OMZ

[sirs]

Call Me 'Ze,' Not 'He':
University Wants Everyone To Use 'Gender Inclusive' Pronouns

Educators in the Volunteer State are very concerned that students might be offended by the usage of traditional pronouns like she, he, him and hers, according to a document from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

“With the new semester beginning and an influx of new students on campus, it is important to participate in making our campus welcoming and inclusive for all,” wrote Donna Braquet in a posting on the university’s website. “One way to do that is to use a student’s chosen name and their correct pronouns.”

Braquet, who is director of the university’s Pride Center, suggested using a variety of gender neutral pronouns instead of traditional pronouns.

“There are dozens of gender-neutral pronouns,” she declared.

For all you folks who went to school back when there were only him and her – here’s a primer: some of the new gender neutral pronouns are ze, hir, zir, xe, xem and xyr.

“These may sound a little funny at first, but only because they are new,” Braquet explained. “The ‘she’ and ‘he’ pronouns would sound strange too if we had been taught ‘ze’ when growing up.”

Somehow I sincerely doubt that, but whatever. Anything goes for the sake of inclusivity, right?

Getting to the point of absolute absurdity

[Plane]

   In "1984" the government took control of the language to the extent that it became hard to enunciate rebellion , or think clearly.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I do not think that language can be legislated.

This would be even harder in Spanish, where all third person pronouns are gendered, and harder still in languages in which you and I are gendered.

No problem at all for Chinese or Japanese, though, where pronouns are not normally gendered.