English neutral pronouns: Difference between revisions

'''Use in fiction:''' In K. A. Cook's short story "Blue Paint, Chocolate and Other Similes," in ''Crooked Words,'' most of the story involves the narrator Ben moving from one set of pronouns to another for Chris as he tries to figure out Chris's gender. When the narrator is trying to determine whether Chris is male or female, Ben alternates between thinking of Chris as he or she. Upon recognizing that Chris identifies as nonbinary, the narrator begins using [[English neutral pronouns#Ze|ze]] pronouns for Chris. Then, Ben finally finds a good moment to ask for Chris's pronoun preference.<ref>K. A. Cook, "Blue Paint, Chocolate and Other Similes." ''Crooked Words.'' Unpaged.</ref>

'''Forms:'''

* '''Predicative possessive:''' If my mobile phone runs out of power, ''he'' lets me borrow ''hers''.

* '''Reflexive:''' Each child feeds ''herself''. '''or''' Each child feeds ''himself''.

===Co===

Today, "Co" is still used in some intentional communities, such as in the legal policies of Twin Oaks in Virginia, which provides information on the pronoun in its [http://www.twinoaks.org/community/visit/guide.html visitor guide] web page.

In the 2018 Gender Census, only one respondent entered ''co/co/cos/cos/coself'' as cos favourite pronoun.<ref name="Census2018"/>

* In Orion's Arm (a fictional 12th millennium AD setting, as non-specific pronouns for sophonts of any gender, including AIs and aliens.<ref>http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/495360fba7a46</ref>

* In 1996, 74 out of 7064 users on LambdaMOO went by spivak pronouns, making it the second most popular nonbinary pronoun there.<ref>Steve Jones, ''Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology.'' p. 142.</ref> In 2002, 108 out of 4061 users on LambdaMOO used spivak pronouns, making it the most popular neologistic pronoun set there.<ref name="aetherluminarefs"></ref>

* In 1996, 10 out of 1015 users on MediaMOO went by spivak pronouns, making these the second most popular nonbinary pronoun.<ref>Steve Jones, ''Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology.'' p. 141.</ref>

===She===

'''she, her, her, hers, herself'''. Often called female pronouns, although, in standard usage, they're not used exclusively for women. Grammarians agree that it is standard and acceptable for this set to be used for women, female animals, and ships. The set is also poetically used for countries and fields of studies, which grammarians also see as acceptable. Some [[feminism|feminists]] recommend replacing "gender-neutral he" with "gender-neutral she." "In 1970, Dana Densmore’s article “Speech is the Form of Thought” appeared in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation; Densmore is evidently the first U.S. advocate of 'she' as a gender-neutral pronoun, a solution many writers, particularly academic writers, favor today."<ref name="bustillos 250"></ref> In 1974, Gena Corea recommended replacing the "gender-neutral he" with a "gender-neutral she," and like Denmore, argued that the word "she" would be understood to include the word "he."<ref name="d baron epicene"></ref>

* Cartoonist [[Rebecca Sugar]] [http://www.reddit.com/user/RebeccaSugar explained] that in her animated science fiction series, ''Steven Universe,'' the alien people called Gems really have no sex or gender, even though they all look like women. For this reason, the Gems are only arbitrarily called by "she" pronouns. Sugar said, "Technically, there are no female Gems! There are only Gems! [...] Why not look like human females? That's just what Gems happen to look like! [...] There's a 50 50 chance to use some pronoun on Earth, so why not feminine ones-- it's as convenient as it is arbitrary!"<ref>Rebecca Sugar. ''Reddit.'' [http://www.reddit.com/user/RebeccaSugar http://www.reddit.com/user/RebeccaSugar]</ref> This is a gender-neutral use of "she" pronouns.

