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TIP: Don't assume pronouns (DBO)

by Grizzlei ⌂ @, Pacific Cloud Zone, Earth, Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 11:36 (3795 days ago) @ Cody Miller

It's a nice courtesy for everyone. :)


And what do I use instead? There's no alternative. English has no gender neutral singular pronouns.

As Xenos suggested, they, them, and their is useful for when you don't know a person's gender and their pronouns, if you know they don't care for feminine or masculine pronouns, or if you really don't know. Alternatively, you can simply call them by their name.

Regarding he/him/his as the gender neutral terms suggests masculine pronouns are the default or standard and that should not be the case. I certainly don't appreciate it when people assume I'm a guy and use masculine pronouns when I join an online community where you can not display your gender in some way, and I know many ladies and queer or non-binary people don't appreciate it either.

I'm really sorry for getting off-topic on someone's introduction thread, but it's very easy to be inclusive so we seem welcoming to all sorts of people and I just want to do all I can to help ensure that.


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