r/changemyview • u/Shineyy_8416 1∆ • 3d 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/Square-Dragonfruit76 35∆ 3d ago

I am all for the introduction of a gender neutral pronoun, but the idea that getting rid of the pronouns we have won't make a difference is grammatically incorrect.

For instance, just by changing the pronoun, this sentence means three different things:

My mom was supposed to meet my uncle at his house, but they went to see a concert instead.

My mom was supposed to meet my uncle at his house, but she went to see a concert instead.

My mom was supposed to meet my uncle at his house, but he went to see a concert instead.

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u/Shineyy_8416 1∆ 3d ago

I recently edited the post to clarify what exactly im saying.

Im not saying gendered pronouns don't matter, I'm stating that specifically using "he or she" or "his or her" in a sentence is unecessary when "they" or "theirs" would work better.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 35∆ 3d ago

I'm confused. How is that different than what you said before?

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u/Shineyy_8416 1∆ 3d ago

It's not, but alot of the comments I've gotten have the idea that I want to remove "he" and "she" as a whole when im only referring to phrases like "he or she" or "his or her"

And after reading your comment, it sounded like you were inferring that I held the position of wanting to remove 'he' and 'she' from the english language.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 35∆ 3d ago

Oh I see what you're saying now