Banning Gender Pronouns Because They’re Microaggressions

[pr126]

University of Kansas Student Senate Bans Gender Pronouns Because They’re Microaggressions

A governing body made up of students at the University of Kansas has voted to eliminate their use of gender specific pronouns, stating the terms pose “microaggressions” towards people who don’t fit traditional gender roles.

Last Wednesday, the KU Student Senate, in a 2/3 majority vote, passed a bill altering the Senate’s official Rules & Regulations which would require senators to use “inclusive” terminology, such as “they them or their,” as opposed to “his,” “her,” “he,” or “she.”

https://twitter.com/hashtag/NationalOffendACollegeStudentDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw

"If you need a "safe space", you shouldn't be at a college/university, you should be in daycare"

[SGOS]

The traditional college protest movement seems to be experiencing a pendulum swing.

[aitm]

Actually I prefer those. Not for any other reason than I think writing....."if he or she wants"...... is stupid whereas...'anyone who wants" is simply easier.

[Hakurei Reimu]

The concept of a microagression is bullshit. It bans language based on the possibility that someone may be offended by it. Why don't we wait until someone is actually offended by our language before we change it? Otherwise, it's a deep rabbit hole you can plunge down. (To see how stupid such a standard is, think of how many dyslexics may be offended by writing anything at all.)

[Baruch]

This is where I get off the transgender bus.  Would they prefer "it"?

[GSOgymrat]

Inclusive language can be used without eliminated pronouns, which is a lazy approach and creates as many problems as it solves.

I realize this thread really isn't about solving a perceived problem but I'm more offended by incompetence than gender politics, which doesn't interest me.

[TomFoolery]

I will agree that English has evolved to become lazier. When was the last time anyone actually used words like "hence" or "hither" or "thither"?

Shit's just here or there nowadays. I hear "whom" is due to fall off the educational standard any time now by colloquial majority that just favors "who" in all cases. Whatever.

Pronouns will be much, much harder to shake. Imagine 200 years from now and sleazy harlequin romance novels from Walmart being akin to Beowulf with frustrated teenagers lamenting frustration over this "his" and "hers" and "he" and "she" stuff.

Good luck to them. It's much easier to stop using a word altogether than it is to train yourself to substitute another word, especially when they are words used so frequently.

Who would have thought the euphemism treadmill would work its way down to to two and three letter words? It's kind of impressive when you think about it.

[pr126]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM

[missingnocchi]

Pronouns will be much, much harder to shake.

We already lost thou, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Up until a few hundred years ago, 'you' was a plural which could also be used as a formal/polite singular. In this case it might be much easier, since 'they/them/theirs' is already widely used as a gender ambiguous third person singular. Hell, 'sie' can me she, they, or you in German. I support the change not because of 'microaggressions' or any nonsense like that, but because it might help to dislodge the psychological dissociation between genders. The fewer artificial distinctions there are, the easier it will be to understand which ones are real and potentially relieve the tension. On the other hand, an outright ban is obviously going too far, and will probably serve more to create opposition than anything.

[Hakurei Reimu]

It took hundreds of years for English to lose one pronoun, and it didn't happen in a concerted effort to stamp it out. It's because the distinction between politeness levels started to become a bit messed up â€" the polite, singular 'you' lost its politeness mark and migrated to where 'thou/thee/thy' was. 'Thou/thee/thy' also didn't disappear entirely everywhere. Quaker plain speech only lost 'thou' â€" it kept 'thee' and 'thy', with 'thee' replacing 'thou'.

Also, it's not as if it's all been downhill. In Southern American English, 'y'all' replaced 'you' as the plural. Though it's not a perfect replacement (singular usages have been observed), the notion that pronouns are 'going away' is mistaken. Even if they were, they will probably be because they will be replaced by some verb-inflection scheme that performs the same function.

Indeed, inflection is why German can distinguish the use of 'sie' as "she" vs. 'sie' as "they" â€" the pronouns look the same, but they're treated differently because they take different verb inflections. Polite 'Sie' takes the same verb inflection as plural 'sie', but is written differently; it's always capitalized, like German nouns are always capitalized when written. This indicates that they occupy different places in the mental lexicon. They're not the same word, but three separate words that sound the same.

[Atheon]

The problem is that English has no suitable genderless pronouns. "it" is for inanimate objects; "they" works sometimes, but is awkward elsewhere. "he or she" and "he/she" are mouthfuls; "s/he" is unpronounceable. And monstrosities like "xe" and "zir" are laughably un-English.

