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The personal pronoun, "They, Them, Themselves," takes brain retraining.

Using “they” and “them” as singular pronouns is simple. It just takes a little retraining of the brain. At first, it sounded like multiple personality disorder.

Today I read a wonderful an article in Time magazine about Akwaek Emezi, a remarkable author and poet who grew up in Nigeria and is Black, queer and trans.

Reading sentences like this will take a little brain retraining:

"In writing "Dear Senthuran," Emezi says, they wanted to do the opposite of what they learned many years ago in order to traverse white spaces they find themself in."

People can call themselves by whatever personal pronouns they want. It's important to respect their wishes.

#TimeMagazine #poets #queer
LiterateHiker 9 June 6
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1

Level 7

I agree with Gwendolyn, we need new pronouns. If someone has a preferred, it's easy, but many times it's not, as in writing a report that conceals gender or an article which is supposed to be gender neutral. In those instances the only choices available are plurals or I've occasionally used s/he but that feels clunky.

2

Level 8

I make it easy on myself. I don't acknowledge sexual orientation of any kind. Hell. I can't even remember a person's name. I just say 'Hey'.

I'm curious as to how you go about that. There are instances when you can use a person's name but the grammatical gymnastics required to never use he or she in casual conversation hardly seem worth it.

@Cyklone
It's really not that difficult. I simply interact with people and ignore whatever labels they may choose. For me, there are two labels. Shithead, and decent.

1

Level 8

Wurd

1

Level 8

Many Hispanic people I know do not like the term Latinx and still use Latino and Latina. Of course the world is changing and these terms will be used more as the under 30 takes charge.

1

Level 8

If requested to I will call someone the pronoun THEY want, but will not fall in line with calling everyone by a plural pronoun.

3

Level 8

The English language would truly benefit from a gender neutral, singular pronoun; actually any language would benefit from this.

MizJ Level 8 June 6, 2021
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