Nonbinary gender discussion

Would be? Half the male population is more feminine than my wife.

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Sorry to ask. Kinda conservative / backwards / fascist (yet respectful) guy here.

What do you mean about the pronouns? People have to use “they/them” when referring to you?

I read a bit about “non binary” sexuality, and IIRC it was something like people who don’t agree that you are either male or female. I know that there are human hermaphrodites and people who are born one thing and then turn up another. It’s not like I agree with the first thing, but I think I understand their premises.

However, I’m a bit confused about the plural “they/them”. Thanks.

They/them have long been used (hundreds of years) in colloquial speech as singular pronouns when the sex of the person referred to isn’t specified. Now, they/them have become the “preferred pronouns” for some nonbinary people.

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I see. Thanks. One more thing that now I understand.

I’ve always found the preferred pronoun issue to be a bit confusing. While I understand that it is important to individuals, there are very few occasions when someone uses another person’s pronoun in their presence. I suppose you might introduce someone “This is BiggusDickus. He’s a teacher.” Other than that, when are people going to be misgendered by incorrect preferred pronoun usage?

+100

Somehow I don’t think Biggus Dickus is going to be misaddressed as a female very often. :sunglasses:

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Maybe s/he’s pre-op?

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i would like to be referred to as a man, human, brit, guy, it anything other than ‘that wai guo ren’ but it ain’t happening.

good luck with your quest.

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Not an attack on anybody.

But to me calling an individual they/them sounds batshit crazy.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

You can’t be plural if you are a person.
Unless you are schizophrenic and have multiple personality disorder.

Trying to force this rather odd concept from a foreign country (to my mind) in locals is very conceited especially as it makes no objective sense mostly because it is hopelessly confusing !

You may as well try to call white people black and black people white. You can’t appropriate they for individuals.
This is the defninition of cultural imperialism.

Discuss :slight_smile:

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where are you from? its perfectly normal use of english. i’ve had plenty of taiwanese not know what i was talking about when using it here though. one even got pissed off about it.

I’m lost on what the issue is now.

The issue is she, I mean they, wants…er I mean want to be known as a they and not a him, her or I. And is worried how it will go over with them, I mean her boss and kids, because them is her, I mean them is they and can’t be her because she…they…isnt her.

You see the problem? Imagine that going on in the head of the students along with admin. I think its best to stick with a name and your outward gender. Keep the inner feelings for your personal life outside of work.

OP, I’m being tongue in cheek on purpose. This is what you will face and are facing in the world. Be whatever you feel you are, but know everyone has to fit into a peg some way or another, be it round, square or any other shape. It’s just part of living amongst billions of others. Don’t take a label as offense. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck…chances are it’s a duck and not a giraffe. You are female in terms of genetics and outward appearance. That is what people see and that is what you are to them. Accept it and be who you want to be without worrying about the rest.

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This has been an established usage in colloquial English for hundreds of years (maybe not in Ireland?). I use it all the time in situations where I don’t know the sex of a person referred to. The only thing new is the association of the usage with nonbinary people.

If someone asked me politely to use their preferred pronouns, I would probably oblige (if I could keep them straight). On the other hand, if they demanded it, or if the law mandated it, I would resist. I think everybody should have the right to use the language they want.

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Go talk to Jimbob about the schedule.

They are busy now.

Which Jimbob?

Just Jimbob.

They are busy now.

Okay.

So when will they be available?
How many coffees should we order.

Ermmmmmm

I don’t have a problem with inventing new pronouns for third genders or whatever, but don’t try to appropriate the EASY current usage of them/they from the plural us who like to use it with no confusion , please :slight_smile:
It just seems like the wrong choice.

Oh by the way we do use ‘they’ in Ireland…‘they does be doing me head in’ being an example of colloquial use .:slight_smile:

How about appropriating the little used ‘ye’ , ’ yer one, ‘yizzer’ , ‘youse’ or ‘them lot’ haha.

Lots of great choices.
https://youtu.be/OhdXJrGr1iM

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“I will in me bleeding hole”

classic

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Correct me if I have this wrong please.

Nonbinary individuals prefer being addressed as They because a nonbinary person is, well…“nonbinary”, not a number. They are infinite, meaning they do not associate themselves with any single or any number of gender types. A nonbinary is all of the genders and none of the genders at the same time. They see gender as a social construct not a physical construct.

Today, society is dealing with the idea that there are 2 forms of gender. Physical and mental. Physically you could be male, female or in some rare cases both as in the case of hermaphrodites. Mentally, you can be anything you want or perceive yourself to be.

That is my understanding of it.
I see it as humans have 2 genders, male and female. What you do in your own head is your business, not mine. So, please don’t expect me to conform with what is going on in your head.

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This kind of madness would be rightly taken the piss out of in any sane society with a sense of humour.

The US has gone completely up it’s own arse and out the other end.

Soon you won’t be able to say he she they or we without offending some poor fucker.

Please don’t try exporting it we have enough problems already.

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This is more or less what I tried to come to say before, in a less direct way. I don’t want to be temped every single time I say something…