Why Are We Still Hating Singular “They”?

Cover photo by Karolina of Kaboompics

In 2018, I’m not really sure why singular “they” is still not acceptable in formal writing when it has been used for hundreds of years in spoken as well as written English with no one, save the occasional uptight pedant or haughty English teacher, batting an eye. Tom Freeman of Stroppy Editor provides an impressively comprehensive history of its usage by prolific authors since Middle English—including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Swift, Fielding, Austen, Defoe, Byron, Thackeray, and Shaw—in this article.

Over the last several decades, many people have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to introduce a gender-neutral singular pronoun, such as the failed “tey,” (p. 162) “ze,” and “hir” (p. 10). I don’t want to get into the linguistics of that, but let’s just say that attempting to get all English speakers on board with a sweeping change to the language at the grammatical level is not an easy task.

LBGTQ-rights arguments aside, it’s more of a case of accuracy and avoidance of pedantic, stuffy-sounding writing for me. I’m not sure anyone can honestly say that the “his or her/he or she” construction doesn’t automatically ruin any piece of prose by its sheer clunky awkwardness [but feel free to attempt to change my mind in the comments!] Most style guides recommend other workarounds, such as the less awkward but arguably more stilted “one,” but … eww.

Because resorting to “his or her/he or she” is, at least in my opinion, just ugly—or, in others’ opinions, lazy or no longer even the proper PC choice due to its adherence to a gender binary—our only option is to go to often great lengths to recast an entire sentence. Even the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style came across as grudging in its beat-around-the-bush decision to uphold avoidance of singular “they” in formal writing while giving it a full-on green light in all other contexts.

So, should you use singular “they” when copyediting? For me, I would say the final decision should rest with the author rather than any style guide, copyeditor, or publisher.