Teachable Moment

the Teachable Moment

May we stop using he/she, him/her, his/her?

One of the quirks of the English language is that it has a masculine pronoun (he/him/his) and a feminine pronoun (she/her/hers), but no generic singular pronoun to use if the gender of the person is unknown, except “it” which refers to animals and inanimate objects.

To be grammatically correct, we should say, “If a student misses the class, I have sympathy for him.” We should match a singular antecedent (a student) with a singular pronoun (him), the “universal masculine” pronoun encompassing males and females.

However, in the 1960s, the above use was designated sexist and discriminatory, and we were told to say, “If a student misses the class, I have sympathy for him or her.”

However, speakers and writers cannot seem to use “he or she,” “him or her” correctly, but are shifting incorrectly back and forth between singular and plural, saying in the same sentence, “he or she,” “him or her,” and confusing the issue by sticking in a “they” or “them” now and then. So now we can say, “If a student misses the class, I have sympathy for them.” As a result of the culture shift, using “they” or “them” now as a singular pronoun makes this English usage simpler (if we cannot use the better “universal he”) So drop the “he or she,” “him or her,” “his or her,” since even professional speakers and writers have been overusing and misusing these pronouns and sounding thoroughly uneducated. Just use “he, him, his” if a singular topic self-identifies as male; use “she, her, hers” if a singular topic self-identifies as female; and use “they, them, their” if the topic is male or female, or your topic selfidentifies as nongender.