this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Adding to that, the opposition to using "they/them" pronouns seems ridiculous too. There are entire countries where using singular pronouns while talking to/about someone is considered extremely offensive and referring to individuals by using plural pronouns is the norm.
If billions of people can manage without getting confused about whether or not you're talking about an individual or group of people, I'm sure that even the English speakers who are opposed to this because of the "confusion" it causes can do it with very little effort - especially since third person gender neutral pronouns are already a thing in English!
Hell,l it's even the norm in US English. People use "they/them" instead of "he" or "she" all of the time depending on the context. And nobody bats a fucking eye.
Singular they has been in use in English since at least 1375¹, without anyone getting confused or complaining until these homophobic snowflakes.
If anyone's getting “confused” it's clearly not the language's fault.
Maybe they should get their brains looked at, if they're so easily “confused” by something that's been in use for centuries without any issues.
(¹ Also, nothing to do with this, but the more I read about it the more that 1375 work cited as the first appearance, William and the Werewolf / Guillaume de Palerne, looks like a medieval version of modern furry smut, or the kind of stuff Anne Rice used to write before she caught religion...)
We also used to have a singular version of the pronoun "you", which was thou, but somehow people are able to cope with you being both singular and plural. But telling them that they has been both singular and plural for over 700 years is way too much for them to cope with.
Although most people seem to no longer use you as plural. And use you guys, you all, etc because of ambiguity. Similar case with probably happen with they/them and people will learn to communicate singular and plural, no need stop the language progression.
And in New York, youse is both singular and plural.