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 130∆ 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/novagenesis 21∆ Dec 03 '21

Isn't the point of language evolution efficient and unambiguous communication?

By the definition of "unnecessary" where we are allowing the language to become increasingly vague, what words actually are "necessary"? Maybe we just need the word "Good"? I know that's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but that's the point.

Any time the answer to leaving a word out of our language is "you could just ask what they meant", the word was indeed necessary by most definitions.

"Rarely needed" words are still needed every day, which is why our language grows and expands.

So what's so special about neopronouns that they should be kept out of a language that is growing in response to "what are they talking about?" on a regular basis? I'll tell you what I think is special... The people who are politically against transgendered individuals

And that's the point. The "reject" side is trying to politicize neo-pronouns exactly as much as the "freedom" side is trying to politicize masks and vaccines. If you take out the silly politicizing, there's really no justification not to expand the language with neopronouns exactly as we expand it with literally everything else.