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I'm not a language expert but doesn't languages such as Italian and Spanish have words that are feminine and masculine explicitly. If words like "La" and "El" and others out there I'm sure, how does all of this "they" business work? How do you speak a language when you can't acknowledge "he" and "she" in certain situations?
No. Stop this. "They" is the plural. You cannot refer to a singular person as "they" in English. It refers to a group of people. LGBTs have the right to choose what they want to be called, but they do not have sovereign power over the English Language.
I will call a transgender woman "she" if she so wishes, but we're not going to change how English works, nor how we introduce ourselves in professional settings to accommodate a handful of transgender people.
No. Stop this. "They" is the plural. You cannot refer to a singular person as "they" in English. It refers to a group of people. LGBTs have the right to choose what they want to be called, but they do not have sovereign power over the English Language.
I will call a transgender woman "she" if she so wishes, but we're not going to change how English works, nor how we introduce ourselves in professional settings to accommodate a handful of transgender people.
I hate any kind of bullying or bigotry against anyone, but I am fed up with tiny minorities telling others how they should talk in everyday situations. This is entirely different from demanding that they not be referred to as freaks or by any other kind of hateful slur. That should be honored by everyone, as everyone is entitled to respect (except, imo, for people like child rapists). However, as you stated, no very small minority should have sovereign power over the English language!
Last edited by katharsis; 02-21-2020 at 05:14 PM..
I hate any kind of bullying or bigotry against anyone, but I am fed up with tiny minorities telling others how they should talk in everyday situations. This is entirely different from demanding that they not be referred to as freaks or by any other kind of hateful slur. That should be honored by everyone, as everyone is entitled to respect (except, imo, for people like child rapists). However, as you stated, no very small minority should have sovereign power over the English language!
It does make one want to start making up buzz-phrases, just for fun.
Earlier today, in a post on another forum, I made one up: "fuel shaming"
Here in the Northeast, heating with oil is still just as common as heating with gas, because at one time oil was pretty much the only game around. There are still plenty of suburban neighborhoods where there is no natural gas infrastructure. Anyway, the Gas fans love to mock and otherwise look down on homeowners who don't choose to convert from Oil (for whatever reasons they may have for not doing so, which are perfectly valid because after all, it's their house and their money.) So I decided to call that kind of behavior "fuel shaming." It's just as good as most other buzz-phrases that I hear tossed around.
"They" is the plural. You cannot refer to a singular person as "they" in English.
Yes you can, if you are not addressing said person directly.
You can use "they" if referring to them indirectly, especially if the gender of the person is not known.
Joe: "You won't believe what my neighbor did yesterday!"
Jane: "What did they do?"
[because Jane has no idea whether Joe's neighbor is male or female, and doesn't want to assume either gender]
Sure, Jane could sound formal and rather like an echo or the second line of a bad joke, by instead saying "What did your neighbor do?" .... but in casual conversation "they" is far more likely.
Have you all noticed that everybody, especially academics, are now specifying what their "pronouns" are - even normal heterosexual non-transgender people.
e.g "So and so is a Phd in ethnic studies, and his pronouns are he/him/his"
WTF?!
This is not something that people ever did before. This LGBT madness is out of control and has got to stop.
Oh, you could have so much fun with this.
I specify a he\his\him in a smaller font and something like arial black and say they represent my acknowledgment of toxic masculinity and white privilege.
Then I'd rake over the coals anyone not using them in the proper font and size.
Either that or request the use of some olde english or gaelic or swahili or navajo if you have some in your family history and say it's cultural.
Have you all noticed that everybody, especially academics, are now specifying what their "pronouns" are - even normal heterosexual non-transgender people.
e.g "So and so is a Phd in ethnic studies, and his pronouns are he/him/his"
WTF?! This is not something that people ever did before. This LGBT madness is out of control and has got to stop.
I was all for you, until you got to "This is not something that people ever did before."
Surely our actions shouldn't limited based on it not being something that was done before.
Giving women the vote? That's not something we ever did before!
Open heart surgery? That's not something we ever did before!
Fly across the Atlantic? That's not something we ever did before!
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