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I find it sounds more artificial to switch between male and female forms in your documentation than to use the plural forms. Plus, the plural form actually inc
by relet 13y ago
I find it sounds more artificial to switch between male and female forms in your documentation than to use the plural forms.
Plus, the plural form actually includes people who don't identify as male or female, and an increasing number of my friends appreciates that.
- parennoob 13y agoHonest question, what do they prefer to be known as? For example, if there is a person called "pat" who prefers to identify as neither male nor female, do they prefer to be called "them" in the third person? Or do they prefer something like "hir" or "zee"? (which are alternate forms as far as I have heard). I think that if this is a hard problem, it should be solved immediately, without resorting to arbitrary made-up conventions, like using "they" everywhere.
- kevinwallace 13y agoAll language is a set of "arbitrary made-up conventions".
- relet 13y agoThe people I know like the 'they/them' form, since it does not sound as made-up as the other words. I'm not a native speaker, but I agree it happens to me more often that I read past a singular they without noticing than if it were an artificial word like hir.
- aredridel 13y ago'they' and 'zie' are both awesome. One of those tends to garner no strange looks too.