The Modern Pronoun

I've noticed in many online profiles where it is asked you identify your gender, that the options are changing. Gone are the "he" and "she" of the past, replaced with more modern and understanding pronouns.

The one I especially want to talk about today is "they".

Much like the use of alright (if you missed it, check out this post to learn about my alright crusade), I've always had trouble attributing gender specific pronouns to anything.

Maybe it's because I was raised post-modernly. Maybe it's because I want to be politically correct. Maybe I want to respect everyone's life choices and lifestyles.

Maybe I was just never taught proper English. Who knows!

What I do know is this emergence of non-gender-specific pronouns has led me to start another crusade against the modern English language.

In my opinion, "they" should not only be allowed to replace a plural noun (like ducks). It should also be appropriate for "they" to replace a singular noun of unknown gender identity (like writer).

Let me throw out some examples:

In the sentence, "The protagonist has a major flaw", we should not have to choose between assigning "the protagonist" a male or female pronoun (He has a major flaw; She has a major flaw), but rather, it should be acceptable for "the protagonist" to be abbreviated as "They have a major flaw."

It's always bothered me having to choose one gender pronoun over the other, and so many times on this blog I've used the he-slash-she (he/she) cop-out or just gone with "they" as my pronoun, ignoring the previous lectures I've had from professors.

But no longer! Today I can say, "The protagonist has a major flaw. If it isn't corrected they will seem flimsy. The reader will see right through them", not because I don't know that "they" is traditionally only used for plural nouns, but because I simply won't prescribe to this notion anymore.

I'm wholeheartedly embracing the modern pronoun.

From now on, I will not be ashamed to use "they" in my blog posts - especially when talking about protagonists, artists, or writers of unknown gender. I'm taking off my tutu, throwing it to the wind, and running naked and wild through these posts. Who's going to join me?