How can we avoid unnessessary use of gender-specific pronouns?

I like zee and hom. I have a feeling hoz won’t work well, though…

:)

i’ve always liked the idea of: s/he her/im. simply using a slash where the difference occurs, and ladies first, of course… but since it’s not technically correct, i always get scared to use it!

Seems like you’re missing a pronoun right there in your question…

“One” is often used in place of he, she, him or her, just as “one’s” is often used in place of his or hers.

Did you try to search on this one, @Dr_Lawrence? I know I’ve answered it before, but it wasn’t recently.

{Edit] Wait, here’s one.

Here’s another.

Both with some workable suggestions.

@holden One, I find seems to not be human specific enough for my taste as it can be used to refer to inanimate objects as well in some cases.

@Jeruba This has been an issue I’m been thinking about for years. I admit to not having done a search before posing my question and proposing my alternative pronouns.

@ninjacolin Vocalizing s/he, and her/im are rather awkward.

@loser What would work better in place of hoz?

This wikipedia article has several suggestions and a chart that illustrates their use.

People still think I’m a girl.

is it difficult to vocalize? all you have to say is: “shh-slash-he” and “her-slash-im”

sigh.. okay you win

Personally, I’m fond of the ze/hir approach in @YARNLADY‘s link. That’s what I use.

And I thought I was raising an original question!

@Dr_Lawrence goes to stand in the corner dejected and humiliated!

@MacBean I agree with you

@Jeruba I abhor the use of they, their and them as a singular pronoun.
Rewording will often work but often requires the passive voice which is less direct and often unsuited to conversation.

We are doomed!

no fair editing the question to make my earlier post look stupid:)

I’m all for it. It sucks that we have to refer to our fellow human being in terms of their sex. We’re human first, gender second, yet we always seem to put gender in first place.

@breedmitch The moderators demanded that I edit my question! Your comment was fair and correct as my question was originally (mis)worded.

@HTDC That sentiment is part of what motivated my question in the first place.

Hey everyone, Simone54 is not a girl.
Just tryin’ to help you out there, dude!

I say just wing it. And in some cases, you’ll know. Like professional football, for instance.

@simone54 is a guy, not a girl!
I’m just passing the word along!

I love “hom”, but it wouldn’t really work because the French use “homme” as the word for man (same pronunciation). Let’s agree on “zee” for now :D

Great idea btw, I hate writing he/she or she/he for that matter..

Hey, I still don’t understand why some people don’t wish to say if they are a boy or girl or just gender neutral or if thier s/o is male or female. Your sexuality or that of your S/O isn’t something to be ashamed of in any way.

@Pandora: But if someone is gender-neutral, then what do you call them?

I don’t really see the need. We do well enough as it is, don’t we? Gender only becomes an issue when people make it so, and I think by creating politically conscious words we are constantly drawing attention to gender differences rather than letting prejudices die with history.

I like:
Miss · Mrs. · Ms. · Madam · Dame · Lady

and/or
Mr. (Mister) · Master · Esq. (Esquire) · Sir · Lord

Hey—didn’t WE create language??? Shouldn’t WE be its master and not the other way around?

I think we’re placing way too much importance on the words. I don’t get that easily offended if someone mistakes me for a him in print. I think changing language that’s been taken as read simply for the sake of changing it is pointless. I don’t need to change mailman or policeman or manhole cover to make me feel like an equal citizen.
I didn’t need to start naming half the storms male names so we could all be equal. We’re trying to homogenize ourselves. Can you imagine changing David Bowies Suffragette City to make a special interest group happy?
“Hey person!, Aw leave me alone you know, Hey person…”
I’d rather not. We’re getting close to Eng Speak.
Do I hear a roomful of typewriters dinging, removing words from the language? Where’s my choco ration?

I don’t like all the made-up words myself. Many options have been tried since this issue was first raised in the 1970s and none have stuck. On the other hand, many non-gender specific nouns such as chairperson have become standard usage and that’s great. I find that using “him or her” or “s/he” works fine for me in written language and that’s what i tend to do. Another valid option is to just alternate she and he in the course of a piece of writing.

I don’t know about you people, but I think calling people “hoz” is a wonderful idea.

@casheroo you would have to say “That’s not mine, it’s hoz!” ;-)

I like your suggestions, zee, hoz, hom. I am also fine with just accepting the masculine means both male and female.

I can see women being called “hoz” but men? :-)

Other than the gender-neutral of us (and lets face it, that number is small) specific gender pronouns make life a lot easier, I feel.

Imagine: “Give the keys to hom.”
“Ok. The girl hom or the boy hom?”

@MacBean Confused? LOL, no they can go with undecided. Ok, so its a little longer than he or she but there aren’t that many of them.
@breedmitch LMAO. Love it, “girl hom or boy hom”.
I guess that is the good thing about latin languages. Words in general have female or male versions so there isn’t any way of avoiding a label. Even Fulano which is suppose to be a generic name for anyone (like smith) is Fulano and Fulana.

I just say “they/them” as the gender-neutral pronoun. In English, that’s the best we have.

@Pandora: You might be surprised.

And now I’m bowing out of this discussion, before I end up offended when I really shouldn’t be.

This is why having a name comes in handy.

I understand the power of language and the need to update it as our consiousness evolves, but I highly doubt the new words proposed will be widely adopted.

I agree with @DominicX, they/them is good enough for me.

I like yous-guys.

@Chaz Yous crack me up.
The only problem with they and them, is that although it is neutral, it is also plural.
And lets say someone says they suffer from pain in the genital area when having sex, or something like that. It would help to know if they have female or male plumbing. Instead of guessing and having to write possible solutions for both genders.

Try to avoid using any pronouns, just for fun.

@Nulio, I use to have a teacher who liked to torture us by having us read stories and then write a paper on our opinion without using the word, I. You must know my former teacher. ; (

@Pandora
Your teacher sounds like an interesting character.
Sadly, I got the idea from an older practice of mine. Many sites ago, there was a user who was very, very persnickety about which pronoun got used. I thought it was stupid, but would rather not turn every discussion into an argument (or at least not the same argument). So, no gender-indicative pronouns. Was fun!

I’m with @MacBean generally I use ze/hir for friends who don’t use gender pronouns…and I like them to be used for me but people won’t.

@Nullo We use pronouns to reduce repetitiveness in sentences and paragraphs.

@DominicX The best we have, is rarely the best we can do!

@Dr_Lawrence
Ah, but you see, that is where the skill comes into play! Keeps it interesting.

@Nullo I do not consider my use of language uninteresting because I judiciously use proper nouns, ordinary nouns and pronouns in my writing.

Oh, the it that is kept interesting isn’t proper grammar; it’s the challenge of trying to keep reasonably proper grammar while completely failing to use pronouns.