The fact is that 99.7% of people are cisgendered, and the majority of transgendered people strive to look like their preferred gender, leaving an absolutely tiny tiny minority of people for whom traditional pronouns do not fit. Given that this is the case, the burden should be on them to inform others of how they wish to be addressed, and not on everyone else to hem and haw and wonder what pronoun to be used.

If you're of a nontraditional gender, I have no problem with that, but you should realize that it's to be expected that people will unwittingly and understandably use the wrong pronoun, given the structure of the English language. But note that they do not mean any offense to you.

Enough with the language policing.

[Sal1981]

Let them be offended. I seriously doubt people will care or even know about some students language policing.

[Jack89]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM

That was brilliant.

[missingnocchi]

It took hundreds of years for English to lose one pronoun, and it didn't happen in a concerted effort to stamp it out. It's because the distinction between politeness levels started to become a bit messed up â€" the polite, singular 'you' lost its politeness mark and migrated to where 'thou/thee/thy' was. 'Thou/thee/thy' also didn't disappear entirely everywhere. Quaker plain speech only lost 'thou' â€" it kept 'thee' and 'thy', with 'thee' replacing 'thou'.

Also, it's not as if it's all been downhill. In Southern American English, 'y'all' replaced 'you' as the plural. Though it's not a perfect replacement (singular usages have been observed), the notion that pronouns are 'going away' is mistaken. Even if they were, they will probably be because they will be replaced by some verb-inflection scheme that performs the same function.

Indeed, inflection is why German can distinguish the use of 'sie' as "she" vs. 'sie' as "they" â€" the pronouns look the same, but they're treated differently because they take different verb inflections. Polite 'Sie' takes the same verb inflection as plural 'sie', but is written differently; it's always capitalized, like German nouns are always capitalized when written. This indicates that they occupy different places in the mental lexicon. They're not the same word, but three separate words that sound the same.

Sure, it happened in a different way, but it still happened. Who's to say it can't happen again? As I mentioned, people already use 'they' as a third person singular when gender is ambiguous. It's not hard to imagine that with enough people doing so intentionally it could catch on as a full replacement. Sweden's already trying it out with 'hen.' I also don't think the argument that 'sie' is three different words really stands up. Not that it isn't true, it just seems to me that it really works in the favor of the change. Written form aside, Germans pronounce and conjugate 'Sie' as in 'you' and 'sie' as in 'they' exactly the same way and are able to understand which is being used through context, so it stands to reason that the same could be true of singular and plural 'they' in English. The two would be different words by any reasonable definition. I'm not saying it's destined to be so or anything like that, but I also don't see any good reason to think the other way. Languages change, often in unpredictable ways.

Fun thought: what if 'him' and 'her' become the next 'nigger'?

[Baruch]

We already lost thou, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Up until a few hundred years ago, 'you' was a plural which could also be used as a formal/polite singular. In this case it might be much easier, since 'they/them/theirs' is already widely used as a gender ambiguous third person singular. Hell, 'sie' can me she, they, or you in German. I support the change not because of 'microaggressions' or any nonsense like that, but because it might help to dislodge the psychological dissociation between genders. The fewer artificial distinctions there are, the easier it will be to understand which ones are real and potentially relieve the tension. On the other hand, an outright ban is obviously going too far, and will probably serve more to create opposition than anything.

In order to overcome the ambiguity of the sing/plur "you" ... I haven't restored "thou" as the singular, but elevated "y'all" as the plural ;-)  I am fine that English doesn't distinguish casual vs intimate pronouns.  There is another ambiguous pronoun in English ... "one" as in "if one is smart, one can do that" ... but it only works singular.

The video of PC college students is great satire.  But is anyone really like that, except in R-wing fantasy?  Where are all the Ebonic-speaking  colored folk, and bearded Muslims?  Or is this just hate of Millennials, hate of young adults, hate of educated people?

In English, which is a creole, not a real language ... we lost the neuter gender ages ago.  Russian still has it.  Biblical Hebrew has four different "you" ... masculine sing, feminine sing, masculine plur, feminine plur.  Democratizing has caused us to stop being Shakespearean ... saying "Whither goest thou?".  We don't have much "class" speech in the US, but I guess it still exists in Britain.  And it is mandatory in Japanese.