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The lack of a gender neutral pronoun in English that isn't awkward to use

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Comments

  • GelzoGelzo
    edited 2011-12-09 15:41:13
    Pony Sleuth
    I'm not lying.

    Well, it's true aside from stories I've overheard. I've not heard of anyone I know experiencing such a situation, and I haven't seen it on forums I go to.
  • RedEyedAbyssRedEyedAbyss
    For one thing, I remember Scrye being a dick about it on Tvtropes, with utter contempt for the idea that sex and gender are different.
  • SaigyoujiSaigyouji
    But you never had any to begin with.
    As well as Kino, and some others.
  • GelzoGelzo
    Pony Sleuth
    Well that's not something I recall being witness to, and there's been rudeness directed towards me here, so I can't honestly take back what I've said there.

    Not that I mean to equate the two situations by any means.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    edited 2011-12-09 19:37:18
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    For what it's worth, I normally use pronouns based on the person's biological gender, since I believe gender identity to be a societal construct anyway that's just part of a person's personality and traits and quirks and whatnot.  Unfortunately, this has led me to disagreements with at least one transgendered person in the extended TV Tropes community.

    I will also frankly say that I am not sure how significant gender identity ought to be.  The recent rise of transgenderism makes me wonder whether it is due to a modern cultural understanding of gender, gender roles, gender identity, and gender stereotypes.  I am curious whether there is some way to determine to what extent transgenderedism existed (albeit privately) before people were willing to outspokenly question the assumed idea that gender identity is one's biological gender.

    That said, I do not mean to trivialize the feelings of those people who believe themselves to be transgendered.  They have a right to feel that way, and those who show social or physical antagonism toward transgendered people because of their transgenderedness are clearly in the wrong.  That said, it's also true that different transgendered individuals take varying amounts of offense to perceived misuses of pronouns referring to them, and their reactions to this varying offense can cause varying reactions from those who interact with them.
  • GelzoGelzo
    Pony Sleuth
    I'm not sure what's referred to as gender identity is necessarily a social construct. I've heard that people sometimes have this powerful instinct about the sex of their body being "wrong" and I get the sense that that's probably not something that develops from non-abusive external factors.

    I have sympathy for anyone who's had to go through shit like that, but it seems odd to me to say that they are internally the gender associated with the sex that they have a desire to be. It might not be inaccurate to say that, but it seems kind of metaphorical.

    But then I haven't read much in the way of research about this kind of topic.
This discussion has been closed.