afroling:

literalfuckingmess:

sonyaliloquy:

de-is-me:

kbearluna:

someone: They/them as a singular pronoun just isn’t grammatically correct.
same person: but to each their own
me: 

can I have this on a t-shirt

Amazing.

I totally agree with using the correct pronouns but this example is wrong. The quote is either each to your own or each to their own as in their meaning plural as you refer to a group of people as gender neutral. In another way people only say each to their own when refering to multiple people.

I dunno what you say, but me, everyone I know and every book I’ve ever read says ‘To each his/her/their own.’ I don’t deny that you say something different, but I think the majority consensus would side with the meme.

‘Each’ is inherently singular.

One generally says, especially in standard Englishes; Each person is going to go up, give a speech and then sit.

Not; Each person are* going to go up, give a speech and then sit.

The reason why is because by using ‘each’, we separate the individual speakers from a group we would call ‘they’ into a number of comparable individuals we would call ‘he/she/they’. English speakers commonly elaborate and say ‘each one’ to further emphasise this point, as in ‘ I see four ducks and each one is eating a different kind of bread.’ It also makes using are* even more awkward. There’s no modifier that does the opposite or emphasises plurality.

(Interesting note, though, many English speakers will say ‘each of them are…’ or ‘each of the students are…’ in conversation, even though this violates a grammar rule. It’s because there’s a dissonance for speakers saying ‘them is’, or ‘students is’ a phenomenon linguists call ‘hypercorrection’, where speakers ignore or break certain linguistic rules because their brains feel like they would be wrong otherwise. People who speak Englishes with more conjugation neutralisation, like AAVE speakers, might make these ‘mistakes’ less often, but that part is more conjecture.)

Each as a pronoun is conjugated as he/she/it (is) and not any plural

The phrase ‘to each their own’ probably has some historical link with the French phrase, ‘À chacun son goût’ (meaning, ‘To each one his/her/their taste’) and it’s many variations, for example, ‘Chacun a son goût’ (literally ‘Each one has his/her/their taste’).Here again, the singular 3rd person singular possessive ‘son’ is used instead of the plural ‘leur’. In the variation, the 3rd singular conjugation ‘a’ is used instead of 3rd plural ‘ont’.

Linguistics lesson.

commandershepardvasfuckit:

linnythealien:

Unlike many other languages, both second/third person singular/plural pronouns are the same in English!

We have both a singular and plural “you” and “they”

If you’re not also going to complain about plural you, ya don’t get to complain about singular they.

Plus, I bet you use the singular they all the time

“Has the mailman come yet?” “No, they haven’t”

You’re not worried about grammar, ya’ll just want to hate on nb people for no reason

averyautisticgayinspace:

When people try to give me crap when I say I use they pronouns I always respond:

“I’m a linguist. I’ve studied how language works thoroughly in Spanish and Latin as well as English and I assure you, there is nothing grammatically incorrect about shifting the use of the singular they (something that has been in use since before shakespeare!!) from the indirect to the personal – language is not bound by rules but a fluid thing we can measure with patterns!”

The first marked instance of the indirect singular they is from some time in the 1300s. Then at the start of the 1800s grammarians of the prescriptivist variety (the kind who think they can make a language do their bidding rather than simply recording what they observe real live humans doing with language) decided that no way could “they” be correct, we must use something else! And came up with “he” as an indirect pronoun.

“If anyone is cold at night, he should put on a blanket.” “Someone’s left his books; I hope he returns for them.”

Thankfully many people ignored that crap so in the nineteenth century we can witness the singular they living on through some authors (such as Jane Austen) and more informal writing while the sticklers did use he.

And then the feminist movement came around in the 1900s, rightfully declared using “he” as the indefinite pronoun to be sexist, and changed it to that clunky “he or she” – “if anyone is cold at night, he or she should put on a blanket.”

But the indefinite singular they lived on and thankfully is regaining widespread use and legitimacy even among the most esteemed grammarians.

And in the meantime the singular they has also been adopted by the trans/nonbinary community, because for goodness sake we need something that frees us from the gendering garbage of this society and when we go for neopronouns like xe/xem or fae/faer people complain those are “"made up words”“ (as if any word sprung fully formed into being without being made up at some point??) so “they” is what many of us select instead. But, shockingly (/sarcasm), transphobes don’t give one shit about all this explanation – they’re going to keep right on denying our pronouns.

