my latest windmill to tilt at

[rone]

English already has perfectly useful gender-neutral pronouns: it, its. Use them. Do not use they, them for singular objects. Do not use the abhorrent, artificial 'hir', 'zie', 'blim', 'gur', or whatever. Yes, people can be called 'it'. Deal with it.

Comments

[jwgh]

Different approaches work better in different situations, obviously. The main objection to 's/he' that I've seen is that they're isn't an obvious way to pronounce it. (Well, that and that it's ugly, but probably all of the options look ugly to somebody.)

"He or she" can be awkward and distracting, particularly if repeated many times.

The burglar disabled the alarm system. He or she then broke a window, injuring himself or herself slightly on the borken glass, and entered the house, where he or she went to the den and took the teevee and VCR. He or she then [. . .]

Exhausting! This is where, if you're writing, 's/he' or 'they' become tempting choices, because if we're talking about a real person whose gender is unknown using 'he' or 'she' is inappropriate, because it indicates knowledge of the person's gender. In speaking, I'd probably use 'they' -- even if I started off saying 'he or she' I would lapse into 'they' eventually, just because repeating 'he or she' is too much of a pain in the neck.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

Or you could rewrite it.

The burglar disabled the alarm system, and then broke the window, sustaining a slight injury from the borken glass. The suspect then entered the house, went to the den, and took the teevee and TiVo.

Also, remember (this comes in handy in these situations), there ain't nothing wrong with the passive voice none, either.

Or somethin'.

Ah, the once legendary cry of the IBM information developer

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

RWRTATP: Real Writers Rewrite To Avoid The Problem.

Boy, do I miss the old Uithoorn Nitpick Mob.

Re: Ah, the once legendary cry of the IBM information developer

[jwgh]

I think it's not necessarily that realistic to expect people to do this sort of rewriting on the fly during speech, though (although it certainly becomes easier and more natural with practice).

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

DANGLING PARTICIPLE! *PLONK*