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Friday, September 30, 2016

Gender Neutral Pronouns: Please be careful which word you pick.

Everyone has the right to choose a word as a name to help define themselves. Please be careful which word you pick.

Everyone has the right to choose a word as a name to help define themselves. Please be careful which word you pick. Don't pick words like "garbage", "object", "tool", "resource", "victim". or "Hitler". The weight of prior associations may keep you down. Trying to change "Hitler" to define "goodness" may require far too much struggle, time, and blood, to be worth it. Choose a less tangled word or create one that helps point to your individuality, uniqueness, or common humanity.

"They" as a singular pronoun bothers me because it's plural, too ambiguous for clear writing, and because it's too close to "Them". Us & Them. Alien.

GenNeutral Suggestion: "Huma" as in "Human." No adjustments required, except adding a possessive apostrophe and an S.

Personally, I associate the word Huma with the divine paladin from the Dragonlance fantasy series. A quick search showed that it also has this meaning:

Huma is a Muslim baby Girl name, it is an Arabic originated name. Huma name meaning is Daughter Of King Bahman And Mother Of Darab and the lucky number associated with Huma is 1. Find all the relevant details about the Huma Meaning, Origin, Lucky Number and Religion from this page.

Huma Name Meaning in Urdu - Huma meaning ہما, Arabic Girls & Boys ...

www.hamariweb.com/names/muslim/arabic/girl/huma-meaning_5811/page-2
There's also the possibility of going back to the future by leaning on the Bard's English for a respectful, classically dramatic pronoun. We could replace the confusing ambiguity of They/Them/Their with the old word for "You", Thee/Thou/Thine. Individual, gender neutral, and singular, yet with a hint of multiplicity. "I think thee is friendly but thine wit is sharp. Have you met thou?" 

What do you think?

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