5 ms·

Running with your totally made up example, what's the correct pronoun if the writing is about an interview that happened in the 90s?

• Pfhreak 7y ago
  Typically, you use someone's current pronouns, and in cases of celebrity you might include something like "nee Bruce Jenner" in a parenthetical.
  • benrbray 7y ago
    "When Jenner won the 1976 men's decathalon, she was ecstatic."
    • Pfhreak 7y ago
      This reads fine to me? Yeah, Jenner is trans. Yes, she ran in events when she was younger. Is anyone reading that not going to understand?
    • geofft 7y ago
      That seems reasonable to me. Pronouns are mostly there to define a referent, not to make you think about someone's gender presentation or genitals every time you see the pronoun. So if you have a long article about Caitlin Jenner and you consistently refer to her as "she," I think it won't actually be jarring. (Similar to how if you repeatedly use "... he said" etc. in writing, it subconsciously disappears to readers, but if you as a writer decide that it's repetitive and you need to use other synonyms for "said" every time, that's actually distracting.) Of course maybe the real answer is to ask her what she'd prefer?