time to talk gender-neutral pronouns

One of the many interesting topics discussed at my safe zone training (SZT) the other day was gender-neutral pronouns. Apparently there are more out there (in English) than s/he, one, and what wikipedia tells me is called the "singular they." The ones I was introduced to at SZT were "ze" (pron. zee) for she and he, and "hir" (pron. here) for her, him, his and hers. This has a pretty contrived feel, but then switching up the ubiquitous "he" felt contrived for a while to me too, but now I find willynilly hes very distracting (and irritating).

Here's a fun chart from wikipedia with other options:
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	Nominative (subject)	Accusative (object)	Possessive Adjective	Possessive Pronoun	Reflexive
He	He laughed	I kissed him	His head hurts	I am his	He feeds himself
She	She laughed	I kissed her	Her head hurts	I am hers	She feeds herself
It	It laughed	I kissed it	Its head hurts	I am its	It feeds itself
Singular they	They laughed	I kissed them	Their head hurts	I am theirs	They feed themself/themselves
Spivak	Ey / E laughed	I kissed em	Eir heads hurt	I am eirs	E feed emself / eirself
Sie and hir	Sie laughed	I kissed hir	Hir head hurts	I am hirs	Sie feeds hirself
Xe	Xe laughed	I kissed xem	Xyr head hurts	I am xyrs	Xe feeds xemself
Ve	Ve laughed	I kissed ver	Vis head hurts	I am vis	Ve feeds verself
Ze and mer	Ze laughed	I kissed mer	Zer head hurts	I am zer	Ze feeds zemself
Ze and hir	Ze laughed	I kissed hir	Hir head hurts	I am hirs	Ze feeds hirself
Zie	Zie laughed	I kissed zir	Zir head hurts	I am zirs	Zie feeds zirself
E	E laughed	I kissed het	het head hurts	I am hets
Thon	Thon laughed	I kissed thon	Thons head hurts	I am thon's	Thon feeds thonself

The gender-neutral pronoun "co" is used in contemporary everyday language by the 100 people who live at Twin Oaks Community in Virginia, USA.

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I like to think of the connection between the verbs they chose as causal, namely, he laughed, so I kissed him, so his head hurts, so I am his, so he feeds himself. And I especially like that last sentence. Bold move, Twin Oaks Community! Anyway, perhaps I will try out a few of these options here on the ol' blog. Or I'll forget. We'll see, I guess. Wikipedia also says that English originally had some other gender-neutral pronouns, but by the 12th century, he and she had been "drafted to reduce the increasing ambiguity of the pronoun system." And it points out that gender-neutral language is no guarantee of equality or a dearth of sexism: apparently Chinese has gender-neutral pronouns and is plenty patriarchal. So perhaps gendered pronouns are merely functional (although one assumes the Chinese get along fine without them), and not reflective of underlying inequalities . If you're interested, I recommend checking out the wikipedia page on gender-neutral pronouns. There's a lot of stuff there about other languages and whatnot.

At the SZT, the person talking about the gender-neutral pronouns said ze thought that making sex/gender (I can't remember which one, probably both) distinctions was at the root of all inequalities and problems (including [I asked], racism and religious problems). I would normally have said ze was a woman, but apparently ze doesn't think that those sorts of classifications are necessary (and are in fact harmful). We didn't really have time to hash all this stuff out, but it was an enjoyable introduction to some radical theories. If nothing else, it's an interesting mental exercise to try to do without gendered pronouns and classifying individuals by sex and gender.

In other news, it's snowing and sunning at the same time. April is funny.

. . .