Therefore, for another pronoun that works in both the singular and plural, simply direct these people to “you are” – you can even use it in a sentence for them! “You are a transphobe.” “You are transphobes.” Amazing!

On plural inclusivity and “plural they”, part 2

Three days ago I wrote this blog post detailing my thoughts, investigations and choices regarding plural inclusivity and the pronoun “plural they”.

Since then I’ve been getting feedback, and talking and thinking about pronouns even more than my usual obsessive amount. (I even started yet another new curious but unofficial survey, which you’re all invited to take part in.)

My brain is very tired now. :D

When I first came out (about 10 years ago) and started learning about pronouns, I researched “singular they” pronouns a little bit - in part because lots of people were arguing that singular they wasn’t a legit pronoun, so I wanted to understand more. At that time, the “singular they isn’t grammatically correct” and “singular they can’t refer to a specific known person” arguments were very prevalent, and every trans person I encountered understood out of necessity that singular they is defined as “they/them used to refer to one person.”

Hand on heart, it honestly did not occur to me that a significant number of people might not know that’s what “singular they” means. “Singular they” is the name that lexicographers and other people who study language collectively call “they/them when referring to one person.” It’s a useful name, to refer to a pronoun set with a slightly different use case and, usually, spelling to match. And for some reason I thought that my experience from a decade ago, where understanding of this name was universal, would obviously still be relevant. (It is not.)

It’s a sign of progress, since singular they for nonbinary people is so much more commonly accepted that every nonbinary person doesn’t need to know the name “singular they” and what exactly the name means and how it is used differently from third-person regular/plural they.

If calling the set “singular they” on the annual survey doesn’t add clarity and help people find their pronoun set, I will stop using that name, and switch to providing the meaning instead. I’m thinking maybe something like replacing:

❌ Singular they - they/them/their/theirs/themself (plural verbs, i.e. “they are a writer”)

With:

➡️ They - they/them/their/theirs/themself (for referring to an individual, i.e. “they are a writer”)

This all started because I’ve been asked by a few people to combine singular and plural they in the annual survey, and just call it “they” instead of “singular they”, so that plural people can choose it.

I’m not going to combine two pronoun sets into one in the annual survey, because they are two pronoun sets that have different meanings and use cases, and (usually) different spellings.

I am considering adding plural they to the checkbox list, NOT as a way to include plural people (because arbitrary inclusion isn’t a reason for adding any term that is written into textboxes by under 1% of people), but because it might be useful to compare with singular they. Having said that, I am so far undecided, but leaning towards not including plural they. The “comparison” words that are on the list despite being chosen by under 1% of participants (binary, cisgender, etc) are gender-related words. The plural/singlet spectrum is unrelated to gender, and therefore not something the Gender Census would proactively investigate. If plural they is typed into textboxes by over 1% of participants that’s a whole other situation, and it would be automatically reconsidered.

If a checkbox term or pronoun isn’t accurate for you, don’t choose it! Type something in a textbox instead, so I can know it’s popular.

gendercensus:

Here’s a Twitter poll for people whose pronouns are any form of they/them, and here’s a Mastodon poll. They close on the morning (UK time) of Thursday 6th May 2021.

Signal-boosts are appreciated, because if we can get the number of voters high enough it may affect future versions of the Gender Census!

(Inspired by this ask.)

Another couple of polls, on reflexive preferences for singular they people and plural they people, which close on the morning (UK time) of Friday 7th May 2021.

[Twitter//Mastodon]

gendercensus:

Here’s a Twitter poll for people whose pronouns are any form of they/them, and here’s a Mastodon poll. They close on the morning (UK time) of Thursday 6th May 2021.

Signal-boosts are appreciated, because if we can get the number of voters high enough it may affect future versions of the Gender Census!

(Inspired by this ask.)

Reblogging because I’ve updated the URLs with new polls - please reblog this new version! Thank you. :)

Here’s a Twitter poll for people whose pronouns are any form of they/them, and here’s a Mastodon poll. They close on the morning (UK time) of Thursday 6th May 2021.

Signal-boosts are appreciated, because if we can get the number of voters high enough it may affect future versions of the Gender Census!

