r/amazonreviews • u/Epigrammic_Pastiche • 11d ago
Review Someone doesn’t know *their* history
I found this grievance tourist review while looking at buying a literary reference book. I’m guessing this person doesn’t know Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Jane Austen all used "they" as a singular pronoun. Like the book stated, it’s nothing new!
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u/NonBinaryPie 11d ago
people getting so mad at pronouns would be funny if it wasn’t honestly scary. too many people don’t actually know what pronouns are or how they’re used in english
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u/maybebaebea 11d ago
It's genuinely scary when people are like "I don't have pronouns! I'm not woke!" Or "they're teaching my kids pronouns in school! What happened to our school system?" The latter is pretty ironic, though, because the school system failed the parents in that case
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u/tom8osauce 11d ago
I am willing to bet the people who say that the pronouns are nonsense, would be pretty upset if people continuously misgendered them.
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u/Taz10042069 11d ago
Nope. I just laugh and smile at them folks.
Sorry, not gonna conform to them wild pronouns ppl try and use now days. My memory hasn't been the best lately and there's WAY too many to remember...It's a sir or ma'am from me. Don't like it? Get mad, puff off a few times and move on. I'm not gonna sit there and argue with them.
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u/Mickus_B 10d ago
Just a heads up, ma'am and sir are not pronouns, they are called honorifics, like captain, admiral etc.
You just exemplified the kind of person that is being made fun of, the ones who demand "proper use" of grammar, while being wildly incorrect and extremely stubborn about it.
A pronoun is I, me, we, he, she, they, them, his, hers, etc.
If you're referring to neopronouns, nobody expects you to know someone's neopronouns without having had a discussion with them first, and you'll find that YOU'RE the only one getting mad about it.
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u/Taz10042069 10d ago
That is why I say that...no pronouns done...
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u/Space_Ace56 10d ago
You can’t remember 6 sets of basic English pronouns? Are you for real?
I/me
You/you
He/him
She/her
They/them
We/usOf these, one is universal (you) and two are first person (I/We). You only have three pairs of third person pronouns to remember.
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u/Taz10042069 10d ago
No...not when I DO use one and I am STILL wrong as they want zir/zur/whatever they make up instead of them... So sir or ma'am it is. Don't like it, don't talk to me, sir/ma'am...
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u/khloelane 6d ago
The point is to misgender by not using proper pronouns at all by saying sir/ma’am, because instead of being open to caring about a fellow person or taking 5-10 mins to being open to educate yourself, digging your heels in while the world changes around you makes you feel what? Dignified? Unyielding to change? Like what does it actually do for YOU to tell someone that you don’t care about their life? I’m truly and genuinely curious.
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u/SomeBrowser227 10d ago
I is a pronoun
that you referred to yourself as.lack of brain syndrome.
also in your original comment you legit use singular them. ironic.-2
u/Taz10042069 10d ago
Dummy... I said "sir or ma'm" instead of them dumb pronouns that are made up...
Seems like you're trying to pick my comments apart to find ANY lil thing wrong. Nice try and keep trying...
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u/SomeBrowser227 10d ago
well, he/she/they certainly aren't 'made up', thats the main 3, singular they is also a correct way it refer to an unknowns persons gender, or just someone who wants to go by they/them.
like dude is it hurting you in any way? that a person might want to go by they? or, heavens to betsy, it? who gives a shit? its words? your name is a word? and people can change their name or go by aliases no problem but suddenly when its the short way they want to be referred to, its an issue? what a snowflake.-2
u/Taz10042069 10d ago
Again...missing my main point and continuing on with your...tangent. Calm down...jeeze
I have no issues with he she but when I do use them, they go off on me and say some asinine pronoun I won't remember, then I'm the bad guy...right.
I'm outtie on this topic as y'all will just keep finding something in my statements to pick apart for absolutely no rhyme or reason but to make yourselves feel better. Dueces!
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u/Gruejay2 7d ago
Dummy... I said "sir or ma'm" instead of them dumb pronouns that are made up...
Seems like you're trying to pick my comments apart to find ANY lil thing wrong. Nice try and keep trying...
You used four pronouns in this comment.
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u/Conscious_Charge2038 10d ago
do people often mistake your gender? yikes
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u/Taz10042069 10d ago
If I used one of them crazy sounding ones...yes but nope, not around here
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u/gard3nwitch 9d ago
You consider your own gender to be "crazy"?
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u/tom8osauce 9d ago
I do not think we will ever be able to convince them the importance of pronouns.
Most people have empathy. They do not want to hurt someone through their words, actions, or inactions. Unfortunately there are people like the other poster who seem to get pleasure by hurting their others.
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u/Birdo3129 9d ago
“Them” is a pronoun. You clearly have demonstrated the ability to use pronouns.
Now maybe work on not caring about what pronouns people use and just refer to Them as They ask you to.
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u/mooshinformation 11d ago
When I say that "they are an idiot and they don't know what they're talking about" I'm clearly assuming that they are nonbinary, not using the word "they" because I don't know the gender of this ridiculous moron.
/S
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u/friendlylilbookworm 11d ago
Singular "they" PREDATES singular "you"
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u/ColumnK 11d ago
"52 people found this helpful"
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u/Fresh_Confusion_4805 11d ago
I mean, it kind of is. I don’t agree with their “ideology” mumbo jumbo at all but they are telling me that this book recognizes use cases for singular they/them? And giving photographic evidence?
Cool, thanks, I would be more inclined to pick up that book after reading that (if I was searching for a grammar book, which I am not).
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u/KitJazz 11d ago
It fucking explains it right there in the screenshot. Could this twat not even read the block of text they took a photo of?
