Examples of the singular "they" being used to describe someone features as early as 1386 in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and also in famous literary works like Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1599.

"They" and "them" were still being used by literary authors to describe people in the 17th Century too - including by Jane Austin[sic] in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49754930

Personally, I think I'll keep using a pronoun the way that worked for Chaucer, Shakespeare and Austen.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And you completely miss the point where it's much harder to comprehend what people are talking about. Had it said "he/him" it would have been 100% clear without a doubt immediately, and it would have insulted NOBODY.

Nobody was insulted by him/her since forever, now we can't use that anymore because somehow it's exclusionary, insulting or "assuming the obvious gender"

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Why do you care so much what words people use? How did words hurt you? Can you show us on the doll?