{"id":6053,"date":"2015-03-26T12:10:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T12:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediashower.com\/blog\/?p=6053"},"modified":"2015-03-30T13:11:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T13:11:28","slug":"its-time-for-a-gender-neutral-pronoun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/its-time-for-a-gender-neutral-pronoun\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Time for a Gender-Neutral Pronoun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ladies, you need to get behind me on this one.<\/p>\n

Among the many shortcomings of the English language is the old-fashioned practice of relying on “man” to refer to “the entire human race,” because it’s a man’s world. <\/em>For example:<\/p>\n

Man does not live by bread alone. (Jesus)<\/em><\/p>\n

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. (Einstein)<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant step for mankind. (Armstrong, who forgot the “a.”)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sexist! Non-inclusive! What about the ladyfolk, Einstein? Where’s the love for the mommas, Armstrong? Shakespeare tried to get it right when he said:<\/p>\n

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But you know this killed him. Why “men and women” when he really meant “people”? Later in this passage, he has to resort back to the male voice:<\/p>\n

All the world’s a stage,<\/em>
\nAnd all the men and women merely players.<\/em>
\nThey have their exits and their entrances,<\/em>
\nAnd one man in his time plays many parts,<\/em>
\nHis acts being seven ages.<\/em><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today he would have to phrase it like this:<\/p>\n

All the world’s a stage,<\/em>
\nAnd all the men and women merely players.<\/em>
\nBoth men and women have their exits and their entrances,<\/em>
\nAnd one man or woman in his or her time plays many parts,<\/em>
\nHis or her acts being seven ages, give or take.<\/em><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not exactly Tony Award-winning language. Perhaps this is why classic rock band Rush changed Shakespeare’s quote to:<\/p>\n

All the world’s indeed a stage. And we are merely players. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much better! Thank you, Geddy Lee! But Rush got around it with the plural pronoun<\/em>, which is the writer’s hack for overcoming this shortcoming of the English language.<\/p>\n

Because I run a content marketing company, we are in the business of words. This his\/her, she\/he nonsense is a real problem. We spend hours on these workarounds, and it translates into millions of dollars in lost productivity and inadvertently offending clients. You can’t just write:<\/p>\n

Anyone can apply, as long as he has a functioning lower intestine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Horrible! Biased! Gender non-inclusive! And yet, consider how much worse this sounds:<\/p>\n

Anyone can apply, as long as she has a functioning lower intestine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“They’re only accepting applications from women<\/em> with healthy digestive systems?” you ask yourself. So we try the plural pronoun hack:<\/p>\n

Anyone can apply, as long as they have a functioning lower intestine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some grammar guides say this is correct, but “they” is clearly plural, where “anyone” is singular. The two do not match<\/em>. It is not correct. Screw the grammar guides; they are wrong.<\/p>\n

Any people can apply, as long as they have a functioning lower intestine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is technically correct, but awful. There’s got to be a better way.<\/p>\n

The Solution: Two Gender-Neutral Pronouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This will come as a shock to many Americans, but there are other languages besides English. <\/em>Some of them are better<\/em> than English in certain ways. <\/em>Many Asian languages, for example, have no gendered pronouns, because their language does not have a grammatical gender system. On the other hand, some languages are even more <\/em>gendered, like most of the Romance languages (so named to persuade women that male-dominated languages are romantic).<\/p>\n

A gender neutral pronoun<\/a> can be used to signify “he or<\/em> she,” or “him or<\/em> her” with one tidy syllable. Some writers try to accomplish this now, with a punctuation hack:<\/p>\n

If any student is interested, s\/he should keep it to him\/herself.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

S\/he? <\/em>Really? That looks like an operating system, or the name of a unisex cologne. We need a single word<\/em>, a short, single syllable that means both <\/em>“him” and <\/em>“her.” Here is a solution.<\/p>\n


\nHir = “Him OR Her”<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Hir” is a combination of “him” and “her,” pronounced “here.” Proper usage:<\/p>\n

No matter who I meet, I always look hir in the eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you see anyone giving away free pie, tell hir I’d like a slice.<\/em><\/p>\n

The condom is ribbed for hir pleasure.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I understand this looks weird. Everything new looks weird at first. You’ll get used to it.<\/p>\n


\nSe = “He OR She”<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Se” is a combination of “he” and “she,” pronounced “see.” Proper usage:<\/p>\n

A good employee should take baths frequently, so se will smell appealing.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the patient receives his eye transplant, se can see!<\/em><\/p>\n

The cool thing about language is that anyone can invent any word se needs.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/strong>The beauty of these two pronouns is they give equal weighting to the sexes<\/em>. “Hir” has two letters from “him,” but it sounds more like “her.” “Se” starts with the feminine “s,” but it is two letters, like “he.”<\/p>\n

Some women may feel that centuries of English language oppression with the male pronoun means that we need to tilt things the other way for a change, and give women the priority. I understand this point of view, but hey, let’s not get emotional.<\/p>\n

Kidding. I’m kidding. Ow! Please tell hir to stop hitting me with hir handbag!<\/p>\n

(Only correct if both men and women are hitting me with handbags. See how that sexist remark is instantly defused with our new gender-neutral pronouns?)<\/p>\n

Seriously: I need the women to make this idea work. Share this post, and start using these words. Guys have had almost 2,000 years to change this system, so I doubt they’ll be in a big hurry to help. If you know another English language speaker in your neighborhood, tell hir about it. Se will thank you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sir John Hargrave is the CEO of <\/em>Media Shower<\/em><\/a> and author of the upcoming book <\/em>Mind Hacking<\/em><\/a>. This post is free to distribute under <\/em>CC 4.0<\/em><\/a>: if you know someone who would like it, please share it with hir.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Ladies, you need to get behind me on this one. Among the many shortcomings of the English language is the old-fashioned practice of relying on “man” to refer to “the entire human race,” because it’s a man’s world. For example:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6053"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6073,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions\/6073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediashower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}