this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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[–] TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (31 children)

I was on Reddit and used he/she. I was scolded by about 15 posters as to why I should be using they.

smh

[–] amio@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Jumping down someone's throat about it is stupid - unless they're being malicious, then jump away and tear whomever a new one. They aren't technically wrong, though. "They" is an ideal word that's been correct in both the singular and plural sense for centuries. Given more recent social developments, it's an easy way to be inclusive and not "risk" being wrong.

(I'm assuming you used literally "he/she" to refer to someone of unknown gender)

[–] Ferk@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In the past, English had "thou" for 2nd person singular and "you" was exclusive to the 2nd person plural.

I don't see why that can't happen with "they" vs "he/she" too.

Though it's a bit sad that it would likely result in a more ambiguous language that could potentially lead to misunderstandings. Unless we start to use constructs like "they all" for adding specificity, in a similar way as how "you all" (or y'all) is sometimes used.

[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They+all=th'all? Adding this to my lexicon. Y'all is sacred to me, being from the south. Th'all shall be canonized along with it.

Absolutely if anyone has a problem with that, th'all can go fuck themselves.

[–] rockerface@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Y'all is already gender neutral, though, and therefore superior to any other pronoun

It really is. I love that word so much. I grew up with it as completely normal, and when I got a little older got picked on for using it in our largish city we'd moved to. Now everyone uses it. But old Old Believers never stopped.

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