From New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo:

Call Me ‘They’

The singular “they” is inclusive and flexible, and it breaks the stifling prison of gender expectations. Let’s all use it.

Okay, but “they” is not singular, it’s plural. You sound crazy, like the Berkeley stabber, Pablo “They” Gomez, when you ask people to refer to you as “they.”

English already has a perfectly good gender-free singular pronoun: “it.”

So, from now on, you’re It.

By Farhad Manjoo
Opinion Columnist

July 10, 2019

Call me “they” or “them,” as in: “Did you read Farhad’s latest column — they’ve really gone off the deep end this time!” …

But it was only when I had a son and a daughter of my own that I recognized how powerfully gendered constructs shape our development. From their very earliest days, my kids, fed by marketing and entertainment and (surely) their parents’ modeling, seemed to hem themselves into silly gender norms. They gravitated to boy toys and girl toys, boy colors and girl colors, boy TV shows and girl TV shows. This was all so sad to me: I see them limiting their thoughts and their ambitions, their preferences and their identity, their very liberty, only to satisfy some collective abstraction. And there’s little prospect for escape: Gender is a ubiquitous prison for the mind, reinforced everywhere, by everyone, and only rarely questioned.

In other words, Manjoo is mad that he doesn’t get to boast to the other woke parents about how non-binary his kids are. It’s driving him crazy that his boy and girl are sane.

Good q. In this specific instance it was to make a point about gender. But generally, I do gender them, I think only out of habit, uncertainty and norms.

I’m not sure if we should get rid of all gendered words, or if we can. It’s complicated! I think pronouns are a good start

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) July 11, 2019

You have sane, healthy children. Your son likes being a boy and your daughter likes being a girl. Be thankful. Don’t drag them into your careerist clickbait war on gender.

Gender progressivism: Making children cry on Christmas morning since 1969.

[Comment at Unz.com]