The Great Pronoun Debate
It’s a confusing topic to talk about.
A few years ago, a friend of mine in the LGBTQ community said that there were not two but nine different genders. She didn’t tell me what they were, though, which is unfortunate.
Here are the different gender terms that I found online and I found more than nine of them. I am not going to go into explaining them all. However, none of them include male, female, or third gender:
- Binary
- Cisgender
- Agender
- Gender-fluid
- Misgender
- Bigender
- Intersex
- And so on.
Like many of you, I do know that there is male and female. But that has to do with the sex we are born with. I also know that there are people who are transgender. I have one friend like that. However, this debate is the gender we want to identify as.
The Great Pronoun debate that is going on right has more to do with how one identifies themselves. I, myself, identify as she/her. But that’s straightforward. There are now people who identify as they/them or something like that.
I recently saw an episode of Canada’s Drag Race (Which is part of the RuPaul Franchise), with the drag queens talking about this subject. One of the contestants brought it up because he was confused. He learned from his upbringing, never to use they/them. There was even a debate about this subject on Dr. Phil regarding learning about this in school.
Yes, I know that your kids are constantly confronting and correcting you about how they view pronouns of others.
Like many of you, I too am confused about this whole pronoun thing. But if someone wants me to refer to them as they/them or she/her or he/him, then that is fine with me.
Remember Being Politically Correct?
This entire debate on the way we use the English language is nothing new. Does anybody remember the Great Political Correctness debate in the 90s?
This is where we don’t just refer to someone just as one ethnicity or one group, for example African-American or disabled, without offending them.
I loved having politically correct words in the English language, even though I don’t really consider myself Hungarian-Canadian (Just Canadian).
There were two books that I remember reading and laughing at, called Politically Correct Bedtime Stories and More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. He also has some more of these books where he takes myths and fairy tales, and satirizes them into politically correct stories for adults.
I don’t know if there is a book like that today, regarding learning about the different genders. I think that there might be. We adults do need to learn about these things.
Back to the Pronoun Debate
Presently, this whole debate about pronouns is confusing me even though I do accept it. If someone wants to be called they/them they can let me know. However, like most human beings who were brought up a certain way, I tend to forget. So, I do need reminders.
I don’t know what else to say about this. This entire pronoun controversy depends on an individual.
That same friend that I mentioned earlier in this article, at that time was going to college. She had an Instructor who was from the old school and told her students to never use they/them when they write their essays, but he/she. I guess that this instructor was part of the old Grammar Police who wants to make sure everyone follows the exact rules. However, she doesn’t realize that the English language is continually changing.
I hope to avoid getting into the history of the constant changes in the English language. You can do that research on your own. Who writes like Shakespeare these days?
Nowadays, it is okay to use they or them because that is easier than writing he/she even though you don’t know the gender of the person.
I want to know what you think about the Great Pronoun Debate? Is it good or confusing?
References
Clark, B. (2020, February 18). Researchers found ‘at least’ 9 gender expressions in the human brain. TheNextWeb. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://thenextweb.com/news/researchers-found-at-least-9-gender-expressions-in-the-human-brain
Gender Identity Terms | LGBTQ+. (n.d.). Young Scot. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://young.scot/get-informed/national/gender-identity-terms
9 Genders | CAAN. (2022, January 13). Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://caan.ca/research/supported-research/9-genders/
Political correctness. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness
Salek, C. (2013, June 29). 9 Gender and Sexuality Acronyms You Should Learn. Mic. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.mic.com/articles/52001/9-gender-and-sexuality-acronyms-you-should-learn
St. Thomas, S., & Andrews, T. (2020, October 29). 12 Gender-Related Terms You Should Know and Understand. Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a20888315/genders-identity-list-definitions/
