https://willow.al/enContents © Willow et al Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:59:37 GMTNikola (getnikola.com)http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rsshttps://willow.al/posts/grammatically-people-are-objects.htmlWillow et al<p>Some people think that "it/its" pronouns are only used to dehumanize others, but they do it all the time. And I don't just mean nonbinary it/she puppygirls (which I'm totally not stop asking &gt;_&lt;). It's not just babies either (although I do believe babies have no gender). I was outside an office one time, with a few other clients, waiting for the office to open up. One of us asked "who is it?" referring to the person in the office. Or I'll be with friends, and one of them will ask me who my friend is by saying "who's that?"</p> <p>These are pronouns clasically thought of as referring to objects. But I really want to normalize their use to refer to people too. To go back to babies for a sec, people get really persnickety about others "misgendering" their little kids. But like, do they even have gender to begin with? I don't think that has quite established in the minds of people so young yet. And it's not like they exhibit any of the sex characteristics we associate with gender either. 🤷‍♀️So like, please refer to your babies with it/its (or they/them) pronouns.</p> <p>Also please stop being uptight about your <strong><em>dog's</em></strong> gender. That's some nonsense. I don't even ask for their genders and just default to it/its. If someone specifies "her name is Roxy" I'll comply but it doesn't fucking matter.</p>queerhttps://willow.al/posts/grammatically-people-are-objects.htmlWed, 05 Aug 2026 01:35:47 GMT