Comments on: World’s First Genderless Person Officially Recognised

By: Elephant's Child

Elephant's Child — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:06:04 +0000

Pronouns are the only real problem.
We already have nueter ones & if anyone objects to ‘it’ then simply add an ‘e’ on the end to distinguish between living & non-living.
He, she & ite.
Him, her & herm.
His, hers & herms. (That last one’s a bit clunky I know)

Simple.

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:48:24 +0000

this is what happens when you give people freedom to choose.

By: andy

andy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:02:22 +0000

just a bit more info on the finnish third-person pronoun. it is in fact ‘hän’ – the ‘ä’ is pronounced kindof half-way beween english ‘a’ and ‘e’ so ‘hen’ is an easy misspelling.

Just say ‘car’, but like a scouser. there, that’s the finnish ‘ä’ right there…

hmm… actually, in the spoken finnish, they tend to say ‘se’, meaning ‘it’ – they use that for animals, too. Now I’m not only gender-neural, but I (and other animals) aren’t even specified as living or non-living… I don’t know whether to feel insulted or not! Meh, you get used to it…

By: Berber Anna

Berber Anna — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:09:04 +0000

Dan, you’re confusing the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Sex is the body, gender is the brain, as well as referring to the sociological concept. Some people have brains that are more like those of the other sex, so their gender is opposite to their sex. TG individuals are merely attempting to make their ‘equipment’ suit their gender. You’d probably feel weird with a vagina, too (assuming you’r gender is male).

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:23:23 +0000

Not that I have anything against transgender individuals, but scientifically speaking, you can’t change gender. Not humans anyway. If I chop off my arms and legs, I’m not suddenly a slug, I’m still a human, and if you chop off your meat and two veg, you might not have the necessary equipment, but you are still categorically, technically, scientifically, male.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:58:37 +0000

Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

There is a pronoun in Finish called Hen – a genderless pronoun. They actually lack gendered pronouns if I understand it correctly. It is becoming more and more common in Swedish to import this word tom compliment han/hon.

Also there is several different solutions to gender-neutral pronouns. One we have used is Ey (as in They minus the th-sound) to make it singular. For more info look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:07:34 +0000

My other post should explain now why some previous posts were so ignorant. Because I use that word to truly mean that they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Saying that someone is a man because they do not have a womb and they at one point had a penis, makes no sense. Being a man is about gender-identity; having a penis is about sex.
I’d also like to reply to the non-ignorants. There are gender-neutral pronouns in use in the UK. Of course, “they” etc is one, but there are also people using “Ze” and “Zan” – Ze replacing he or she, and Zan replacing his or hers. These are taking from another language (forgive me, i don’t know which) but they are in current use – in the company of those who need to use them.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:01:44 +0000

I cannot believe the amount of ignorant posts that exist here already.
The piece of news however, gives me a lot of hope. I have friends who have been waiting for neutral gender, or third-gender acknowledgement for a long time.
I realise the ignorant posters will probably not read any following posts – they’ve judged and condemned, they have no more interest in the matter – but i will still reply to them.
It is important to note that gender is about how one identifies in the mind. When we talk about the body and biology, then do we talk about sex.
So, of course, it is easy for a person to be neutrally gendered. Just as people can be born intersex, so it is only the logical assumption that people can also be born with a non-binary gender. (i.e. not identifying as a man OR a woman.)

By: Migu

Migu — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:45:13 +0000

This is awesome.

The amount of ignorance here, however, is not.

By: unmevsworld

unmevsworld — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:10:46 +0000

You know, I would get this if the person was born an hermaphrodite or even a chimera, as far as government paperwork goes. Those cases need to be addressed anyway.
But, I also understand that this person was unhappy and physiologically has something mismatched (is that PC?) between the body and brain.