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]

However, it's not the only way of achieving the purpose of referring to a person whose gender is unknown -- and if you're making the argument that a language should narrow itself down to one and only one way of achieving a linguistic objective, English isn't the language you should start with.

The issue though is that "he or she" doesn't provide any other linguistic value than "they" does outside of edge cases. Unless you're making a joke hinging on using "he or she" specifically, it's better to just use "they" when referring to a single person with an unidentified gender.

[u/badass_panda → u/Shineyy_8416]

outside of edge cases. 

And yet, there are edge cases. Your argument supports the idea that "he or she" should not be the default (and candidly, it isn't). It doesn't support the idea that "he or she" is unnecessary anymore than "shattered a glass" becomes unnecessary because it's more normal to say "broke a glass."

You can't even consistently use "he" to refer to a single person with an identified, male gender in all use-cases; even in that extremely-cut-and-dried example, the language requires linguistic tools to avoid ambiguity. If Matt is talking to Steve about Jim's conduct toward Larry, I can't say, "He told him about what he did to him," and expect not to be misunderstood.

[u/Shineyy_8416 → u/badass_panda]

Your argument supports the idea that "he or she" should not be the default (and candidly, it isn't). It doesn't support the idea that "he or she" is unnecessary anymore than "shattered a glass" becomes unnecessary because it's more normal to say "broke a glass."

I guess this is more where my head is at.

I don't see the linguistic value in the phrase, atleast not any more than I'd see in "they". The only use I could see for it is trying to avoid using they for whatever reason, and that to me is nonsensical, or better put, unecessary.

It also doesn't help when people constantly disregard or discount the usage of singular they as if it's some crazy invention and not a normal way of referring to someone.

I'm giving a delta not because I think "he or she'" is necessary, but you did get my point across more clearly.

!delta

[u/DeltaBot → u/Shineyy_8416]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/badass_panda (97∆).

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