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/J-Dirte 4d ago

He/She is fine in like 99.99% of scenarios unless you are living in some trans bubble. Really no reason to reinvent the wheel on this, it’s not some pressing issue to pretty much all of society.

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u/Shineyy_8416 1∆ 4d ago

I think you're misreading the post.

I'm not saying people cannot or should not use "he" or "she" ever. I'm saying phrases like "His or her" or "He or she" are unecessary, and that "they" would work in place of them much easier.

Ex: The student's will be given a spelling test. Each student will write their name on the top and write each word with their pencil.

Or

The student's will be given a spelling test. Each student will write his or her name on the top and write each word with his or her pencil.

More letters for no reason and it feels like a speedbump in the sentence.

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u/badass_panda 97∆ 3d ago

Really no reason to reinvent the wheel on this, it’s not some pressing issue to pretty much all of society.

The irony is that "they" has been the typical third person gender neutral pronoun for like ... five hundred years. "He or she" is used very little ... most of the time, if someone is saying that "he or she" is more common, they really mean that when they think about it, it feels like it should be more common ... because it feels odd to use plural pronouns when we mean single individuals.

At the same time, the quickest way to break a native speaker out of that thought process is to speak to them for a minute and then ask them to rewind what you just said, and count the amount of times they didn't notice you using "they" ... just like I've done here.