Lindsay Brown
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thread 1/7
Until @Spoutible deals with the old-fashioned "he" universal pronoun on its site, I'm not coming back here. Come on. This hasn't been normal English usage for decades, and it transmits an entire universe of patriarchal attitudes. You expect women to stick around for this? Off to Bluesky or Mastodon
01:29 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
A
thread 2/7
And for this observation I'm now being trolled by people who have "Never Bernie" in their bios. Which is a bit of an own goal, politically
01:53 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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thread 3/7
Wow, not even on Twitter would I have had more trolls in response to this than other replies.

"Ok bye" is a clever response to my tweet? This is the problem here.
01:55 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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thread 4/7
I'm expecting to be banned from this site in 3, 2, 1... And I was hopeful for it, too.
01:56 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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thread 5/7
I've just had to block a 3rd unpleasant person, for a tweet that's less than 10 minutes old.
01:57 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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thread 6/7
And now a 4th.
01:59 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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thread 7/7
The response to my post here - and its tone is due to my having brought this issue up several times in the past using various different methods, to no avail, is unlike on other platforms.

While people replying are citing civility ("we don't talk like that here") they are being markedly uncivil.
03:22 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Cyd Cannon
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I understand. Having worked in IT applications for years part of which included writing instructional messages, it’s not always easy to find the right words. In the example message, I could say “open the user’s profile page”. At the last place I worked, the HR managers opposed the word ‘user’. 🤷‍♀️
In response to Lindsay Brown.
01:58 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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J MurchPond
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In response to Cyd Cannon.
Open their profile page.
02:07 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Cyd Cannon
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In response to J MurchPond.
Maybe in the old days, ‘their’ would be a safe replacement. Yet even it gets confusing when talking about singular vs plural. Add to that the people that now use ‘they’ as preferred identity pronoun. I don’t think it is easy to find a default. There is always going to be someone who gets upset.
02:53 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Lindsay Brown
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In response to Cyd Cannon.
The thing is, using "his" to refer to all people hasn't been common usage in over 30 years. It's simply not used anymore. It's archaic and seeing it is really weird and jarring. No editor would allow it in media, any newspaper, any publishing house.. it's like a period piece.
02:00 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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Cyd Cannon
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In response to Lindsay Brown.
I’m weird. I actually use the word ‘guys’ for both men and women.
03:02 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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VergeClub
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In response to Lindsay Brown.
Except that I see similar use of his and him every day in mistranslations using AI or other automated services. It may have decreased for several decades, but for the last two decades misgendering has been on the increase. I hear women being called Miss now more than I ever did in the 70s.
05:38 PM - Sep 01, 2023
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