He/She/They/Ze Blog

Over the last decade, I have noticed an increase in the importance of communicating with each individual's gender pronouns. These pronouns can be expressed during the introductory lesson of classes or even written in a person’s Instagram bio. Either or, they are an important way of communicating, understanding, and respecting one another in present-day society. Sharing gender pronouns is a good way to make sure everyone feels comfortable and included in whichever environment they find themselves in.

As a person with parents raised in Eastern Europe, I feel as though I am constantly learning and growing new things about modern society. While my parents grew up, they were only introduced to two genders. Reading different articles such as Robin Dembroff and Daniel Wodak's piece, He/She/They/Ze, I feel lucky to become more understanding and educated about the things that I may not have been familiar with in the past as I did not experience them firsthand. This article is eye-opening in that it highlights how much the lack of correctly labeling one's gender can hurt and cause discomfort. 

The first claim by Dembroff and Wodak was considered moderate and states that we as a society “have a duty not to use binary gender-specific pronouns (he or she) to refer to genderqueer individuals like Angel Haze.” (372) When growing up near New York City, I feel as though I was exposed to a far more loving and understanding community of people. When attending Pride parades in the city, I was introduced to an accepting culture, one where people love one another based on who they are, not factoring in their gender identity or sexuality. I feel as though the moderate claim was reasonable and understandable to me as I think individuals like Angel Haze shouldn’t be referred to as a pronoun that doesn’t apply.

When using the gender-neutral pronouns "they" and "ze", I did see how society may view these names as out of the ordinary, which does cause some issues. For me, the issue with using “they” to describe a person’s gender is in the fact that those who identify as female or male can also both be referred to as “they” when being spoken about. 

Dembroff and Wodak’s radical claim stated people within a society “have a duty not to use gender-specific pronouns to refer to anyone, regardless of their gender identity”. I found this idea interesting but a bit bizarre. My first thoughts were if a girl goes by the pronouns of she/her/hers, why can’t she be referred to as a woman? As I read over the claim a couple more times, I began to think about the implications of calling a girl who was born in a female body and identifies as female, a female. Doing so may take away the legitimacy of another person who also identifies as female, but may have not been born into female anatomy. I feel as though instead of referring to a transgender person as they, it would be respectful and fairer to call them by the gender they identify as. 

I enjoy reading articles such as Robin Dembroff and Daniel Wodak's piece, He/She/They/Ze because they discuss and introduce new ways to view topics that I can better educate myself on. While there were parts of both the moderate and radical claim which I agreed with, there were also different areas in which I could see other viewpoints coming into play. I feel as though topics such as this one are important to address to ensure that our society progresses, and people begin to feel comfortable and free within their own bodies and identities.