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m_d_h[I wrote this at least two years ago]
Gendered third-person singular pronouns are a mess! I wish I were the English Language Deity and could simply order everybody who speaks English to use "it/its" for all third-person singular entities. English already has "it/its" as a perfectly good non-gendered third-person singular pronoun. But because we've long presumed that every mammal has one, and only one, of two exclusive genders, it feels weird to use "it/its" when speaking about a human. I also blame the movie The Silence of the Lambs for making "it/its" even creepier to use, LOL.
On the other hand, I really have no desire to start a campaign to get everybody to refer to me as "it/its" and then to convince everybody to get everybody else to to refer to them as "it/its".
The mere existence of nonbinary and genderqueer folk makes it difficult for everybody to properly apply gendered third-person singular pronouns. It is even more difficult when everybody starts designating their own personal third-person singular pronouns -- it becomes impossible to use third-person singular pronouns to designate people whose personal pronouns are not previously known, or not accurately remembered, by the hapless speaker.
So the only logical solution is to apply "it/its" to everybody. Seriously, having to memorize each person's preferred pronouns just doesn't scale up.
Gendered third-person singular pronouns are a mess! I wish I were the English Language Deity and could simply order everybody who speaks English to use "it/its" for all third-person singular entities. English already has "it/its" as a perfectly good non-gendered third-person singular pronoun. But because we've long presumed that every mammal has one, and only one, of two exclusive genders, it feels weird to use "it/its" when speaking about a human. I also blame the movie The Silence of the Lambs for making "it/its" even creepier to use, LOL.
On the other hand, I really have no desire to start a campaign to get everybody to refer to me as "it/its" and then to convince everybody to get everybody else to to refer to them as "it/its".
The mere existence of nonbinary and genderqueer folk makes it difficult for everybody to properly apply gendered third-person singular pronouns. It is even more difficult when everybody starts designating their own personal third-person singular pronouns -- it becomes impossible to use third-person singular pronouns to designate people whose personal pronouns are not previously known, or not accurately remembered, by the hapless speaker.
So the only logical solution is to apply "it/its" to everybody. Seriously, having to memorize each person's preferred pronouns just doesn't scale up.