The Challenge of Gender Fluid Language Reform
There is an article over at Buzzfeed LGBT that touches on an issue that’s been of interest to me lately. The image from the article touches on a point that is vexing to me.
I can relate the challenges that the “they” pronouns question and context create. I can be accepting of someone’s gender identity or lack thereof. But since most languages are gender binary, it is no small imposition on people to abandon pronoun conventions.
I’ll make an analogy. Think of directionality; up, down, east, west, so on. In the context of the universe, these are arbitrary and don’t have absolute meaning, but on the surface of the planet these conventions make complete sense. We rely on these conventions consciously as well as subconciously. Imagine if suddenly we were to be reoriented so that our heads touched the ground and our feet flailed about towards the sky. This would be, literally, disorienting. When we are disoriented we become confused and defensive.
So on two levels there is going to be resistance to the idea of “they” pronouns because
1. intellectually they violate conventions
2. viscerally they are disorienting
I’ve heard the call for use of “they” pronouns labeled language reform. It’s not hard to lump this new gender related language reform together with past failed attempts — e.g. the use of Ms. — that just faded.
I’m listening for a compelling reason that doesn’t sound attention seeking (this is my emotional — and maybe inappropriate response — but I own it).
I would also suggest that successful language reform would have as its aim
1. to construct a new language convention that is intuitive
2. to have similar trajectory to other successful progressive movements (e.g. civil rights, women’s sufferage, so on)
Please help me understand.
