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the_fantastic_ms_foxHere's another way of encapsulating my earlier point:
To use English to refer to singular humans in the gender-neutral requires either neologism or breaking grammatical rules. But why? School systems teach us English in such a way as to support some classes, ethicities and genders over others. For gender, this includes eliminating the singular "they," and designating "he" as the universal singular. Our language has already had its grammar and lexicon fucked with, but because we grew up with this, we see it as normal. We are taught that deviations are improper, or too new to use ("ze" is too weird, so people don't use it, so it's still new, so people think it's weird, repeat - but if you start using it, it starts sounding normal).
I'm not suggesting a particular pronoun, but a way of couching your choice and explanation thereof.
To use English to refer to singular humans in the gender-neutral requires either neologism or breaking grammatical rules. But why? School systems teach us English in such a way as to support some classes, ethicities and genders over others. For gender, this includes eliminating the singular "they," and designating "he" as the universal singular. Our language has already had its grammar and lexicon fucked with, but because we grew up with this, we see it as normal. We are taught that deviations are improper, or too new to use ("ze" is too weird, so people don't use it, so it's still new, so people think it's weird, repeat - but if you start using it, it starts sounding normal).
I'm not suggesting a particular pronoun, but a way of couching your choice and explanation thereof.
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Date: 2010-12-05 08:59 pm (UTC)Gender really can be pertinent to a lot of interactions, as can many other qualities a person can possess. If English allowed it, I would be pretty happy to use a pronoun that indicates late 20s cissexed straight-leaning bi male in a long-term committed poly relationship not actively looking for additional partners but possibly open to meeting them. These are things I think would be useful to most people I interact with to know. But I would of course object to a language where my marital status was an obligatory part of how I was addressed.
If the above seems far-fetched, consider this. Japanese doesn't really use third-person pronouns much but has an expressive range of first-person options. Fictional businessman Akihiro could use, in the course of a week, the first-person pronoun "watashi" to speak to co-workers, "boku" to speak to his mother, "watakushi" to speak to a high-status visitor from another company, "ore" when having a beer with the guys, "atashi" during the opening remarks at zer drag burlesque show, "atasha" when trash-talking one of the other girls back-stage and "ware" when delivering a eulogy at their grandfather's funeral. And a lovely quality of Japanese is that listeners would understand from those choices how to address Aki in return (Acchan, eat your breakfast/Buchou, I want that report by Wednesday/Dude, did you see the tits on that one?/You're such a good dancer, Akichan/I'll cut you, bitch!/I am plagued with sadness by your inestimable loss, Kodawara-san).
More conventionally, a teenage girl might use "watashi" or "atashi" with her parents and teachers, "ore" with her female friends, and "atashi" or "atasha" or even "mi-" with that boy from English class she likes, and each choice would carry a bevy of (possibly not always desirable or even wholly deliberate) implications for how she is identified.
German uses a third-person plural gender-neutral pronoun to refer to individuals in formal polite speech, so maybe gender neutral people in Germany always seem really respectable?