Comment by mirimir
6 years ago
True, but I didn't see that she identified herself, or her gender, in the article. So what's a commenter to do? That's an honest question. Mangle to use "they"? Use some genderless pronoun that'll piss off x% of readers?
> Mangle to use "they"?
Mangle? "They" is perfectly fine to use in this situation, it's not mangling at all.
In this case, you're right. Or at least, it's what I'd have done. Still, when I learned English, "they" wasn't singular. I guess that it's the norm now, but it still feels odd. And sometimes using it does require mangling. I'd rather have a set of gender-neutral pronouns, but hey.
Singular they dates back over 600 years, while the criticism of it dates back only a hundred or two.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
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> when I learned English, "they" wasn't singular
Did you learn English before 14th century? Because that's when it emerged.
1. Use “they”
2. Take the time to use a search engine to look up her name, which is referenced at least two times in screenshots of emails she provides.
3. Click-through to the blog post she links, also written by herself: https://patentpandas.org/stories/crowdfunding-backer-patente...
> "So what's a commenter to do"
Simply don't assume? It's not hard.
> True, but I didn't see that she identified herself, or her gender, in the article. So what's a commenter to do?
Simple.
1. Assume an ostensibly correct pronoun of your own choice (like you did)
2. If someone corrects you, optionally acknowledge the correction and apologize if applicable, then use the correct pronoun henceforth
3. Ignore the overly gender-obsessed people who tell you that you should have used ugly or cumbersome constructs such as "they" or, even worse, "s/he" and variants thereof.
4. Don't worry too much about it; everybody can make an honest mistake.
Calling "they" an ugly or cumbersome construct seems like a reach. I am a native english speaker, and the use of that word to describe people with unknown characteristics (such as criminal suspects and people with obscured features or seen from a distance) has been very common even before the gender-obsessed people took root. It is merely english.
Fair enough, point taken. In my native tongue it doesn't work at all. I was mostly referring to the "s/he" abomination (and its variants) anyway.
It’s ironic to argue that an author’s identity doesn’t really matter, in which an author describes an eregious attempt by a company to steal credit for her work.
I'm sorry, don't see the connection you are trying to make.
In the context of her story, gender is not relevant; she apparently didn't think so either, since the only way I could tell from the article was her hands shown in the last picture.
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Alternatively you can write s/he I believe?
Anyway, "they" is probably the correct way.