Hacker Read

vacri | karma 17701 | avg karma 1.83 · 2016-03-04 03:02:21

I don't know why people dismiss it "because it sounds a little funny to me", but are okay with abominations like "he/she" or "zhe"...

licoricetic | karma 3 | avg karma 0.16 · 2016-03-04 03:43:00+00:00

maybe those are different people

vacri | karma 17701 | avg karma 1.83 · 2016-03-04 03:47:39+00:00

A venn diagram will provide all possible combinations of opinions, but there are definitely people out there who suggest 'he/she' or 'zhe' instead of 'they' because the latter 'sounds funny'

douche | karma 9095 | avg karma 2.04 · 2016-03-04 14:32:52+00:00

Zhe has got to be the stupidest proposal I've heard of. Let's invent a word using a letter that almost never leads non-loanword English words to solve a problem that only pedants and people who are eager to find sexist oppression in the innocuous are bothered by.

pyre | karma 21143 | avg karma 2.37 · 2016-03-04 04:54:44+00:00

I'm of the opinion that "they" shouldn't be both singular and plural, but zhe/zer/whatever are just too "alien" sounding to work (besides the fact that they are just too close to he or her, and guaranteed to cause confusion if someone hears the word wrong).