(Inspired by this ask.)

This short, clarifying survey ran from 4th until 24th April 2021. There were 2,998 usable responses. Unlike the annual Gender Census survey, this one was open to anyone of any gender, provided they lived in an English-speaking country.

It asked about two things:

• They/them verbs and reflexives - basically whether people who prefer they/them pronouns prefer the reflexive to be themselforthemselves, and which people feel is more “correct”.
• Sir/ma’am/? - investigating why people use sir/ma’am in areas where it’s polite and common to do so, and whether there are any viable nonbinary or gender-neutral alternatives.

This blog post will also investigate the Spivak vs. Elverson issue, which was actually a separate poll that took place on two social networks.

~

THEY/THEM VERBS AND REFLEXIVES

Someone asked about themself vs.themselves, and it reminded me of some of the they/them issues that people ask about in feedback boxes and various confusions surrounding them.

• Singular they - what is it, and when and how do people use it?
• Plural they - what is it, and when and how do people use it?
• What is the “correct” reflexive for each of these?

You can see the statistics in more detail here, but here’s the graph as an overview:

Participants were asked a series of questions about singular they pronouns. Everyone was asked a “which is correct” question, and participants who sometimes or always like to be called ”they” were also asked about their personal preferences.

The graph is a view of only participants who sometimes or always like to be called “they”.

Verbs. As you can see, participants overwhelmingly (94.3%) wanted people to use plural verbs (”they are reading a book”) when talking about them in the third person - even though the percentage of people who thought that was the most “correct” form was a little lower (81.8%). This was lower because 11.4% of participants who preferred “they” answered “both are correct”.

Reflexives. People were much more likely to say that both themself andthemselves were correct (28.3%), and more likely to have no preference between the two (17.4%). However, themself was still more popular overall at 59.3%, and 47.3% thought themself was grammatically correct.

You as a control. I also asked all participants whether yourself oryourselves was more correct when addressing one person as a kind of control question, because they is almost grammatically identical to you - it can refer to one person or multiple people, it takes plural verbs even when referring to/addressing one person, and in that situation only the reflexive changes. Many people who say that singular they is grammatically incorrect have no issues with singular you, so it seemed like something that might be interesting to compare. In the graph above you can see that 93.6% of people thought yourself was more correct; only 4.2% of they-accepting participants felt that both yourself andyourselves were equally correct when addressing one person.

There were a couple of things that came up several times in the comments:

• “They is” is common in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), and probably in other dialects too. As I don’t live in the US I’m pretty unfamiliar with this dialect, but either way that seems fine to me. It’s part of why I also asked for participants’ locations, because I wanted others to be able to download the results and see if some regions were more likely to use some words/constructions than others.
• There were some alternatives to themself andthemselvespresented, such as theirself andtheirsen. Both of these points lead nicely to the third…
• The idea that any language choice is more “correct” than another is quite prescriptive. What feels correct or natural varies depending on a lot of factors, such as where in the world you learned English, and there is no such thing as objective correctness when it comes to such a broad and variable language as English.

I am aware of and agree with that third bullet point, so my asking which phrases were more “correct” was a bit of a trick question. It was a good way to get a feel for people’s linguistic instincts.

I also thought it was interesting that participants who never wanted to be called they were slightly more likely to side with the most popular view on what is “correct” across the board, and less likely to say “both are correct”.

~

PLURAL VS. SINGULAR THEY

I actually ran another version of this survey first and then scrapped the responses, because it was clear that my survey design was leading to some pretty confused and unhelpful data! Among other things, it asked participants whether they preferred singular or plural they for themselves and then directed them to particular questions based on their answer, and the comments suggested that people either didn’t really understand the distinction or meant different things by those terms, even though I had added help text.

This is my understanding:

• Singular they isthey/them pronouns when used to refer to one person. Verbs are usually plural (i.e. “they are” rather than “they is”), and themself andthemselves are both common. Example usage: They are getting themself a cup of coffee. They bought themselves a nice new hat.
• Plural they isthey/them pronouns when used to refer to two or more people. Verbs are usually plural (i.e. “they are” rather than “they is”), and themselves is almost universal (with the exception of regional variations such as theirselves). Example usage: They are getting themselves some coffee together. They all bought hats for themselves.
• Some plural/multiple people refer to themselves as “we” and prefer to be addressed as “they/themselves” (which they call plural they) because they are a group of individuals sharing one body.

