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arundelo comments on Open thread, September 22-28, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 22 September 2014 05:59AM

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Comment author: arundelo 25 September 2014 04:38:30PM 1 point [-]

Just that you said "he".

Comment author: Baughn 25 September 2014 04:53:35PM 0 points [-]

Hmm. Well, I don't have much of a gender identity, so I don't know how annoying being addressed like that would be. On the other hand, English doesn't have any gender-neutral pronouns that don't make me feel silly, and I refuse to make one up when I'm not writing fiction.

Comment author: gjm 25 September 2014 06:48:56PM 3 points [-]

Well, obviously it's up to you. My own preference is to do one of

  • determine the gender of the person you're referring to
  • use a gender-neutral pronoun
  • restructure the sentence so as not to need a gendered pronoun
  • use a construction like "he or she"

in preference to possibly misgendering someone, since I know some people find that very unpleasant. But if those are all too much trouble, fair enough.

Comment author: Azathoth123 28 September 2014 01:19:04AM -1 points [-]

English doesn't have any gender-neutral pronouns

Yes, it does: "he".

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 28 September 2014 12:20:35PM 2 points [-]

Unfortunately, the mental image of maleness overrides any hope of that working consistently in people's imagination.

Example: "Man is the animal that suckles his young".

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