• Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    It’s always so hard to read and understand when people start using them/they when referring to a single person. Please stop, it’s okay to say him/her, nobody will die.

    • Numuruzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      My boss’s favorite saying is to just make logical decisions.

      I can’t take him/her seriously because he/she is a Mormon and that’s the least logical decision you can make.


      The ramblings of an absolute madman. This is what they’ve been demanding your respect for.

    • mob@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      In this case, it was pretty easy to understand but I agree with what you are saying

      I appreciate the idea that people don’t want to offend other people, but I wish people would consider the intent rather than the word choice. But I guess in a way, Poes law ruined that for the Internet.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Examples of the singular “they” being used to describe someone features as early as 1386 in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and also in famous literary works like Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 1599.

      “They” and “them” were still being used by literary authors to describe people in the 17th Century too - including by Jane Austin[sic] in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49754930

      Personally, I think I’ll keep using a pronoun the way that worked for Chaucer, Shakespeare and Austen.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        And you completely miss the point where it’s much harder to comprehend what people are talking about. Had it said “he/him” it would have been 100% clear without a doubt immediately, and it would have insulted NOBODY.

        Nobody was insulted by him/her since forever, now we can’t use that anymore because somehow it’s exclusionary, insulting or “assuming the obvious gender”

    • Custoslibera@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      The reason I used they/them is because I wanted to remove as much identifiable information as possible.

      The reason I will now continue to use them is because you complained about me using them.

      You just made the world worse for yourself by expressing your opinion. What a silly goose you are.

      I am going to tell my boss and they won’t be happy.