In some of Andre Norton's science fiction, she introduced the term "gentle-sap" as a generic honorific that applied to any sapient species or sex. One might drop the "gentle" and repurpose the remainder as a generic pronoun--pronounced with a long or short "a" depending on your mood.
If we insist on multiplying pronouns, why not use some that add some distinguishing information--marital status, youth or elder, grandparent ... ?
2 comments:
For the activist types, getting the pronouns accurate is not even the point. Making other people be perpetually wrong, having to be uncomfortable, and being forced to pay attention to ME is the point. I know this not only from patients, a population that is unrepresentative and perhaps doesn't count, but the staff at my psych hospital as well.
"Gentle-sap"? This is either a reference to the worship of trees or else trying to deny that a slapper is a brutal weapon.
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