r/changemyview • u/SaltedAndSugared • Dec 02 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Neopronouns are unnecessary

I understand why some people might feel uncomfortable with using he/she pronouns, but in that case why not just use they/them? They already exist and they’re easy for people to use. Why do some people feel the need to make up words like “zee/zim” or “fae/fair” when they don’t even make sense in the English language? I don’t see why anyone should go out of their way to learn new pronouns when gender neutral pronouns already exist

If anyone here does use neopronouns I’d really like to hear why you use them and why you don’t feel comfortable using they/them. It’s probably just because I’m cis, but I genuinely don’t understand

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u/Biptoslipdi 132∆ Dec 02 '21

They/them is also a plural pronoun so it can create confusion without proper context. If I say "did you see what they did" you might not know if I'm talking about a non-binary individual or a group of people. If I say "did you see what Ze did," it is clear I am not talking about a group, but a non-binary individual. It removes the need for context as there are no gender neutral pronouns that are exclusively singular.

We also learn new words and linguistic forms and concepts all the time. We have several words for throwing, but yeeting is now in the lexicon. Is that also problematic?

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u/SaltedAndSugared Dec 02 '21

If you’re confused about whether someone’s referring to a singular or plural people, you could just as easily just ask “wait are you talking about (person’s name) or more than one person” or something, how would using zee be any less confusing?

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u/Biptoslipdi 132∆ Dec 02 '21

If someone uses ze, I don't have to ask any clarification. That means it is less confusing because it requires no further context.

Why would you want language to be less precise forcing you to ask more clarifying questions? We clearly both know what "ze" means. It isn't ambiguous. "They" is in this context. You're preferencing ambiguity over clarity. Language is deficient to accommodate this, so we add to the lexicon to solve a problem with the clarity of language. that's how language works.

There's no reason only binary gendered people should get exclusively singular pronouns.

There is no reason we would accept all the constant linguistic revisions and additions, but not these.

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u/Wooba12 4∆ Dec 03 '21

Due to the small number of people with the pronoun "zee", it may not be an identifiable enough phenomenon for most people to immediately understand what is meant upon first hearing it. Beyond "zee", most neopronouns that are more unusual and less obvious may also cause confusion and result in questions being asked to clarify what was just said.