I generally use “they” if I’m talking about an unknown or indeterminate person, like “someone forgot their umbrella here. They are going to get wet”, “if one of our clients has a problem with our software, they will tell us”, etc.
I don’t fuck with “they” for talking about someone specific. I always find it irritating when someone says something like “Alice is going to the shop. They are going to buy a dress”, or “Geoff is going to watch the hockey match. They are a fan of the Habs.” It just sounds clunky and like intentionally being obtuse for the sake of shoehorning in one’s politics.
What if Alice has told you their preferred pronouns are they/them? Would you still call them ‘her’ in spite of their wishes?
If Geoff is happy with being called ‘he’, then sure, he went to the match.
I think it only sounds clunky because we’re not so used to it. Imagine a child today being brought up knowing “they” is a perfectly normal individual or group pronoun alongside he and she. In ten years, it won’t sound weird to them (hah) at all.
I generally use “they” if I’m talking about an unknown or indeterminate person, like “someone forgot their umbrella here. They are going to get wet”, “if one of our clients has a problem with our software, they will tell us”, etc.
I don’t fuck with “they” for talking about someone specific. I always find it irritating when someone says something like “Alice is going to the shop. They are going to buy a dress”, or “Geoff is going to watch the hockey match. They are a fan of the Habs.” It just sounds clunky and like intentionally being obtuse for the sake of shoehorning in one’s politics.
What if Alice has told you their preferred pronouns are they/them? Would you still call them ‘her’ in spite of their wishes?
If Geoff is happy with being called ‘he’, then sure, he went to the match.
I think it only sounds clunky because we’re not so used to it. Imagine a child today being brought up knowing “they” is a perfectly normal individual or group pronoun alongside he and she. In ten years, it won’t sound weird to them (hah) at all.