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Them/they What does it mean?

(101 Posts)
LR10 Tue 26-Nov-24 17:23:59

I have an appointment to meet a young lady next week about a volunteering job and I notice she has written Them/they next to her signature. What exactly does it mean and is there something I should know when I talk to her - I don’t want to offend her by saying the wrong thing. Can I call her Miss … ? I guess not, but I don’t like to use her christian name, it seems too familiar.

25Avalon Tue 26-Nov-24 17:30:41

You can ask her how she would like to be called when you meet.

NotSpaghetti Tue 26-Nov-24 17:31:36

Yes. That's what I'd do.

pascal30 Tue 26-Nov-24 17:42:47

ask how they wish to be addressed..

MissAdventure Tue 26-Nov-24 17:46:57

It means she doesn't want her gender (or is it sex?) assumed.
I assume...

Sago Tue 26-Nov-24 17:54:13

It means the person in question is non binary.
They wish to be addressed as them/they.

I have an opinion on this but I am keeping my fingers off the keyboard.

Sago, she/her FFS!

MissInterpreted Tue 26-Nov-24 18:04:06

Exactly, they identify as non-binary and use the pronouns they/them instead of he/him or she/her. Simply ask them how they would prefer you to address them.

Mollygo Tue 26-Nov-24 18:09:16

I wouldn’t worry about the pronoun unless you usually call people him, her, he, she when you’re talking face to face.

You can just say hello or good afternoon or good morning. Usually people doing the interview introduce themselves, but you don’t need to repeat the name.

Good luck.

Witzend Tue 26-Nov-24 18:15:45

Sago

It means the person in question is non binary.
They wish to be addressed as them/they.

I have an opinion on this but I am keeping my fingers off the keyboard.

Sago, she/her FFS!

How can you address anyone as they/them?
Refer to them, yes.

eazybee Tue 26-Nov-24 18:17:20

I would address her as you think fit, not what she decides. She presumably identifies as a woman, but perhaps not.

Skydancer Tue 26-Nov-24 18:25:49

More total nonsense.

charley68 Tue 26-Nov-24 18:34:44

Thinking about this makes me very cross. Especially that young girls and women are giving away the rights that so many women throughout the years have fought for.

It also probably means that the young woman/person does not care about women's single sex spaces, such as in hospitals, sports, prisons, rape crisis centres, justice - with rapists being called 'she/her' in court by the justice system, reporting media and so on ad nauseam until my head feels it will explode.

I have been watching the Supreme Court online today via my laptop, and some of the questions that the SC judges asked the barristers were gob smacking.

RosiesMaw2 Tue 26-Nov-24 18:46:25

Sago

It means the person in question is non binary.
They wish to be addressed as them/they.

I have an opinion on this but I am keeping my fingers off the keyboard.

Sago, she/her FFS!

You address someone in the second person ' YOU and you refer to them in the third person - he/him, she/her and now if by choice, they/them which is also correct for the plural or unspecified gender.

charley68 Tue 26-Nov-24 18:50:43

Another nugget.
The 'Women's Footballer of the Year' for the BBC this year is a player who was removed from the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations due to sex eligibility rules (raised T).

Why bother calling it women's football/sport any longer?

MissAdventure Tue 26-Nov-24 18:59:09

Referring to someone as they doesn't harm anything, as daft as I think it is.

Wyllow3 Tue 26-Nov-24 19:01:18

charley68

Thinking about this makes me very cross. Especially that young girls and women are giving away the rights that so many women throughout the years have fought for.

It also probably means that the young woman/person does not care about women's single sex spaces, such as in hospitals, sports, prisons, rape crisis centres, justice - with rapists being called 'she/her' in court by the justice system, reporting media and so on ad nauseam until my head feels it will explode.

I have been watching the Supreme Court online today via my laptop, and some of the questions that the SC judges asked the barristers were gob smacking.

You haven't even met this young person - why make these assumptions? Loading an awful lot on someone saying they dont care about this or that.

eazybee Tue 26-Nov-24 19:14:27

You don't know that it is a young woman.
Whatever it is , it is not plural.

Allsorts Tue 26-Nov-24 19:19:42

I wouldn't be inviting her for interview. You are she or he, its like the Emperors New Clothes.

Aveline Tue 26-Nov-24 19:33:38

Exactly*All sorts*

Primrose53 Tue 26-Nov-24 19:46:17

Presumably she has put her name on the letter alongside her name. Call her by her name.

Galaxy Tue 26-Nov-24 19:47:16

It is like asking me to say the earth is flat. I find it deeply harmful.

LisaAN Tue 26-Nov-24 19:47:32

Does it actually hurt to refer to a non binary person as they/them? My GD has a couple of non binary friends and I have no trouble referring to them by their preferred pronouns.

Grunty Tue 26-Nov-24 19:52:21

"they" is the subject pronoun. "them" is the object pronoun; used as the object of a verb or preposition. Therefore you could assume that they're not a person at all and you'd be perfectly correct using the address "it".

Wheniwasyourage Tue 26-Nov-24 20:48:56

The nominative singular neuter pronoun in English is it, not they.

MissInterpreted Tue 26-Nov-24 22:01:32

LisaAN

Does it actually hurt to refer to a non binary person as they/them? My GD has a couple of non binary friends and I have no trouble referring to them by their preferred pronouns.

I agree. I have a couple of friends who have non-binary children and I have no problem with that either.