun.

 

[Poor Beggar]

The conclusion of the article pretty well sums it all up:

Talk about taking political correctness to the extreme! When you're being introduced to someone, go ahead and ask them what pronouns you should use for them. They'll look at you like you have three heads.

Yeah, it always fascinates me when people buy into a thought-mode without first asking, "Hey, what would it look like if we took this belief to its logical conclusion? Hm?"

 

[Poor Beggar]

English needs a gender neutral pronoun because, well, you don't always know the gender of who you are talking about. As mentioned above, it is common to use "they", "their", and "they're", but I fall in the camp of thinking "they" is plural and sounds weird when used as a singular pronoun.

So before we "fix" this, how have we been successfully communicating for centuries? Just like in systems-management, if a system has been successfully operating despite the perceived "problem" then the system must already have a successful manner of dealing with it. If we look at actual communication it's apparent how we've been dealing with this.

 

[Armoured]

So before we "fix" this, how have we been successfully communicating for centuries? Just like in systems-management, if a system has been successfully operating despite the perceived "problem" then the system must already have a successful manner of dealing with it. If we look at actual communication it's apparent how we've been dealing with this.

For a long time, "he" was the correct pronoun for a non-gender specified person. Of course, try explaining that you mean "any person" when you say "he" today without being accused of sexism.
<STAFF EDIT>

 

[Poor Beggar]

For a long time, "he" was the correct pronoun for a non-gender specified person. Of course, try explaining that you mean "any person" when you say "he" today without being accused of sexism. <STAFF EDIT>

I would even go so far as to say that Christianity is the reason "he" was accepted as the default. And it HAS worked.