“It” is personally my favorite neutral pronoun, but it has so much cultural baggage attached to it that it doesn’t feel like a viable option. Why does a squirrel or a ficus or a robot get to be called “it” by default, but not a person? It isn’t fair.
Can you give an example of how “it” is confusing? Like “It met its friend for coffee,” sounds fine to me. “It put on a warm jacket since it was cold out,” uses multiple senses of the word, but it still reads fine to me.
“They” is mildly confusing in narratives because it can be hard to distinguish whether one or multiple characters are being described, but it’s not an insurmountable problem.
I think it might be most confusing when someone talks about someone who uses “it/its” pronouns: my initial assumption would be that they’re trying to dehumanise it unless I was already previously aware of it’s pronown preference.
that’s a good point, I think it depends on the person, but some people tend to just assume the squirrels gender in most instances rather than saying “it”.
“It” is personally my favorite neutral pronoun, but it has so much cultural baggage attached to it that it doesn’t feel like a viable option. Why does a squirrel or a ficus or a robot get to be called “it” by default, but not a person? It isn’t fair.
It’s your choice. Do what you want. Damn the haters to sheol.
it’s generally used to describe non-sentient things…
Also, using only it gets confusing when trying to determine what “it” refers to in a given sentence…
You should have answered with more empathy for its feelings. Jesus Christ told us to love our neighbours.
What’s not sentient about a squirrel?
Can you give an example of how “it” is confusing? Like “It met its friend for coffee,” sounds fine to me. “It put on a warm jacket since it was cold out,” uses multiple senses of the word, but it still reads fine to me.
“They” is mildly confusing in narratives because it can be hard to distinguish whether one or multiple characters are being described, but it’s not an insurmountable problem.
I think it might be most confusing when someone talks about someone who uses “it/its” pronouns: my initial assumption would be that they’re trying to dehumanise it unless I was already previously aware of it’s pronown preference.
https://aria.dog/barks/on-being-a-thing/
😅
that’s a good point, I think it depends on the person, but some people tend to just assume the squirrels gender in most instances rather than saying “it”.