I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking forward to celebrating this all year. Casting such trivia as chromosomes into the dustbin of useless outdated science, there’s no better icebreaker at an Alpha meeting than to say – as I am now a fully integrated Canadian – “hi, my name’s Cuthbert and I use ey/em pronouns, eh”. It’ll be a riot.
The Diocese of Huron has this helpful guide on when a they is a ney and a him is a nem (page 8):
October 20 is International Pronouns Day. This day seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity – it is about respecting and honouring people for who they are – in fullness. It is about breaking down the gender binary, stereotypes, and assumptions – and hearing people for who they are and the language that feels right for them. It is about celebrating the diversity of God as emulated through God’s diverse children.
The most common pronouns are she/her and he/him. Additionally, the most common gender neutral pronoun is they/them – this has been used as a singular pronoun since as far back as 1375 – so it is certainly not new! For example, rather than saying: “He and I went to the store”, you would say: “They and I went to the store”. It also helps avoid the awkwardness of saying “I can’t wait to meet him or her!” – instead, you can simply say: “I can’t wait to meet them!” There are many pronouns beyond she/her, he/him, and they/them – this includes mixed pronouns (when people use multiple different sets of pronouns, such as “she/her and they/them”), and neopronouns (other sets of gender-neutral pronouns, such as ney/nem, ze/zi, ey/em, etc).
Anybody here read or reread Lewis’s That Hideous Strength recently?
+1
Yes, I reread the series about 6 months ago – you are thinking of the Banquet at Belbury?
Precisely so!
Lewis was so prescient..
…..and further down the rabbit hole they go……where it gets darker and darker.
1. If I have to remember someone’s third-person pronouns to use them, they’re not pronouns. It’s linguistically counter-intuitive and the fad will ultimately fail because it.
2. As listing one’s pronouns becomes increasingly de rigueur, I recommend following a suggestion I picked up on a US blog: “My pronouns are I/me/myself/mine”. That should complicate things! Imagine trying to use those in the third person:
“I spoke with JJM today. I informed me that I was going to use ‘I/me/myself/mine’ as my pronouns henceforth. I fully respect my decision and I told me so this morning”
“[T]he most common gender neutral pronoun is they/them – this has been used as a singular pronoun since as far back as 1375 – so it is certainly not new!”
This is really stretching the truth. Yes, “singular they” has been used as a sex-irrelevant (not “gender-neutral”) pronoun for some six centuries now. However, it has never been used as a specific personal pronoun; it’s a general one and has a fairly circumscribed range of use with nouns and other pronouns such as anyone, everyone, everybody and so forth.
To illustrate, I might say:
“Any doctor will tell you that they have considerable doubts about this type of treatment.”
But note what happens to the meaning when I swap in a tiny substitution to make this specific rather than general:
“My doctor will tell you that they have considerable doubts about this type of treatment.”
There is an active move in certain corners to push “singular they” beyond its idiomatic threshold into the role of a “gender-neutral” singular pronoun. But I can tell you that I am simply not hearing this in common usage (i.e., in the normal boring world of ordinary everyday English speakers).
If I did start to hear such speakers (rather than the usual tiny coterie of “progressives”) saying something like “I spoke to Frank yesterday and they said they’d help with the paving” (vice “I spoke to Frank yesterday and he said he’d help with the paving”), I guarantee my ears would prick right up.
Just to round out my thoughts on this:
“The most common pronouns are she/her and he/him.”
Wrong again. The most common (third person) pronoun is “it”, which substitutes for a vastly greater corpus of nouns than either “he” or “she”.
Perhaps we should just use “it” in the singular and “they” in the plural?
Problem solved!
October 1st, according to the Emergency Act Commission Hearings, remains The International numbers day:
11 in Canada.
‘Justice’ Minister calling for a “tank”, “quick, quick, quick”(Schnell, Schnell, Schnell!!!) in Solidarity with his compliant Ministress of Defenceless in their non-Cabinet violation of The Constitution and The Charter.
Who DID raise that Nazi flag, after all?.
Good law practice functions from precedent to precedent: Liberal Regime, after attempting to suspend Parliament for two years, March 16, 2020 , attempted invocation of Emergency Act at ongoing outset of Covid in April, 2020. following the Act’s prescribed due process of consultation with Provincial Premiers. who said no;
the same Premiers who were but an inconvenient afterthought at best on the February 14, 2022, EA announcement.
What will the next precedent be? “Policy”;
or rule of law?