gender_neutral Dosquatch Over on are_you_a_guy_or_girl I've noticed a fair amount of resistance to the idea of gender labels, and I have run into the same thing on other forums that I've frequented in my years. In principle, I agree. Here you are the words you write, here you are your ability to coax feeling with deft use of vocabulary. There are no preconceived notions based on creed, color, gender, age or appearance. We're all on even footing, and anything that threatens to disrupt that rubs wrong. The problem, though, turns out to be a limit of the language we are speaking. We do not have a gender_neutral pronoun to use when speaking of our fellow blatherers. Sure, technically "it" is a gender_neutral pronoun, but when used to refer to a person it feels ... demeaning, like that person has been reduced to an object. A word stringing machine, rather than a living, breathing, feeling equal. So what should be done? Do we default to all masculine or all feminine across the board? Do we go with the bastardation "(s)he"? Do we go with the objectifying "it"? Maybe we can coopt a word, or invent one. A warm, fuzzy, humanizing genderless pronoun. Or maybe I'm making too much out of this. I don't know. Do you? 040526 ... * bastardization 040526 ... cube From sh'e' and h'e' we derive 'e'. 'E' went to the store. 'E' loves sex. This looks like it might work for 'his' and 'hers' as well. 'E' loves 'Es' new shoes. ³ 040526 ... minnesota_chris Hungarian has a gender neutral he/she. The word for he is the same word for she. That's not really helpful. It's a sound somewhere between 'er' and 'uh' 040526 ... somebody guess I should of read this first 040613 ... dosquatch I hereby begin using "?e" as a gender neutral pronoun in cases where I'm not sure. Take it or leave it, use it or not, but it works for me. 040615 ... dafremen And what are the various forms and tenses of the gender_neutral pronoun "e"? 070818 ... dosquatch It seems that e's for "(s)he is", es for "his/hers" would be effective. Though this hasn't gained a lot of traction, so I suppose the debate is still open. 070818 ... daf I know what you mean. I'm still waiting for the potheads to start scattering their seeds everywhere..might be a long wait...dumb potheads. 070818 ... anne-girl I'm partial to singular they 080721 ... Ouroboros evergreen has gender neutral bathrooms 080721 ... anne-girl I want to buy 1000 stickers with a person on them (instead of a man or a woman) that says "people" instead of "men" or "women" and put them on every bathroom I visit it would be much better that way then nobody would harass me about being in the wrong bathroom 080721 ... hsg i call that sanity. yes, we should all go in and instead of spending so much goddamned time sanitizing our hands we should sane a tize our brains. like seriously. let's all make a boys line and a girls line. then GRADUATE THE THIRD GRADE. i've assessed the Asses Separation Situation (ASS). trust me, i've investigated ASS thoroughly. it is an economic nightmare not to mensch an embarrassment to anyone with a pound (or :pounding) of maturity. my ass sessment of the cess-situation? thi sh it's a waste of time. and money. mostly money. like billions. of dollars. even if it is practically monopoly_money by now. who's cares? how about "who's paying" ? me! the loyal good citizen/consumer/dontworryaboutcarlylegroupgooutandshopforgetyoueverknewanythingaboutblackwaterthatyouforgotaboutwhat! like totally omg im like at borders at war with my ignorance my again: duh, booked, right!? so like im reading, you know books or whatever and i have to go number whatever it's not your business doesnt matterll never see you, and there's like this bathroom. but then check it. theres another one. yet they do the same thing: rid you of your ignorance after reading a book. almost as good as actually living. but i digress resting on the toilet considering. just considering. im paying, you're paying, for separate rooms. everyone_poops. no_doubt. but should we all pay double. i give a shit about these things. i think you do too. we should brainstorm this polite I call incorrect cous it's a waste of waste. let's get real, fix this deFAKEating system. you'd think im outta paper, write? 080721 ... j http://xkcd.com/145/ 080722 what's it to you? who go blather from