The reason I initially asked directly about singular vs. plural they is because I was concerned that plural/multiple systems would cause some statistical confusion. Many plural people have asked me to add plural they to the checkbox list of pronouns in the annual survey, but since it has never been entered by over 1% of participants I have never had reason to do so. As far as I knew, the only difference between singular and plural they is the reflexive (themself for singular and themselves for plural), so I wanted to be able to investigate non-plural people in isolation, and I was curious to know about any trends or differences. I wanted to find out if I should be doing anything differently to ensure that Gender Census statistics are helpful.

So, I swapped out the badly-designed question for a straight-up checkbox, a “check this box if you’re plural/multiple” type of thing, with a note that participants should fill in the survey once per body wherever possible, and then I made some graphs.

Here you can see that plural systems were still more likely to prefer people to use themself to refer to them rather than themselves, though the margin is narrower:

Plural participants were also more likely to say that they sometimes or never want people to refer to them as they, whereas non-plural people were more likely to want people to always refer to them as they (or they just feel fine about it):

There’s not a lot in it, though. It’s all relatively evenly distributed, with no strong leader in either category there.

For the curious: 8.2% of participants checked the plural/multiple box.

In conclusion: plural and non-plural people alike all prefer people to use themself when referring to them in the third person using they/them pronouns, and I feel that there is probably no need to ask about plurality or separate out data from plural people in future. (Asking about this and seeing the responses did in part prompt me to start an anonymous feedback form for plural participants of the Gender Census, though.)

~

THE SIR/MA’AM ISSUE

For several years participants have been asking me in the feedback box of the annual Gender Census survey to also ask about gender-inclusive or nonbinary-specific alternatives to sir and ma’am. I’ve largely not done anything about it, because when informally asking around I’ve generally had the response “just don’t say sir or ma’am, just leave it out altogether.” I live in the UK, where if someone calls you sir/ma’am you’re either looking at home in a fancy restaurant for billionnaires or you’re being made fun of - or sometimes both.

However, during this year’s annual survey while talking about it in a little more depth I learned that there are places in the world where sir/ma’amis very common, required for politeness, and basically inescapable. Nonbinary people in those areas are really struggling, because they do actually need a nonbinary-friendly stand-in for those terms - omitting the sir/ma’am isn’t an option.

Again, the location question was asked so that anyone else downloading the spreadsheet of responses can analyse by region to find out whether sir/ma’am is ubiquitous in particular regions and in which contexts it is used, and can even check whether there is a region-specific alternative to sir/ma’am emerging. I asked several questions about sir/ma’am, including about reasons/contexts and personal preferences, and some superficial analysis is included on the spreadsheet of responses.

But the juicy bit is the nonbinary-specific and gender-inclusive alternative words, right?

[The counting formula is case-sensitive so I made everything lowercase to make the count a little more accurate.]

Suggested gender-inclusive alternatives to sir/ma’am

1. mx - 4.1% (151)
2. friend - 2.2%
3. comrade - 1.2%
4. captain - 0.7%
5. ser - 0.5%
6. mate - 0.4%
7. m - 0.3%
8. per - 0.3%
9. boss - 0.3%
10. folks - 0.3% (9)

Suggested nonbinary-specific alternatives to sir/ma’am

1. mx - 8.3% (250)
2. mix - 0.7%
3. tiz - 0.5%
4. friend - 0.4%
5. ser - 0.4%
6. comrade - 0.3%
7. mixter - 0.3%
8. captain - 0.2%
9. ind - 0.2%
10. mir - 0.2% (6)

So it looks like Mx (pronounced “mix” or with a toneless vowel that sounds a bit like “mux”) is the clear winner in both categories. If you want to try to introduce a gender-neutral version of sir/ma’amin your area this one is probably your best bet.

~

SPIVAK VS. ELVERSON

This wasn’t part of the same survey! It was a Twitter poll and a Mastodon poll that ran for one week and ended today, and I’m putting it here because it has to go somewhere.

Sometimes people refer to the ey/em ande/em “versions” of the Spivak pronoun set, which makes my eyebrows do things, because they’re not both Spivak. They are distinct established pronoun sets with their own names.

