There is little radical about referring to an unknown doctor as "they"
By R.L.G. | BERLIN
FACEBOOK made quite a splash last week. Not with a new service or the announcement of some smashing financial results. Instead, the company will allow users to choose something besides “Male” or “Female” for the gender on their profile. It's a change that transgender people and others who do not feel 100% male or female have greeted with joy and relief.
Facebook’s radical move—radical in the best sense—was accompanied by another, but altogether less radical, change. If someone doesn’t want to be known as either male or female, that same person will not want to see, on others’ Facebook pages, the message “Wish him a happy birthday!” or “Wish her a happy birthday!” How should they be referred to?
The answer is in that last sentence. The antecedent to the pronoun is someone, and the pronoun is, of course, they. Now, someone is grammatically singular (it takes a singular verb), and they is in most cases semantically plural (conjuring a group, not an individual). So some grammatical traditionalists think “singular they” is always wrong. But in fact, singular “they” is as traditional as it gets.
How so? English has a gap in its pronoun set. We often need to refer to an unknown person (“someone”, “anyone”, “a doctor” and the like). If we later use a pronoun for that same person, of unknown or unimportant sex, some traditionalists say that “he” is the best solution—someone is singular, so the pronoun must be too. But while he matches in number, it is a mismatch in gender: there is a strong chance the unknown referent is female. This “traditional” solution is flawed.
But traditionalists need not panic. Singular they has appeared in the finest English writing for centuries.
“And whoso fyndeth hym out of switch blame, they wol come up…” (Chaucer, "The Pardoner’s Prologue")
“And everyone to rest themselves betake” (Shakespeare, "The Rape of Lucrece")
“If ye from your hearts forgive not every one their trespasses” (King James Bible, Matthew 18:35)
“I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly” (Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park").
(These examples, and many others, come from the "Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage".)
It is only in more recent centuries that some grammarians began to insist that the pronoun be singular, and that he should be thought of as gender-neutral. But recent psychological research has shown that the so-called "generic he" does call up the image of a man or boy. In the modern world, it makes little sense to expose young women and girls to repeated instances of A lawyer should know his client’s needs or A good doctor always listens to his patients. And that is even before we get to intersex, transsexual and other cases.
Most of the alternatives to singular they are worse. He or she is ugly, especially on repetition. Our "Style Guide" says that generic he is fine, perhaps to alternate with the occasional generic she. But this can seem cutesy, or at the very least distracting. And all suggestions for invented new gender-neutral pronouns have failed: pronouns (unlike nouns and verbs) are a “closed class” of words, almost never admitting new members. A children’s author has tried again recently in Sweden; it is too soon to tell if it will succeed, but the smart money would be against.
Faced with this conundrum, what to do? To recap, the options are
- be inaccurate and potentially sexist (generic he)
- be awkward and ugly (he or she)
- switch he and she at random
- invent something that will never work (new pronouns)
- do what Caxton, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Thackeray, Spenser and countless others have done, and what you probably do in informal speech yourself (singular they)
Facebook made a surprisingly easy choice.
There will always be those who think singular they is wrong. (Our style guide calls it "scrambled syntax".) Where avoiding distracting or annoying such people is paramount in your writing, the best solution is to reword, putting things in the plural to go round the choice. (Make The careful writer keeps his readers in mind into Careful writers keep their readers in mind.) But sometimes this solution will not work, or produces something less elegant.
Singular they is common in almost everyone’s relaxed speech. It may not make stylistic sense for a doctoral thesis. But it does for many people who reject traditional gender. Most transgender people prefer their new gender-based pronoun, so "he" and "she" are just fine. But for a minority, "they" might be best. Facebook has given them that option, without really doing damage to English tradition.
So, think about your audience, gauge the effect you’re going for, consider how formal the situation, and make the choice that works best. In a world full of imperfect people and imperfect solutions, just remember that, as Jonathan Swift wrote, “Every fool can do as they’re bid.”
