Oh no not denied pronouns

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Is that right?

Really? The BBC of all institutions is mean to trans people? You’re going with that?

And how does the example illustrate his point? Where would a pronoun be an improvement in that caption? He’s saying that “Linehan cleared of harassing a transgender activist” should be replaced with “Linehan cleared of harassing a she/her”? Does he not understand what pronouns are? They’re there to simplify things by replacing two or three or more informative words with the much briefer “her” or “him” – but the cluster of informative words has to come first. Willoughby quoted a single 17 word title; there is no space or need to shorten “transgender activist” to “her”.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll discuss what a sentence is.

Comments

3 responses to “Oh no not denied pronouns”

  1. GW Avatar
    GW

    Perhaps he means in the article itself? But yes, he probably is hazy about the definition and function of “pronoun.”

    I saw somewhere online, I can’t remember where, four or five years ago, that some eighth-grade teacher asked the pupils in a grammar lesson: “Does anyone know what a pronoun is?” And one of the pupils responded: “It’s something that you use on your gender journey.”

  2. Omar Avatar
    Omar

    GW:

    “It’s something that you use on your gender journey.”

    I sincerely hope that they gave that kid full marks. He/she/it should go far. In today’s crazy world.

  3. cz Avatar
    cz

    Pronouns are in the eye of the beholder.

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