Okay, I confess, over this last year I've started using "they" as an indefinitely-gendered singular pronoun (e.g., "A student entered the room, went the front, and handed the professor their term paper.") I'd have preferred an actual word be invented for the role, but that's never gotten any serious traction, and it strikes me as better than:
(a) rewriting everything to avoid an indefinitely gendered pronoun (altering sentence structure based on unknown or neutral gender strikes me as too great a contortion)
(b) using a gendered pronoun ("him") for indefinitely gendered individuals (certainly as contrafactual a usage as using a plural pronoun for a singular)
(c) using "she/he" or "s/he" or "he or she" or similar chimera (clumsy, bureaucratic, and ugly)
I've been using a combination of (a) and (c) for many years, but it just feels too awkward now to continue. For formal business writing — well, I may wait for the style guides to more fully catch up. But for things less than that, well, language and grammar are always evolving, and, as no less than William Safire noted with dictionaries, "when enough of us are wrong, we're right."
Witnessing a Rule Change: Singular ‘They’ – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education
I have a new favorite mug. It was given to me by the graduate students in the Joint Program in English and Education (JPEE) and celebrates my advocacy of singular they—with the explanatory footnote. But when can we stop including the footnote? We got one step closer two weeks ago, …
I'm a supporter of this. Language is allowed to evolve.
+Craig Hatler With the perspective of my elderly decrepitude, I've seen enough changes (sensible or otherwise) to realize that trying to hold back linguistic change is like trying to hold back the tide; at most, you can try to channel its force into more reasonable configurations, but languages either evolve or die.
I've used "They" as a generic gender pronoun for at least 20 years.
+Stan Pedzick Yeah, but, well, Hippie School.
+Dave Hill Actually, it was at the Flats and having to deal with the first transitioning person I've had to deal with on a daily basis. During the transition they wanted to be referred to as "they", and I thought that was genius and easily adaptable from there on out.
It always feels a little clumsy but is better than the horribly artificial ‘xir’
This has been a part of English since the 14th century. Get used to it, people!
Besides, if it was good enough for Jane Austen…
Dis•gendered pronouns ?