It. Why not use it?

If you can't pick a gender you can't really be expected to pick a pronoun either.

Translation is, however, a real issue in this age of global reach ... we should not be so Anglo-centric as to dismiss those concerns ...

if how you are referred to on Facebook is your biggest problem, then you really don't have any problems, do you?

Next up, gender inequality in Second Life and how the Militia Etheridge will combat it.

It dates to the 14th century and is a perfectly valid gender neutral pronoun. If that makes a word "made up" then I guess all words are "made up." If one pays attention, one will hear themself and they used as gender neutral pronouns in common usage everyday.

The prescriptivists are winning this battle, insisting that there is no legitimate English gender neutral pronoun. This is in fact wrong, as anyone who *speaks* English plainly knows.

personally, myself being a transsexual woman, I chose " female" why not? that is what is on my connecticut driver's license, that is the restroom I use, when ONLY gender-specific restrooms are available; and, though I'm lesbian-oriented, it seems like I get all these men hitting on me, more so in refriendz than anything. but there have been times when, myself not being exactly " passable" as woman; clerks in stores have called me "he" ; at which times I literally stuck out my " C-cups" [ bosoms] and said " excuse me, it's SHE! or MS. like the magazine!" then again , like any girl would, I wear heels with jeans, or sneakers with my skirts- women's clothing, which definitely helps[ especially when I've got to pee in the ladies room ]. but I also know a few biological " butch-lesbian" women whom could very easily pass for the men's room. maybe the exception would be my friend, whom while a crossdresser, is very much the male in facebook. he's the one whom got me into that and refriendz. BUT, as well-known transsexual-lesbian kate bornstein would say, use the "ze" instead of the "he" or the "she", and yes, my mom now calls me " it"; my favorite pronoun for referring to my "former life identity" which sucked!

Recently, I've seen too many posts on trans issues from people who are not touched by these issues in anyway.

I realize there's an underlying impulse to be helpful, but unless handled carefully, there is a self-conscious, "We're so sophisticated and aware of this issue!" feel. And little actual insight.

Part of the trouble is that there's tons of talented and articulate people who can connect the dots between trans issues and feminist issues, but Broadsheet isn't doing that.

In contrast, Pam's House Blend is an example of a political blog that does not deal primarily or predominantly with trans issues, but does touch on them occasionally with some depth and integrates these issues into the overall blog..

Yes, it's a tyranny of the majority, and no, that's not an excuse to be deliberately insensitive or hateful, but this seems to me like an extremely minor issue to pick on.

Whenever I use a Polish website, I get addressed as a man. And it's not just a case of a "Mr." or "Mrs." misuse - because of the high inflectionality of Polish, most verbs and adjectives are marked for gender. It's frustrating, sexist and at times humiliating. And it's not just the problem of websites - I've been bombarded with masculine forms since I learned to read. Textbooks, leaflets, billboards, you name it. Everyone seems to assume that I'm a man (well, maybe except cleaning product makers). Maybe I should have got used to it over such a long time, but well, I didn't and have no intention of doing so.

And yes, I have heard about "Ms." and "themself" and "spokesperson"... but isn't it what the issue of sexism in English boils down to? I know it's wrong, but whenever somebody complains about linguistic asymmetries in English, I just get so "shut up, I'm the one with the real problems" and go "So what's the big deal?".

So what's the big deal?

I mean, in Japanese or Chinese, you could easily get away without specifying a gender -- in fact, pronouns in general are used rarely -- instead of "I go to school", you say "go to school". By inference, it's clear who the subject is. You get used to it.

However, in English and many other languages, there is no commonly accepted, gender-neutral pronoun. Facebook isn't to blame if our language hasn't evolved to embrace transgender individuals. I'm sympathetic to this awkward situation, but presumably transgender users face this every day.

OK, kind of petty, but you've now done it three times in two letters just today, and it is bugging the crap out of me.

Stop using "whom" when you mean to say "who"!! It makes you sound like an idiot.

"Whom" is an OBJECTIVE pronoun, "who" is the SUBJECTIVE prounoun".

Here's a trick....if you can replace the prounoun with a he/she/they, use "who". If you would replace it with a him/her/them, use "whom".

Example:

WHO doesn't know correct grammer? SHE doesn't

WHOM is the incorrect grammar bugging the shit out of? HIM (that asshole who has nothing to do beetter at work but correct Salon letters).

End rant.

Well, if the issue that forced this is translation, do other languages have translations to "ze" and "zir"? I'd be surprised if they all did, as they're relatively new (in terms of language development). So they're still going to run into the same problem. Especially if those terms are not universal or encompassing every possible gender people come up with. So what happens when someone comes up with something like "zim" to describe themselves*? Does facebook and other sites add that too?

* Themselves. Hey, look at that. The widely known plural form of "themself", which I typed without even thinking about it to refer to a set of people without referring to their gender.

To paraphrase a line from _Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex_ (yes, wisdom from the anime East!):

"It is the excess of concern for transsexuals that leads to contempt for them."

Really, is treating transsexuals as if they are this month's Holy Grail of Oppression helping anyone or anything? Wait a mo, there is no "as if:" they are the mostest oppressed people ever--and yeah for me for recognizing it!!! [sound of raucous cheers and wild applause]

Which is probably the real issus here: among the Stuff White People Like the most is the heady whiff of being oppressed. Well, not *actually* oppressed, mind you--that's unpleasant and inconvenient; we can be *vicariously* oppressed though and that thrills us to no end.

Cue the stampede of White People in Portland and San Francisco as they desperately search for anyone who has ever so much as thought about maybe, one day, questioning their sexual identity. Their once-prized minority friends may languish a bit, but, hey, you can't be BFF with everyone now, can you?

This is not to denigrate or mock the real issues that transsexuals have to go through on a daily basis; it *is* however to say that sometimes you really just do have to suck up the smaller indignities and get on with your life. As those of us without gender identity issues do everyday.