Re:Merriam-Webster declares ‘they’ its 2019 word of the year
by jasonmcaffee on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @09:44AM
(#21752889)
Aren’t there times when it’s not really possible to use a non-gender pronoun?
e.g. Brian went to put a book on a shelf, but as they did the book fell out of their hands.
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Re:Merriam-Webster declares ‘they’ its 2019 word of the year
by ashleyn on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @09:50AM
(#21752951)
Well, what gender pronouns refer to seems to be changing from an objective measure of one's physical sex, to a subjective matter of one's preferred identity. This came about because there is a not-insignificant portion of individuals who refute gender roles society imposes on them with dubious legitimacy. So if "Brian" here said "they" preferred "they/them" pronouns, the usage would be correct. "Correctness" in this case then becomes what the individual person asked you to refer to them as. If they never asked you to refer to them a certain way, then the default assumption becomes the previous usage - a descriptor of a purely physical attribute.
If anything this issue is a succinct summary of how language encompasses worldviews and moralities. The reason this is so controversial, is partly because the imposition of the gender roles mentioned above doesn't just come out of nowhere, and this usage of language undermines their impositions.