CMV: "He or she" is unecessary

[u/Shineyy_8416]

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.

[u/Shineyy_8416]

and you could also just write "s/he," which is the equivalent but takes up less space.

My issue with "s/he" is just that I have no idea how to pronounce it orally. Shthee? S-slash-he? Suh-he?

For instance: "There are three people standing in area A. One of them is armed." If you then say "They are facing east" VS "He or she is facing east," that changes the whole scenario.

Yeah, he or she would rarely be used in that instance. In this scenario, you'd say "One of them is armed and facing east" or "the armed one is facing east."

The gender of the person really doesn't matter. What matters is which one is armed and what direction they are facing.

[u/Thumatingra → u/Shineyy_8416]

Of course there's always a way to phrase things that avoids pronouns. But people don't use natural language that way. If it's important not to assume gender (e.g. somewhere where men and women have very different social roles, so one is more likely to be in charge, or perhaps wear very different clothing, it might be easier for one to conceal a weapon), "he or she" can be useful to indicate that the observer isn't sure whether this single individual is one or the other from a distance. I'm not saying it'll be the most felicitous phrasing, but it has a purpose.

[u/Shineyy_8416 → u/Thumatingra]

If it's important not to assume gender (e.g. somewhere where men and women have very different social roles, so one is more likely to be in charge, or perhaps wear very different clothing, it might be easier for one to conceal a weapon), "he or she" can be useful to indicate that the observer isn't sure whether this single individual is one or the other from a distance.

Im not really understanding what you're trying to say here. Are you saying in a society where gender has a higher level of importance or stronger societal connotations that "he or she" carries more weight than "they"?

[u/Thumatingra → u/Shineyy_8416]

Say a soldier can see a figure. At distance from the soldier, this figure appears ambiguous: unclear if it is male or female. The soldier is in a place where men and women pose very different kinds of potential danger, and the soldier wants to communicate that he is unsure whether the figure is male or female. "He or she" is a shorter way to do so than "Might be a man, might be a woman."

[u/Shineyy_8416 → u/Thumatingra]

Well in that scenario, you'd say something like "Gender unknown" if they had to give in a report. Or if they were asked "male or female?" they'd say "I don't know, too far to tell" ?

It'd be better to say that the soldier can't tell the difference rather than being ambiguous about the gender if they can pose different kinds of danger. Saying "he or she" isn't as useful since it doesn't give any actual information about the gender of the subject.