• Spivak - e/em/eir/eirs/emself - written about by Michael Spivak in the 1990s. [source: Nonbinary Wiki]
• Elverson - ey/em/eir/eirs/emself - created by Christine M Elverson in the 1970s. [source: Nonbinary Wiki]

The Elverson set is older, but it’s less well-known for some reason, so they’re assumed to be variants of Spivak due to the similarity in spelling.

I was recently asked how we can know which is more popular, given the “oh this checkbox option is close enough, I’ll just choose that instead of typing in my very slightly different set” effect and the “hmm this checkbox option is very close to my set, I’m probably meant to choose this one” effect, plus the boost that checkbox options get with the “oh I hadn’t thought of that one but yeah, why not” effect. Spivak (e/em) is on the checkbox list of pronouns in the annual survey, so it appears to be much more popular than Elverson (ey/em)… but is it really?

I ran a poll on both TwitterandMastodon, and then used a spreadsheet to extract the useful numbers. There were 141 relevant votes after one week. I wouldn’t usually make annual-survey-altering decisions based on a sample that small, but in this case the results are extremely decisive:

It seems that the highest proportion of people who like at least one of the sets are happy for both to be used, at 48%. 45% prefer ey/em (Elverson) and 7% prefer e/em (Spivak). This is pretty stunning! I’ve been presenting e/em (Spivak) as a checkbox option on the Gender Census annual survey for years, possibly since the first survey in 2013, and because it’s a checkbox option it seems to be consistently a lot more popular than ey/em (Elverson). That’s 4.3% and 0.6% respectively in the 2021 survey. But this poll suggests that actually ey/em (Elverson) is much more popular when the two pronoun sets are viewed on a level playing field.

When you remove all “I don’t mind” votes, you get this:

Over 6 times as many people prefered Elverson!

I will definitely be adding Elverson to the Gender Census next year, just so that we can split the e/emandey/emvotes and really get to the bottom of this.

Anyway, while we’re on the topic, ey/em takes singular verbs most of the time.

polyhorde:

advanced-procrastination:

anghraine:

lisa-franck:

gregthyst-is-real:

cannibal-rainbow:

“they” (1 word) is shorter than “he or she” (3 words)

“they” is more inclusive than “he/she”

“themself” flows more naturally than “him or herself”

“they” is less clunky than “(s)he”

it’s time to replace the awkward “she or he”

“hey can you go ask they what does they want for dinner, and when is they coming over to watch movies with they?”

“Hey, can you go ask them what they want for dinner, and when they’re coming over to watch movies?”

Step one is learning how to talk like a human person.

Friendly reminder:

“I shouldn’t like to punish anyone, even if they’d done me wrong.” —George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)

“A person can’t help their birth.” —William Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

“But to expose the former faults of any person, without knowing what their present feelings were, seemed unjustifiable.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

“Every Fool can do as they’rebid.” —Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (1738)

“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” —King James Bible, Matthew 18:35 (transl. 1611)

“God send every one their heart’s desire!” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (~1600)

“Now this king did keepe a great house, that euerie body might come and take their meat freely.” —Sir Philip Sidney, the Arcadia (1580)

“If … a psalme scape any person, or a lesson, or els yt they omyt one verse or twayne…” —William Bonde, The Pylgrimage of Perfection (1526)

“And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, / They wol come up and offre a Goddés name” —Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Tale (~1380)

“þan hastely hiȝed eche wiȝt on hors & on fote, / huntyng wiȝt houndes alle heie wodes, / til þei neyȝþed so neiȝh to nymphe þe soþe [Then hastily hied each person on horse and on foot / hunting with hounds all the high woods / ‘til they came so near, to tell the truth]” —William and the Werwolf (transl. ~1350-1375)

“Bath ware made sun and mon, / Aiþer wit þer ouen light [Both were made sun and moon / Either with their own light]” —Cursor Mundi (~1325)

We’ve been using they/them/their pronouns to indicate a person with unspecified gender for a long ass fucking time. The only reason it’s become a big issue lately is because it can be used as a semi-respectful term for trans and non-binary folks and we can’t have that can we

These fucks are literally trying to change our language to hurt trans/nb folks, and claiming that’s just the way its always been

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Singular “they” predates

Singular “you”

gendercensus:

Here’s a Twitter poll for people whose pronouns are any form of they/them, and here’s a Mastodon poll. They close on the morning (UK time) of Thursday 6th May 2021.

