oswaldtheluckyrabbit  - 2013-12-05
I work in academia and we once had a meeting about this at my job. The older faculty members were clearly cracking up but the younger ones were taking it more seriously. I always wondered why gender-neutral pronouns never existed. I see it like Esperanto--a good idea, but it probably won't catch on.
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Ranma X. - 2013-12-05 Well singular they was used up until mid-19th century, so I don't see why they and other neutral pronouns can't come into usage again.
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Hooker - 2013-12-05
Xi and Xm does sound far too ostentatious. Better to sound like you have a speaking disorder.
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Syd Midnight - 2013-12-05
I still don't see the problem with "they" and "their", it's not like our language is crippled because "you" is both singular and plural.
I was unaware that singular "they" ever stopped being used. I've always used it, and try to use it consciously
Although to address the first point, before inventing a hundred new pronouns we should first adopt "yall" or "yunz" as second person plural
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BorrowedSolution - 2013-12-05
People like this just make me want to be a bigot out of spite. It's not enough that I agree with your right to express yourself and let your freak flag fly, I've got to play thought-police with myself on top of it?
I think that anybody who complains about being offended by something as innocuous as a gendered pronoun, while CLEARLY being in a grey-area in the gender department is just an asshole. Complain about the people who want to physically assault you, or otherwise discriminate against you; please, do so because that's bullshit. But this? Shut the fuck up about this. Nobody's going out of their way to hurt your feelings with a pro-noun because there's a thousand other words to go about it directly.
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BorrowedSolution - 2013-12-05 Everybody should be exposed to online voice-chat abuse for at least six months until that they can learn to shrug off the noises that come out of random people's mouths. "Oh no, this guy I met three minutes ago doesn't know how to refer to me in a way that satisfies my self-image! WHERE'S MY SOAPBOX?!?!?!"
....I think I might just be jealous because feeling like I was just that special might be nice for a change.
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chairsforcheap - 2013-12-05
Jesus, what do german or romance languages have to deal with this when they get to this level of pedantic? I guess german has the neutral gender, but they have 12 ways of saying "the!" good god, the oppression!
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wtf japan - 2013-12-06 That's a good question. What does the German trans community think about female bridges and male dresses? Does giving gender to inanimate objects somehow dilute the oppressiveness of the "male/female binary" or make it worse?
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Syd Midnight - 2013-12-12 The French don't seem to mind gendered nouns, and they're pretty good at sex so there's that. But they're also really defensive about changing their language so they stick with tradition, unlike that trans-continental whore that is English.
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Paracelsus - 2013-12-05
These insufferable assholes are the Khmer Rouge of language. The only solution to the past is to eradicate it.
I had hoped these cock lords had died off in the 90's.
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Nominal - 2013-12-05
Once a movement reaches this level of pedantic, I don't think it's so much about battling oppression anymore as it is just a case of chasing the dragon for that sweet sweet righteous indignation high.
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