• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      They/them is not used exclusively to refer to neuter things, so enbies not being gender neutral is irrelevant here. ‘They’ is a useful and pre-existing catch-all.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          … why?

          Is that any more absurd than “reducing males to he/him” or “reducing females to she/her”?

          It’s language, not a campaign medal. You don’t need a separate example for every instance.

          • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nzEnglish
            5·
            2 days ago

            The whole point of pronouns, I would argue, is to not need a separate set for every instance.

            Otherwise you may as well just use Dan/Dan/Dan’s/Danself conjugated for each name.

            Pronouns:

            • Are (generally) shorter than names, because there’s less need for them to be unique and they’re used more frequently.

            • Can be used even when you don’t know specifics about a person or object, or they don’t want to give out their name.

            • Everyone knows how to conjugate them, so once you know someone is a ‘they’, you can readily extrapolate to them, their, theirs.