Signal-boosts are appreciated, because if we can get the number of voters high enough it may affect future versions of the Gender Census!

(Inspired by this ask.)

June’s WritingTipWed! Every Wednesday I post a writing tip on my Twitter! If you want to see these weekly, follow me @/EmilyLaJaunie.

～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～✦～

#WritingTipWed 46 - When writing a queer character, don’t make the character’s only defining trait about being queer.

Ex, just how you wouldn’t write a character whose trait is being straight, don’t make one whose trait is being gay.

#WritingTipWed 47 - When writing something set in a previous time period, look up what words/phrases were commonly used/didn’t exist yet. And for meanings of words, as they can change over time.

A “gay man”, for instance, used to be a womanizer.

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay:

“The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th. By the late 17th century, it had acquired the specific meaning of "addicted to pleasures and dissipation”, an extension of its primary meaning of “carefree” implying “uninhibited by moral constraints”. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel. An example is a letter read to a London court in 1885 during the prosecution of brothel madam and procuress Mary Jeffries that had been written by a girl while slaved to a French brothel:

“I write to tell you it is a gay house…Some captains came in the other night, and the mistress wanted us to sleep with them.”“

#WritingTipWed 48 - Accept that when you’re writing a queer story, even if you consulted with hundreds of queer sensitivity readers/beta readers, that your story will not satisfy everyone. You can’t please everyone, so still, be proud!

#WritingTipWed 49 - The APA now endorses the use of “they” as a singular third-person pronoun and it is part of the APA style!

So instead of writing “he or she” write “they” and instead of “his or her” write “their.”

apastyle.apa.org/blog/singular-they

#WritingTipWed 50 - On this last day of Pride Month, remember to love. Love yourself, love others, love your writing. Write about what you love, who you love. The love of friends, families, partners, that’s what makes a story powerful.

polyhorde:

advanced-procrastination:

anghraine:

lisa-franck:

gregthyst-is-real:

cannibal-rainbow:

“they” (1 word) is shorter than “he or she” (3 words)

“they” is more inclusive than “he/she”

“themself” flows more naturally than “him or herself”

“they” is less clunky than “(s)he”

it’s time to replace the awkward “she or he”

“hey can you go ask they what does they want for dinner, and when is they coming over to watch movies with they?”

“Hey, can you go ask them what they want for dinner, and when they’re coming over to watch movies?”

Step one is learning how to talk like a human person.

Friendly reminder:

“I shouldn’t like to punish anyone, even if they’d done me wrong.” —George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)

“A person can’t help their birth.” —William Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

“But to expose the former faults of any person, without knowing what their present feelings were, seemed unjustifiable.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

“Every Fool can do as they’rebid.” —Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (1738)

“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” —King James Bible, Matthew 18:35 (transl. 1611)

“God send every one their heart’s desire!” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (~1600)

“Now this king did keepe a great house, that euerie body might come and take their meat freely.” —Sir Philip Sidney, the Arcadia (1580)

“If … a psalme scape any person, or a lesson, or els yt they omyt one verse or twayne…” —William Bonde, The Pylgrimage of Perfection (1526)

“And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, / They wol come up and offre a Goddés name” —Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Tale (~1380)

“þan hastely hiȝed eche wiȝt on hors & on fote, / huntyng wiȝt houndes alle heie wodes, / til þei neyȝþed so neiȝh to nymphe þe soþe [Then hastily hied each person on horse and on foot / hunting with hounds all the high woods / ‘til they came so near, to tell the truth]” —William and the Werwolf (transl. ~1350-1375)

“Bath ware made sun and mon, / Aiþer wit þer ouen light [Both were made sun and moon / Either with their own light]” —Cursor Mundi (~1325)

We’ve been using they/them/their pronouns to indicate a person with unspecified gender for a long ass fucking time. The only reason it’s become a big issue lately is because it can be used as a semi-respectful term for trans and non-binary folks and we can’t have that can we

These fucks are literally trying to change our language to hurt trans/nb folks, and claiming that’s just the way its always been

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Singular “they” predates

Singular “you”