Comment on Contain them
stray@pawb.social 15 hours agoWhat’s not sentient about a squirrel?
Can you give an example of how “it” is confusing? Like “It met its friend for coffee,” sounds fine to me. “It put on a warm jacket since it was cold out,” uses multiple senses of the word, but it still reads fine to me.
“They” is mildly confusing in narratives because it can be hard to distinguish whether one or multiple characters are being described, but it’s not an insurmountable problem.
Venat0r@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Venat0r@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
that’s a good point, I think it depends on the person, but some people tend to just assume the squirrels gender in most instances rather than saying “it”.
stray@pawb.social 9 hours ago
In my experience (and I’m sure this varies by region) it’s about 50/50 whether someone will call most animals or anthropomorphized objects “he” or “it”. (Cats are a big exception in that they’re usually “she” even from people who know it’s a boy cat.) So for me “it” is just the most natural thing, with male-as-default being second and also problematic in its own way. Maybe someday I’ll like a neopronoun.
Venat0r@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I think it might be most confusing when someone talks about someone who uses “it/its” pronouns: my initial assumption would be that they’re trying to dehumanise it unless I was already previously aware of it’s pronown preference.
stray@pawb.social 9 hours ago
That’s what I mean about the baggage, yeah. You can’t just make something not be a slur anymore. It’s uncomfortable for people trying to be respectful, and it’s easy for bigots to exploit.