{"id":39085,"date":"2013-10-07T22:08:49","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T04:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/07\/he-she-it-they.html"},"modified":"2013-10-09T05:49:54","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T11:49:54","slug":"he-she-it-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/07\/he-she-it-they.html","title":{"rendered":"He, She, It, They"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gpb-content\">I really dislike the use of &quot;they&quot;\/&quot;their&quot; for a gender-indefinite singular pronoun &#8212; because that they muddies the singular-plural axis, which English already struggles with in the second person, so why extend it to the third person, too?<\/p>\n<p>That said, there seem to be no other viable solutions. \u00a0Invented terms (&quot;co&quot; was big &#8212; or as big as it ever got &#8212; when I was an undergrad) will never win. He\/she (et al.) will likely retain a foothold for a long time, but are clumsy enough to never really work well.<\/p>\n<p>So, it seems, if old school &quot;male means male or male and female, so get over it&quot; is no longer acceptable, it seems like &quot;they&quot; will have to stand in. It&#39;s irksome, but language can get that way.<\/p>\n<p>(h\/t <span class=\"proflinkWrapper\"><span class=\"proflinkPrefix\">+<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/102356721871221463140\" class=\"proflink\" oid=\"102356721871221463140\">George Wiman<\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reshared post from +<a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/112978587206873384831'>Andreas Geisler<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To whom it may concern, be they male, female, neither or both.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class='gpb-video'><iframe type='text\/html' width='100%' height='385' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/46ehrFk-gLk?autohide=1&#038;version=3' frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class='gpb-links' style='clear:both;'> <a class='gpb-linkback' href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/101083456815352083930\/posts\/1QniQ5bAKAU' target='_new'>View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really dislike the use of &quot;they&quot;\/&quot;their&quot; for a gender-indefinite singular pronoun &#8212; because that they muddies the singular-plural axis, which English already struggles with in the second person, so why extend it to the third person, too? That said, there seem to be no other viable solutions. \u00a0Invented terms (&quot;co&quot; was big &#8212; or &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/07\/he-she-it-they.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;He, She, It, They&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130967,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/02\/regarding-the-singular-they-vs-the-singular-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":0},"title":"Regarding the singular &quot;they&quot; vs the singular &quot;you&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 2-Jul-16 1:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Language is always in flux, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly. Some changes are aesthetically pleasing, others grate on the nerves -- but both reactions are personal ones, and the result is variation over time and social groups and a delicate interplay of formal and informal language evolving over time. There is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129166,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/on-the-singular-they.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":1},"title":"On the Singular &quot;They&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Dec-15 8:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"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,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/29\/pet_names.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":2},"title":"Pet names","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 29-Dec-06 2:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While there are plusses and minuses to naming your children with very common (or uncommon) names -- do the same apply to pets? Regardless, in case you're worried (one way...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/pets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49063,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/24\/dude-bro.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":3},"title":"Dude! Bro!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Dec-14 7:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Two interesting things about these heat maps:1. It seems there's no term we use in the Denver area all that much.2. \"Bro\" seems to be mostly a Texas thing. Which is another reason to dislike it, I guess.For myself, I prefer \"gents\" -- but after working so hard to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135419,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/26\/apparently-christians-think-humanity-can-define-god.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":4},"title":"Apparently some Christians think Humanity can define God","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 26-Nov-17 11:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The state established Lutheran Church in Sweden has asserted that church language in the future should not use terminology that identifies God as being a particular gender. Conservative Christians go nuts over the news. To which I say, which is the greater blasphemy? A. Taking the language of Scripture, written\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/unnamed.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50915,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/11\/men-are-from-mars-women-from-venus-symbols-from-greek.html","url_meta":{"origin":39085,"position":5},"title":"Men are from Mars, Women from Venus, Symbols from Greek","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-May-15 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd always heard the explanation for the male and female symbols that is, here, rejected. Interesting. Originally shared by +Today I Found Out: You may have heard that the female symbol represents Venus' mirror and the male symbol represents Mars' shield, but that's not actually true. The Origin of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39111,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39085\/revisions\/39111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}