English neutral pronouns: Difference between revisions
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'''Use in real life and non-fiction:''' | '''Use in real life and non-fiction:''' | ||
* When a programmer added this pronoun set to LambdaMOO in 1991, he used the same spelling as Spivak, but not capitalized.<ref>V.Dentata | * When a programmer added this pronoun set to LambdaMOO in 1991, he used the same spelling as Spivak, but not capitalized.<ref>{{cite web| author= V.Dentata |title=MOO Bash FAQ|date=1999|url=http://www.amanita.net/bashfaq.html|archive-date=8 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308055037/http://www.amanita.net:80/bashfaq.html}}</ref> Regarding LambdaMOO, John Costello wrote, "I know the wizard who originally included the spivak pronouns on the MOO. He says he did it just on a whim after having read ''the Joy of TeX'' — he never thought they'd acquire the sexual and political nimbus they have over the years."<ref name="aetherluminarefs"></ref> LambdaMOO's "help spivak" command explains that these pronouns "were developed by mathematician Michael Spivak for use in his books."<ref>Sue Thomas, ''Hello World: Travels in Virtuality.'' 2004. P. 33.</ref> Programmer Roger "Rog" Crew tested the LambdaMOO system by putting more pronoun options into it in May 1991, including Spivak's set he remembered from ''The Joy of TeX.'' Crew didn't delete the pronouns after testing them, and later expressed "dismay" that the spivak pronouns became popular.<ref>Sue Thomas, ''Hello World: Travels in Virtuality.'' p. 34.</ref><ref>Steve Jones, ''Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology.'' p. 141.</ref> | ||
* Spivak pronouns became such a part of 1990s Internet culture that a handbook to that culture, ''Yib's Guide to Mooing'' (2003), uses spivak pronouns whenever speaking of a hypothetical person whose gender need not be specified.<ref>Elizabeth Hess, ''Yib's Guide to Mooing: Getting the Most from Virtual Communities on the Internet.'' 2003. p. 3, p. 283.</ref> | * Spivak pronouns became such a part of 1990s Internet culture that a handbook to that culture, ''Yib's Guide to Mooing'' (2003), uses spivak pronouns whenever speaking of a hypothetical person whose gender need not be specified.<ref>Elizabeth Hess, ''Yib's Guide to Mooing: Getting the Most from Virtual Communities on the Internet.'' 2003. p. 3, p. 283.</ref> | ||
* In Internet environments, spivak was categorized not only as a set of pronouns but as a gender identity, which Thomas describes: "The spivak gender [...] is more representative of an emotional and intellectual state than of a physical configuration. It should be pointed out at the start that the sexuality available to a spivak is a bonus of online life, but it isn't the raison d'etre. Rather, it's a subtle notion of a gender-free condition. It's not androgynous. It's not unisexual. It's simply ambiguous."<ref>Sue Thomas, ''Hello World: Travels in Virtuality.'' p. 31-32.</ref> Some self-described spivaks use spivak as a proper noun for their non-binary gender identity. | * In Internet environments, spivak was categorized not only as a set of pronouns but as a gender identity, which Thomas describes: "The spivak gender [...] is more representative of an emotional and intellectual state than of a physical configuration. It should be pointed out at the start that the sexuality available to a spivak is a bonus of online life, but it isn't the raison d'etre. Rather, it's a subtle notion of a gender-free condition. It's not androgynous. It's not unisexual. It's simply ambiguous."<ref>Sue Thomas, ''Hello World: Travels in Virtuality.'' p. 31-32.</ref> Some self-described spivaks use spivak as a proper noun for their non-binary gender identity. | ||