'''Forms:'''

<blockquote>"I asked Beacon Press to use ''s/he'' [sic] in the author description of me on the cover of ''Transgender Warriors'' [another book by Feinberg]. That pronoun is a contribution from the women's liberation movement. Prior to that struggle, the pronoun 'he' was almost universally used to describe humankind-- 'mankind.' So ''s/he''' opened up the pronoun to include 'womankind.' I used ''s/he'' on my book jacket because it is recognizable as a gender-neutral pronoun to people. But I personally prefer the pronoun ''ze'' because, for me, it melds mankind and womankind into humankind."<ref>Leslie Feinberg, ''Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue.'' Page 71.</ref></blockquote>

'''Forms:'''

'''thon, thon, thons, thon's, thonself'''. American composer Charles Crozat Converse of Erie, Pennsylvania proposed this pronoun in 1858, based on a contraction of "that one."<ref name="barge viewpoints">Fred Barge, "Viewpoints from involvement -- 'thon'". ''Dynamic Chiropractic.'' August 14, 1992. [http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43422 http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43422]</ref> The Gender-Neutral Pronoun FAQ gives this pronoun's date of origin as 1884 instead,<ref name="aetherlumina listing 2"></ref> while ''Words and Women'' gives 1859.<ref>Casey Miller and Kate Swift, ''Words and Women.'' Page 130.</ref> The "thon" pronoun was included in some dictionaries: Webster's International Dictionary (1910), and Funk &amp; Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary (1913), and Webster's Second International (1959). Funk &amp; Wagnalls offered these sentences to show how it should be used: "If Harry or his wife comes, I will be on hand to greet thon," and "Each pupil must learn thon's lesson." "Thon" was used throughout the writings by the founders of chiropractic, B.J. and D.D. Palmer, in 1910.<ref name="barge viewpoints"></ref> "Thon" is therefore familiar to chiropractors, and sometimes still appears in chiropractic writings, and in works by people who were influenced by that field.

'''Forms:'''

* In K. A. Cook's short story "Blue Paint, Chocolate and Other Similes," in ''Crooked Words,'' when the narrator Ben recognizes that Chris identifies as nonbinary, Ben begins using "ze, hir" pronouns for Chris, before finding a good moment to ask for Chris's actual pronoun preference.<ref>K. A. Cook, "Blue Paint, Chocolate and Other Similes." ''Crooked Words.'' Unpaged.</ref> In another story by K. A. Cook, "The Differently Animated and Queer Society," the character Pat goes by "ze, hir" pronouns, and uses them for other characters before finding out each of their own pronoun preferences.<ref>K. A. Cook, "The Differently Animated and Queer Society." ''Crooked Words.'' Unpaged.</ref>

* [[Kate Bornstein]] used them in the books ''Nearly Roadkill'' (1996) (with Caitlin Sullivan June)<ref>Caitlin Sullivan June and Kate Bornstein. ''Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn erotic adventure.'' New York: Serpent's Tail, 1996, p. 10.</ref>, and ''My Gender Workbook'' (1998) in reference to hirself, and to other specific transgender people, as well as hypothetical persons of unspecified gender.<ref>Kate Bornstein, ''My Gender Workbook.'' 1st ed. 1998, p. 106-107, 119, 130-131, 154, 248.</ref>

* Kate Bornstein goes by these "ze, hir" pronouns. [[Leslie Feinberg]] asked to be called by "ze, hir" pronouns, along with "zie, hir" and "she."<ref>Minnie Bruce Pratt, "Transgender Pioneer and Stone Butch Blues Author Leslie Feinberg Has Died." ''Advocate.'' November 17, 2014. [http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2014/11/17/transgender-pioneer-leslie-feinberg-stone-butch-blues-has-died http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2014/11/17/transgender-pioneer-leslie-feinberg-stone-butch-blues-has-died]</ref> In a magazine interview from 2014, Gabriel Antonio and another anonymous person both asked to be called by these pronouns.<ref>Al Donato, "He And She, Ze And Xe: The Case For Gender-Neutral Pronouns." ''The Plaid Zebra.'' [http://www.theplaidzebra.com/ze-xe-case-gender-neutral-pronouns/ http://www.theplaidzebra.com/ze-xe-case-gender-neutral-pronouns/]</ref>