The politics of pronouns | BPS
- Men and women use first-person plural words, or we-words, at the same rate. The use of we highlights one of the most enigmatic function words in our vocabulary. The natural assumption is that when speakers use we, they are referring to themselves and their close friends. There are even famous psychology studies where people see the word we flashed
James W. Pennebaker • The Secret Life of Pronouns
In Ojibwe, an indigenous North American language whose nouns are not classified by gender but according to whether they are considered animate or not, the singular third person pronoun wiin is used for both ‘she’ and ‘he’. In Turkish, the equivalent of ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’ is simply o, which seems to me unimprovable.
Amia Srinivasan • Amia Srinivasan · He, She, One, They, Ho, Hus, Hum, Ita: How Should I Refer to You? · LRB 2 July 2020
"When we fail to critically examine dominant terminology and discourses, our worldview becomes shaped by external agendas, often without our consent. However, consciousness of language's constructive role allows us to reclaim agency over our self-perception and values and allows us to actively participate in reshaping language to articulate diverse
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