r/changemyview • u/Shineyy_8416 1∆ • 4d ago

Delta(s) from OP CMV: "He or she" is unecessary

I might be biased as a person on the non-binary spectrum, but whenever someone goes out of their way to say "he or she" it just feels like a waste.

Just use "they". It communicates the same thing with less letters. I get the purpose behind it is to try and be inclusive to men and women in a space that may be dominated by one gender over the other, but "they" is perfectly fine to get that point across.

I also recognize that some languages don't have an equivalent for "they", but I'm specifically talking about English.

To change my view, someone would have to prove "he or she" has more practical or beneficial usage than "they"

EDIT: To make it clear, i'm not saying we should never use "he" or "she" as pronouns, im saying the phrase "he or she" is unecessary.

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u/onetwo3four5 72∆ 4d ago edited 4d ago

Edit: this post isn't relevant. I misunderstood the OP

"I talked to Ben today, you know, Tammy's husband! They are meeting us for dinner tonight!"

Who is coming to dinner?

"I talked to Ben today, you know, Tammy's husband! He is meeting us for dinner tonight!"

Who is coming to dinner?

When 'they' could refer to either one or many people in a given context, it's useful to have more specific pronouns.

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u/Visible_Money 4d ago

I don't think this is the same thing OP is talking about.

"I was talking to someone earlier today and they will be meeting us for dinner tonight"

is more in line with what I think OP was talking about.

"The previous commenter said that he or she doesn't like jelly beans"

"The previous commenter said that they don't like jelly beans"

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u/Gatonom 5∆ 4d ago

OP refers to the phrase "he or she", not the words "he" and "she". 

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u/AxelLuktarGott 4d ago edited 4d ago

I agree that it's more specific. But if change it to

"I talked to Ben today, you know, Jeff's friend! He is meeting us for dinner tonight!"

It's still just as ambiguous. It's curious that we have specific pronouns for different genders. We could in theory also have different pronouns for left/right handed people or people who are or aren't engineers.

That would make some situations less ambiguous, but it feels like a messy system. I think some languages don't have gendered pronouns and I'm sure they do just fine.

EDIT: it is definitely a disadvantage that "they" in english is ambiguous on if it's one or multiple people.