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Not gonna name names because I genuinely want the person to understand the problem without resorting to mass-shaming, but...
Had someone in my chat saying how "singular & #39;they& #39; undermines how the English language works and the use of it is & #39;useless virtue-signalling& #39;". (cont.)
Had someone in my chat saying how "singular & #39;they& #39; undermines how the English language works and the use of it is & #39;useless virtue-signalling& #39;". (cont.)
Our text books, at least in middle school, said we should use "he/she" to refer to an individual whose gender you did not know in writing.
How many people that you know use "he/she" consistently? Because I& #39;m pretty sure it& #39;s damn close to zero. These are antiquated. (cont.)
How many people that you know use "he/she" consistently? Because I& #39;m pretty sure it& #39;s damn close to zero. These are antiquated. (cont.)
Language changes. Evolves. We don& #39;t raise a stink about the sanctity of the English language when "poggers" and "yeet" become part of our daily vernacular, but for some reason there& #39;s a line drawn at singular "they", which has been valid usage for decades. Centuries even. (cont.)
We& #39;re not making "he" and "she" into "dirty words". It& #39;s simply better to default to gender-neutral for people whom you do not know. It might not be the biggest contributor, but assumptions that everyone playing a video game is default male still contributes to sexism. (cont.)
Between the prospect of, say, upsetting runners by consciously defaulting to "he" and inadvertently misgendering them, or upsetting sticklers who are strangely obsessed with maintaining the exclusive plurality of the word "they", I would rather take the latter every time. (cont.)
If you& #39;re part of that latter group, I& #39;d way rather you listen, try to understand our position, and learn to be more empathetic to others. But if you& #39;re going to insist on the latter, you& #39;re not going to fit in my community and I& #39;d rather you just leave. It& #39;s that simple.