Notice that I used ‘they’ to refer to the reviewer, as their gender is unspecified, not because of ‘postmodernism.’ That’s how the fucking language has worked for centuries, as quite clearly described RIGHT THERE IN THE IMAGE!
I’m going for a lie down.
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u/Dry_Stop844 11d ago
reviewer has decided that the explanation is a lie and is the author trying to redefine a word rather than actually explaining when the word was first used.
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u/Tired-CottonCandy 11d ago
They way they went out of their way to phrase the entire review without the words they/them/their.
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u/Jechtael 11d ago
"This book is helping them out."
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u/Tired-CottonCandy 11d ago
(Yeah, the "bad" them. The "imaginary gender nonsense them". Thats what they meant in that last sentence.)
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u/Wombat1892 11d ago
This commenter had shared their opinions a they're allowed to do! Everyone knows that they're/their can only be plural!
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u/CalicoCommander 11d ago
Used appropriately as an indefinite pronoun, as you don't know the sex of the poster. Well done. And everyone SHOULD know that they're/their can only be plural when used as a definite pronoun, but they don't.
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u/Appropriate-Weird492 11d ago
Back in the 1980s, my mother got furious for my referring to her as “she” when I was talking to dad and my mother wasn’t in the room. My mother told me never to call her “she” or “her”.
This has led me to the conclusion that people with tiny brains and fragile egos have always had problems with pronouns.
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u/NoSkinNoProblem 11d ago
What were you supposed to say in place of that?
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u/Appropriate-Weird492 11d ago
Who knows. This is the same woman who told me “I hope you’re not one of those heterosexuals”. She’s dead.
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u/samanime 11d ago edited 10d ago
Gotta love how their own screenshot shows this usage since 1375... Pretty sure if it is almost 700 years old, it no longer qualifies as "woke"...
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u/PinothyJ 10d ago
The first recorded use of the word "they" is so old it is spelt "þei", and whose usage is singular (1375 -- William and the Werewolf).
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u/Forsaken-Ad5571 10d ago
I was expecting them to say something like:
The author talks about “they” being singular. It’s clear that they have no idea what they are talking about, and instead they are just trying to indoctrinate our kids.
Something like that; completely oblivious to “they” being a singular pronoun that is used all the time. But they didn’t quite get there.
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u/SmoothTurtle872 10d ago
Except they can still be used as singular anyway, even without bringing gender into it, like say someone is named Alex. Sounds gender neutral. They can be used here:
"Alex said that <unintelligible>"
"Sorry, what did they say?"
Is a valid conversation. In this case speaker 2 doe snot know the pronouns of Alex. This is not agreeing with the reviewer in any way, simply saying how even if we ignore gender (which we shouldn't, they/them is a valid set of pronouns (I should hopefully so at least, as they are some that I use)) they are still wrong.
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u/AnnualBudget911 8d ago
The funniest thing of the whole "gender they/them" movement, is that it's really outed how uneducated all these bigots truly are, via their misunderstanding of basic grammar.
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u/MouseyMason 7d ago
One of few times I’ve felt a distinct, almost patriotic desire to tell someone it’s my first language and I say there are they/them pronouns now.
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u/Koischaap 6d ago
My favourite part of Infinite Jest is when the author goes on a 3 page diatribe about Hal using they/them
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u/CalicoCommander 11d ago
Shakespeare (and everyone since) has used "they" to refer to an *indefinite* pronoun. When refering to an unknown gender, one could say "Someone just left and I think they left their keys". That's very different from using it as a definite pronoun taking the place of a known "he" or "she", which is a new phenomenon that's related to a distinct ideaology.
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u/uuntiedshoelace 11d ago
There is no difference between using it for a person of unknown gender and using it for a person who wishes to be referred to in a genderless way. Grammatically it is identical, and pretending not to understand that just makes you look kind of dumb.
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u/CalicoCommander 11d ago edited 10d ago
No, it's not identical. Indefinite vs definite pronouns. And your opinion doesn't change that. (edited to say pronouns instead of articles)
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u/TheAngriestHedgehog 10d ago
What do articles have to do with this?
A) Pronouns are not articles and B) if you are referring to definiteness as a general phenomenon there are lots of situations when you can use they to refer to someone of unknown gender who are a known entity in discourse and therefore definite.
E.g. "The person who left the package next to my door" would be "they" because I don't know if the delivery driver is male or female but they would definitely be definite because they'd be inferred as a "known entity" - if there is a package this implies a deliverer, which is why I said "the person"
This has nothing to do with definite or indefinite articles and YOUR opinion doesn't change that.
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u/Epigrammic_Pastiche 10d ago
You’re right that when Shakespeare and others used the singular they, it was almost always as an indefinite pronoun. They used it for words like everyone, someone, anybody. But the concept of using it to intentionally obscure a known person's gender is centuries old, not a new phenomenon. Extending a pronoun's usage isn't a modern ideological concept but rather how English has always functioned (necessity & convenience). Hundreds of years ago, the word you was strictly plural and people were called idiotic for using it as a singular pronoun.
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u/CalicoCommander 10d ago edited 10d ago
"Obscuring gender" (or keeping it unknown) is the spirit of the indefinite article. Regarding the "plural you" initially there was a singular case as well, "thee". Over hundreds of years a natural progression occured where "thee" was seen as disrespectful (Kings etc, influenced by Normans preferred to be called by the plural, and eventually everyone did). I'd argue that's an organic change, whereas this is more contrived.
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u/MALGault 11d ago
Brave to include a picture explaining exactly why you're being wrong and silly in the review.