
We Should All Use They/Them Pronouns - pseudolus
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/why-we-should-all-use-they-them-pronouns/
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wahern
I've been using singular they for as long as I can remember. Sometimes you
don't know a subject's gender, and most of the time its irrelevant. Using they
is just easier, usually natural, and only rarely stilted. People use and
respond to it in speech without even realizing it, and it only catches their
attention, if at all, in writing.

Once upon a time, before the debate really hit the mainstream, the predominate
rule in academia was still to use "he" as the neutral or indefinite. I tried
but it always seemed... wrong. I got into an argument with a writing
instructor once, not because I was invested in the gender debate, but because
singular they just seemed so obviously like the correct approach I couldn't
understand the pushback. Fine, deduct points because I didn't follow the
specified grammar rule--to use he. That's fair. We're being graded on how well
we follow the specified rules. But at least _admit_ the rules are wrong in so
far as they purport to reflect reasonably correct professional usage. Don't
deny the obvious and inevitable! It was so frustrating.

