they/them
I always thought we should come up with some sort of gender-neutral singular pronouns. But, we already have those? But "it" has horrible connotations, doesn't it (no pun intended). I mean, Silence of the Lambs and all.
it rubs the lotion on its skin
But, for whatever reason I don't like "zie" and "hir" either. It's like trying to get everybody to learn Esperanto.
They/Them always bugged me because they are plural pronouns, at least that's how I've interpreted them for the past 50 years. But then, it struck me, that we are actually plural beings.
The notion that each human is an individual unitary self is definitely widespread, but it isn't correct. Multicellular animals are most definitely collectives. There are about, oh 37.2 trillion cells in a human body. There are about 500 times as many cells in your body as there are humans on earth. You, and here I mean the plural you, you are a population far more vast than you can count. You don't even have a good way to perform an accurate census of yourself.
WTF are all those cells doing? You don't even need to know. I mean, you can be completely ignorant of what they are up to. That's not your job. You aren't in charge of what your cells are doing. You are a sort of figurehead chief of state, nominally in charge, but with no fucking clue.
You, the collective you, still exist even if an arbitrary number of these cells perish. Even if your kidneys are removed, or your left leg, or your reproductive organs. Even if you suffer brain damage, you still exist. You aren't the same as before, but you persist as a collective of slightly fewer than 37.2 trillion cells.
So, I think I'm fine with they/them. I mean, we mean, we are fine with they/them. We the collective known as Bug.
What if having multiple personalities isn't a disorder? What is the real disorder is thinking that we each have only one personality?
it rubs the lotion on its skin
But, for whatever reason I don't like "zie" and "hir" either. It's like trying to get everybody to learn Esperanto.
They/Them always bugged me because they are plural pronouns, at least that's how I've interpreted them for the past 50 years. But then, it struck me, that we are actually plural beings.
The notion that each human is an individual unitary self is definitely widespread, but it isn't correct. Multicellular animals are most definitely collectives. There are about, oh 37.2 trillion cells in a human body. There are about 500 times as many cells in your body as there are humans on earth. You, and here I mean the plural you, you are a population far more vast than you can count. You don't even have a good way to perform an accurate census of yourself.
WTF are all those cells doing? You don't even need to know. I mean, you can be completely ignorant of what they are up to. That's not your job. You aren't in charge of what your cells are doing. You are a sort of figurehead chief of state, nominally in charge, but with no fucking clue.
You, the collective you, still exist even if an arbitrary number of these cells perish. Even if your kidneys are removed, or your left leg, or your reproductive organs. Even if you suffer brain damage, you still exist. You aren't the same as before, but you persist as a collective of slightly fewer than 37.2 trillion cells.
So, I think I'm fine with they/them. I mean, we mean, we are fine with they/them. We the collective known as Bug.
What if having multiple personalities isn't a disorder? What is the real disorder is thinking that we each have only one personality?