The Inclusivity of Language: Gender Issues

Need help with assignments?

Our qualified writers can create original, plagiarism-free papers in any format you choose (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.)

Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.

Click Here To Order Now

The singular they can be used to replace the generic appropriately he for gender neutrality fulfilment. It is essential as it makes language seem more inclusive in terms of gender. An experiment was undertaken on how fast they were read against the pronouns to get a clear picture. From the experiment, clauses with the word they were read much more quickly than those with the pronouns (Brown, 2019). The usage of they to denote a singular individual whose gender is unknown has been frequently used, even in many writings. The he when used refers to a male individual and is not all-inclusive. Therefore, to avoid this, writers and editors have begun using they for gender inclusivity. It is appropriate for writers to use the singular; it looks more natural than he (Foertsch & Gernsbacher, 1997). However, it is problematic to use it to address people with unknown or known gender. It could be impressive if there were an appropriate word to replace the pronoun he, though it is unavailable.

The most suitable word that can replace he is the singular they based on the experiment (Brown, 2019). The word they has been firmly rooted in the American lexicon and has resulted from the bold resistance of biased language. However, it is not clear if individuals using the singular are ungrammatical. Given that the word has been used repeatedly in everyday English, it is no more surprising to refer to neutrality. Similarly, sentences with they can be read more quickly compared with the ones with the pronouns. It is attributed to the fact that they do not give new information regarding gender. Oppositely, he and she add more information concerning the gender, hence resulting in biasness. Therefore, a word that provides more information takes a substantial amount of time to be processed. Hence, a reader is often slow to process a clause that has gender-sensitive words.

References

Brown, M. H. (2019). The reality and necessity of teaching singular they. PanSig Journal, 28-35. Web.

Foertsch, J., & Gernsbacher, M. (1997). In search of gender neutrality: Is singular they a cognitively efficient substitute for generic he? Psychological Science, 8(2), 106-111.

Need help with assignments?

Our qualified writers can create original, plagiarism-free papers in any format you choose (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.)

Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.

Click Here To Order Now