Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 3621 to 3625 (27th November to 1st December 2017)
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: bhtooefr on 30 Nov 2017, 02:53 ---
--- Quote from: JoeCovenant on 30 Nov 2017, 02:29 ---Yeah... a singular would be a great addition to the language.
Y'see, I find this They/Them thing VERY difficult to take on, because for 50+ years I've been raised to think that calling someone THEY or THEM was unspeakably rude.
--- End quote ---
AFAIK, "they"/"them" as singular gender-neutral animate pronouns is actually the safest one to use when gender is unknown or the subject is non-binary. Note that there are some constructs like "ze"/"zir" - newly-coined singular gender-neutral animate pronouns - that some non-binary people prefer, though, but I don't think I've personally seen a single case where such a person found "they"/"them" to be unacceptable.
It's "it"/"its" that are rude, because those pronouns, while actually singular and gender-neutral, are inanimate.
--- Quote from: JoeCovenant on 30 Nov 2017, 02:29 ---(Would make ordering Pizza MUCH easier though!)
--- End quote ---
Remember that Hannelore has the power to summon orbital pizza bombardment at the push of a button.
--- End quote ---
IT / Its is certainly worse...
But you should probably be aware that, in the far-flung wilds of Scotland, even using he or she can be viewed as rude if you know the person's name.
(More often than not the feminine side)
Hence the impenetrable phrase "SHE'S the cat's mother!" when talking about someone (female) and calling them "she"...
(No - I dunno where it comes from either!)
Marco:
It's getting worse. Now people are abandoning either "Tilly" or "Taffy" and calling Tilly "them" instead. I always have to read it a second time to be sure that "them" do not refer to more than one person. I used to like English because it's less dubious then my native language...
Anyway, here in Brasil, the few non-binary people I know pick a pronoum of their preference or just don't care if they're called "he" or "she". As far as I know, there is no spoken new pronoum for them, altough there were a few atempts in print (none of them really catch up).
Nepiophage:
--- Quote from: Tova on 30 Nov 2017, 02:34 ---Don't get me started on pizza and pineapple
--- End quote ---
There used to be a Pizza place opposite our main maternity hospital. They did an "Expectant Mothers' Special" -- tuna and pineapple pizza.
pwhodges:
I've moved the unambiguously pronoun-centred posts to the thread I pointed at earlier, since the two threads are having much the same discussion.
Tova:
--- Quote from: Cornelius on 30 Nov 2017, 06:09 ---That's exactly how I feel about it, as well, though perhaps more for the reaction than the arc itself.
--- End quote ---
I fully admit that this is my own personal bias/pet peeve. So in the spirit of the forums, I'll call it my head canon.
I reckon Jeoh has done this in an attempt to make you all think about the folly of leaping from an initial impression to instant character judgement.
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