Gender Pronouns and Their Problems

Pronouns & Feminism

The structure and science behind the English language is enamoring and enthralling to some. However, others have both poignant yet valid concerns about how inherently biased the English language is constructed and used even in modern day parlance. To be sure, this perceived bias goes to the very root of the English language as there are no gender-neutral pronouns and there are ostensibly no grammatical or lingual ways around this. While not everyone's language cues and habits are intentional and malicious, the structure of English as being slanted towards males is obvious and undeniable.

As explained by McWhorter, making just about any statement that relates to a person usually has to have an identifier that is gender-specific. This presents a problem when the gender of the person being spoken of is not known. This is explained in the book when people are trying to explain without assumption or presumption of gender that someone left a book behind. People try to get around this by using "they" or "their," but those words are obviously not technically accurate even if they are generally accepted as a way to avoid gender-specific pronouns. Even if that particular example could be negated, even if it still isn't "proper" English, by saying "someone left a book here," the point made by McWhorter is indeed a valid one. There is a duality of a problem in that the language of English is constructed with a clear bias towards men yet there is not usually a clear-cut way to get around that when saying certain things. Sure, using "police officer" instead of "policeman" makes sense but the general "genuflecting," as the author describes it, of people to avoid the appearance of assumptions or bias create unnecessary unease and problems even when no sexual bias is intended or projected, at least on purpose.

The reasons for the existence of this bias are clear based on the fact that the creators of most modern languages and dialects were almost all men. Why this has not urged the creation of a gender-neutral pronoun that has "stuck" is odd, but it is what it is, it would seem. Perhaps complicating things is that some roles and jobs are still very heavily tilted towards one gender or another. Most nurses and human resources staffers are women while most engineers and computer people are men. However, assuming that and thus using gender-specific pronouns as a result can lead to problems. Even people with names not culturally or ethnically related to the United States and/or their European predecessors can encounter issues as not everyone knows what names are "male" and which ones are "female." A more American example not used in the article would be someone assuming that a medical doctor is male based on their title but later finding out that the person is a female.

That all being said, some people assign entirely too much weight and bias to people that truly just assume or presume even if it is not the most educated or observant thing to do. As noted before, if someone hears someone refer to a doctor, they are generally going to assume it is a male. If they hear someone refer to a nurse, they will often assume that the person is a female. They may very well be wrong but they probably are not and assuming as such does not necessarily mean that any malice or bias is in play. As with many things, it is all about probability and trends more than favoring one gender over another. Even so, the fact that there is not a feature built into the English language to negate the problem entirely is annoying to say the least and that would indeed seem to fix the problem. However, creating such a word or words and making it register and take hold with the American public, let along other countries and regions in the world, would not be the easiest thing. As such, perhaps the best thing to do is focus on educating people on a few good habits. First, gender should be just like race or ethnicity in the respect that bringing it up is not necessary unless it is mundane or relevant to the discussion. Second, people should dial back their outrage and vitriol unless it is clear that an anti-gender bias is in play. Real discrimination and bias should be identified and dealt with but people should still be given the benefit of the doubt unless it is clear that insult and degradation is the intent. Lastly, bias in reaction to perceived or actual bias is still bias. Put another way, two wrongs do not make a right and lashing back at an entire group of people for the ill intent of a smaller portion of the whole is not fair, not valid and not productive.