For some reason every conversation about this simple rule gets way too toxic
There’s definitely some additional nuance (like a pronouns in bio/username situation) but this should cover the broad needs of anyone who is approaching this with good faith.
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make he/him gender neutral
???why not just use they/them like we have been for centuries lmao. your plan would cause so many problems.
don’t make me tap the tom scott video
Maybe you misunderstood my actual comment. I’m saying we should use he/him as the general neutral pronoun. That Tom Scott video is saying the same thing as me, just with a different solution.
You said my plan would cause “so many problems”, and outside of the obvious transition problem, I still see no problems.
and NO they/them doesn't "refer to multiple." the tom scott video abjectly disagrees with you on that, so don't twist things. even Shakespeare used they/them to refer to singular people.
honestly this conversation is pointless and boring so i'll end it here.
I agree. Also thanks for letting the video.
"If someone dropped their wallet would you tell them?"
Perfectly normal and already understood.
Just a quick heads up but, linguistically speaking, you are mistaken with what you said about “they/them”.
It doesn’t refer to multiple people?
To quote from Cambridge University’s (founded 1209 ce in England) English dictionary:
We use they and them to refer back to the indefinite pronouns someone, anyone, everyone when we do not know the number or gender.
I actually prefer it as the neutral singular, but everyone decided that was dehumanizing. To me it feels natural because if you don't know an animal's or a baby's gender, you call it it.
People didn’t so much “decide” that, as it was used that way by bigots specifically because it was historically only used for animals and objects. They used it as a slur to hurt folks in our community, and like any attempt to reclaim a slur, even though the reclamation is an act of power, there are going to be people who were targetted by the slur who struggle with the concept of reclamation.
use "Ms or Mrs"
And your main point, degender the male pronouns, it wouldn't work. "Man" used to mean people, male men and female men and child men – boys and girls – had different words, some of which are still around. That's why people say there's nothing gendered in "chairman" (which 50 years ago was logically equal to "chairperson", unless you count other species as people).