3 ms·

According to their Twitter bio, Nóirín prefers to be referred to in the singular "they". Please respect their identity, HN.

ihuman 11y ago
People wouldn't know unless they looked up their twitter page. People here are using "her" because the article uses "her." https://twitter.com/noirinp https://twitter.com/noirinp
- sas 11y ago
  now they do!
davidw 11y ago
Are you sure that doesn't just refer to a preference for using 'they/them' as opposed to 'him' when it's a generic singular pronoun? People who knew her are using "her": http://drbacchus.com/festina-lente/ http://drbacchus.com/festina-lente/
- lizdenys 11y ago
  It's unlikely that they meant "preferred pronoun" to be about a singular person generally, since it commonly refers to preferences about oneself. People often use pronouns other than the ones someone prefers for a variety of reasons: sometimes the preferred pronoun is new, sometimes people forget, sometimes people don't respect that person's preferred pronoun.
  - davidw 11y ago
    > It's unlikely that they meant "preferred pronoun" to be about a singular person generally, since it commonly refers to preferences about oneself. Without more context, even in that case, it could be either 2nd or 3rd person. Queen Elizabeth, for instance, might put her preferred pronoun as 'we', but you'd still write about her. In any event, very sad.
- eryno 11y ago
  Yes, quite sure. Source: Friends with people who knew them IRL.
- rbowen 11y ago
  So ... I wrote that, and it's worth mentioning that I knew Noirin before the preference for different pronouns was stated. That is, I knew Noirin, as mentioned in my blog post, during the ASF days, before they moved away from ASF activity into other areas of activism. Thus, I used the pronoun which was preferred at the time of our acquaintance. Much like people that knew me as a kid call me "Richard" and people that knew me in college call me "Rich", likewise, people that knew Noirin earlier and later will likely use different pronouns, based on the norms at the time. No disrespect is meant, just fond memories of a too-short friendship.
  - davidw 11y ago
    As much as anything, I linked to it because it was a nice bit of writing.
zorpner 11y ago
Thank you for letting me know, and I'll use their preferred pronoun in the future.

ihuman 11y ago

People wouldn't know unless they looked up their twitter page. People here are using "her" because the article uses "her." https://twitter.com/noirinp https://twitter.com/noirinp

sas 11y ago
now they do!

davidw 11y ago

Are you sure that doesn't just refer to a preference for using 'they/them' as opposed to 'him' when it's a generic singular pronoun? People who knew her are using "her": http://drbacchus.com/festina-lente/ http://drbacchus.com/festina-lente/

lizdenys 11y ago
It's unlikely that they meant "preferred pronoun" to be about a singular person generally, since it commonly refers to preferences about oneself. People often use pronouns other than the ones someone prefers for a variety of reasons: sometimes the preferred pronoun is new, sometimes people forget, sometimes people don't respect that person's preferred pronoun.
- davidw 11y ago
  > It's unlikely that they meant "preferred pronoun" to be about a singular person generally, since it commonly refers to preferences about oneself. Without more context, even in that case, it could be either 2nd or 3rd person. Queen Elizabeth, for instance, might put her preferred pronoun as 'we', but you'd still write about her. In any event, very sad.
eryno 11y ago
Yes, quite sure. Source: Friends with people who knew them IRL.
rbowen 11y ago
So ... I wrote that, and it's worth mentioning that I knew Noirin before the preference for different pronouns was stated. That is, I knew Noirin, as mentioned in my blog post, during the ASF days, before they moved away from ASF activity into other areas of activism. Thus, I used the pronoun which was preferred at the time of our acquaintance. Much like people that knew me as a kid call me "Richard" and people that knew me in college call me "Rich", likewise, people that knew Noirin earlier and later will likely use different pronouns, based on the norms at the time. No disrespect is meant, just fond memories of a too-short friendship.
- davidw 11y ago
  As much as anything, I linked to it because it was a nice bit of writing.

zorpner 11y ago

Thank you for letting me know, and I'll use their preferred pronoun in the future.