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I understand "their" as a plural, so for lack of it, there are no good gender-neutral singular third person pronouns. In my writing I've quite often used "he" i
by wcrichton 9y ago
I understand "their" as a plural, so for lack of it, there are no good gender-neutral singular third person pronouns. In my writing I've quite often used "he" in the past, so I try to keep it balanced. I don't consider this deliberately obtuse, since I find it just as disorienting to see "their" used in a singular context.
- DC-3 9y agoThat's interesting, since 'her' in this context causes something equivalent to a Parse Error in my brain, but 'their' flows completely naturally for me.
- Leszek 9y agoPerhaps that's something you should evaluate about yourself then, because I don't think you'd raise the same ParseError if the profession were "nurse". Unconscious biases don't have to be malicious to exist, and I catch myself thinking the way you describe sometimes before realising "wait, this should be fine though".
- DC-3 8y agoIt's nothing to do with the fact that it's about software development, I don't think (or at least hope). I just find it jarring to see 'her' used as an 'abstract' gender neutral pronoun. In my mind, 'his' has two semantically distinct definitions, and 'her' has just one - and that's just how the English language works.
- Leszek 8y agoAgree to disagree on this being a universal 'abstract' gender neutral pronoun problem, and not being profession related.
- tom_mellior 9y ago> I understand "their" as a plural Singular "they" has been in use in English for centuries. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they or https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbi... for example.