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Comment by spauldo | Hacker News Reader

A lot of us grew up back when "he" was first being replaced by "he/she" (or just "her"). We'll get used to "they" as we encounter it more and more in daily usage. Just give it time.

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"They" has been a gender-neutral singular or plural pronoun for hundreds of years.

Maybe, but default masculine was way more common. That was still taught as proper usage in the 80s here in the US. He/she was its most common replacement until fairly recently.

"They" is so much easier.

I always felt like saying if "he or she" took too much time and was unnecessary.

"They" will replace Him and Her! It might even be you! (If I ever refer to you in 3rd person)

I agree that it's easier. Eventually "they" will probably replace "him/her." Language drift takes time, though, which was my original point.

Maybe! I prefer he/she in this context, which is why I wrote it. I also enjoy Matt Levine's habit of using `she` for unknown gender. If that makes us sound anachronistic someday, I accept that.

My guess is that the initial response by MisterTea was an attempt at language policing, and this whole thread is a waste of time.

It's not a waste of time if you enjoy debating about it!

I think he/she will become outdated soon, if it's not already. I don't think anyone really anticipated there'd be a global debate about gender identity. Regardless of how anyone feels about that particular topic, it's not going to go away. Either everyone naturally shifts to the more inclusive "they" or people will continue to clamor for it.

Matt Levine's not alone in his use of "she/her" - it's actually fairly popular in modern technical writing, I've found.

Using 'they' for an unknown gender has nothing to do with people 'identifying' as they, or anything modern.

It's never been 'he', except in sexism such as 'when the doctor comes he will examine you' (with the doctor's identity and hence gender unknown, but assumed male by profession).

Masculine pronouns were very much the default outside of a few cases (like the "what are they doing?" another posted mentioned). You can say it's due to sexism which is a reasonable argument, but that doesn't change the fact that defaulting to masculine pronouns was the recommended (and most widely used in practice) style.

Seriously, read anything more than about fifty years old. The 1918 Strunk & White¹ stated, "Use the masculine pronoun unless the antecedent is or must be feminine." They argued against inclusive pronouns in the 70s when E. B. White (yeah, the mouse guy) was in charge of the style book, and didn't start recommending inclusive language until the 2000 edition.

The Chicago Manual of Style originally didn't mention it because it was so ingrained in the English language. It only started discouraging its use in 1982, and didn't condemn it until 2010.

Edit: I guess I should state right here that I'm not advocating for default male pronouns in writing. I think "they" is the best replacement. But I was taught "he" and adapted to "he/she" over the years. "They" really only seems to have become prevalent over the last decade or so.

¹That's Strunk and White the style book, not Strunk/White slash fiction.

Maybe it's an American thing.

Maybe! Although I doubt it. Honestly, if you're really curious about it it's best to ask a local language expert if you have access to a university. I'm just an old computer geek with a higher-than-average interest in the written word.

This might make a good subject for a RobWords video, actually.

So did I and we were taught to use "they" when the "sex" of the subject was unknown.

Your school must have been more progressive than mine, then. The argument was still ongoing in the 70s and 80s, so if you went through school during that era it could have gone either way.

A Catholic school, progressive? LOL.

Nuns were the original empowered women, you know. That was one thing the church offered for hundreds of years: if you don't want to be what society tells you have to be, you could always join the church and be a priest/monk/nun instead.

But yeah, I get what you're saying. I don't have any explanation for you, other than he/she was what I was taught in the 80s in Oklahoma public schools.

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