Article ID: 23
tl;dr: ``他'' uses the ``人'' (person) radical, and should cover all people, because not all people are male.
-In contemporary English, the traditional plaural pronoun ``they'' is +
In contemporary English, the traditional plural pronoun ``they'' is often used as a gender-inclusive singular pronoun, alongside the feminine singular ``she'' and the masculine singular ``he''. However, there is no equivalent in Chinese. ``他'' is considered a masculine pronouns in @@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ pronoun.
Prior to the May Fourth Movement and the broader New Culture Movement, ``他'' was a generic pronoun for all entities, including people of any gender, and inanimate objects. In the movements’ efforts to -``modernize'' the Chinese language and culture, a seperate feminine +``modernize'' the Chinese language and culture, a separate feminine pronoun ``她'' was created by the poet and linguist 刘半农, becoming an -established linguistic norm after the Chinese Civil War. (A seperate +established linguistic norm after the Chinese Civil War. (A separate ``它'' was created for inanimate objects; however this has little relevance to the arguments in this article.)
A distinct feminine pronoun ``她'' along with ``他'' being a masculine @@ -35,8 +35,8 @@ marginalization of the feminine from the concept of personhood.
When referring to a placeholder of unknown gender in contemporary English, singular they pronouns are often used, such as in ``someone left their laptop here''. Such colloquial conversations are generally -aproblematic as all normative third-person pronouns in Mandarin sound -the same: tā. However, in written contexts, many use ``他/她'' ressembling +unproblematic as all normative third-person pronouns in Mandarin sound +the same: tā. However, in written contexts, many use ``他/她'' resembling ``he/she''. Aside from how this reinforces gender binary and alienates women (see the next two paragraphs), it is visually unappealing (as half-width slashes look particularly distinct from full-width CJK @@ -50,12 +50,12 @@ this article into a detailed discussion of non-binary gender, please read Leah Rowe’s article ``Better respect for non-binary people, in defense of human rights'' if this concept seems -unfamiliar.) The status quo of ``她'' being solely a femine pronoun and +unfamiliar.) The status quo of ``她'' being solely a feminine pronoun and ``他'' being solely a masculine pronoun reinforces gender binary and leaves no gender-neutral/inclusive pronoun for non-binary people who would prefer such pronouns.
The more fundamental issue with ``他'' as a masculine pronoun lies in -its characater composition and etymology. ``他'' is a compound character +its character composition and etymology. ``他'' is a compound character consisting of a ``人'' (person) radical and ``也'', while ``她'' consists of a ``女'' (female) radical and ``也''. Limiting ``他'' as a male pronoun assumes the male gender as dominant in ``people'', and marginalizes other genders, @@ -65,10 +65,18 @@ subset of what used to be covered by ``他''. I believe that a character’s composition should not be deceptive to its meaning, and therefore, the ``他'' with the ``人'' radical should describe any person, not just any male person.
-Those who prefer a unique masculine pronoun may choose to use one -with a ``男'' (male) radical instead. While ``男也'' has not been given a -unicode code-point yet, I find this solution to be much more ideal than -stereotypical generalizationis with ``他''.
+While I believe that ``他'' should be truly gender inclusive, its current +masculine standing does make it similar to +Generic he +to some extent. I dislike generic he as it reflects bias towards men, but +an inclusive ``他'' does carry these risks. Therefore I propose that +those who prefer a unique masculine pronoun may choose to use one +with a ``男'' (male) radical instead. While ``男也'' (read that as one character) has not been given a +Unicode code-point yet, I find this solution to be much more ideal than +stereotypical generalizations with ``他''.
++Please give me some of your thoughts. +