Getting to Grips with Gender-Neutral Pronouns

For the first time in my life, I’ve been able to remember what the term ‘pronoun’ means for more than a millisecond.

Yesterday, I learnt about Gender Neutral Pronouns. As someone who hates using the term 'they' when the gender of a single person is unknown, I like this idea.

I got excited.

Then I made a disappointing discovery. There is no simple list of gender-neutral pronouns. Instead, there are many.

One can't just roll forward with commonly accepted usage. It's far more complicated than that.

If you're looking for a start point, Wikipedia lists an array of 'invented' gender-neutral pronouns.

This is problematic for me. Choosing is hard. Do I choose my pronouns based on popularity of use? Or, should I opt for the funkiest sounding set?

If one set was popular or had a cool ring to it, it might help. Alas, this is not the case.

It seems that in adopting a set of 'invented' pronouns, I will be attaching myself to a subset within a genre, and with it a 'School of Thought'. I will be a member of a sect rather than a great paradigm shifting force. I will be saying something by my preference of terms, which goes beyond the gender-neutral.

Faced with the choice of joining 'The Judean People's Front', 'The People's Front of Judea' or 'The Popular Front', I started to go off the idea. The revolution was a risk of losing my support. I felt the beginnings of disillusioned apathy. 'Nir', 'hys' or 'zer' are not for me. Thanks, but no thanks.

Then my attention was drawn to a grassroots uprising, with spirit - instead of theory - leading the way.

Yes, away from academia, and on the streets of Baltimore, gender-neutral pronouns have formed and proliferated. It's all been rather organic, un-invented and quite wonderful. The New Scientist got wind of the trend last year, but any of us watching 'The Wire' have been long-exposed.

Being a grammar retard, I didn't pick up on the gender-neutral 'he’s' and 'she’s' that my favourite series advertised. I'm just getting to grips with pronouns after all.

Here's where it's at. Here's where I'm back on board:

Yo – Her/His
Yos – Hers/His
Yo's - She's/He's
Yon – Her/Him

I intend to still use traditional pronouns, but perhaps for those times when I'm speaking hypothetically, about a random imagined person, with no predefined gender, a little 'Yo' will help. Paradigm shifts start small.

The New Scientist articles are here:
'Yo' is the word when 'he' or 'she' won't do
Yo! yo


Fabpants Recommends: As a great fan of The Soundtrack of Our Lives 'Behind the Music' when I lived on a different street, I am delighted with their new fat double album 'Communion'. I always have this feeling that I shouldn't like The Soundtrack of Our Lives, but I do. I love them and they're bloody brilliant live. Is it RAWK? Really? How come my ears like it so?

The band share their music via a widget. I highly recommend starting with the track 'Second Life Replay'. It's quite beautiful. 'The Ego Delusion' reminds me of the Super Furry Animals, and 'Universal Stalker' is fantastically bitter. Feeling as slushy as a lovelorn dreamer? Check out Lifeline.