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My Pronouns Are She/Her
But “they” is okay too
Despite the fact lots of older folks get their undergarments in a wad over pronouns, I’ve watched a lot of my Gen X and Boomer friends look on in absolute awe over the gender boundaries Gen Z is annihilating.
In fact, more than one of my Gen X and Boomer friends have decided they’re also nonbinary, or at least would be okay with being identified with the “they” pronoun. Most folks my age don’t insist on changing their pronouns because we’ve lived with our binary pronouns most of our lives, and we don’t have super strong feelings about changing at this point. I’ve always been a she. I’m comfortable being a she. I’ve certainly never felt uncomfortable being a she.
But I could’ve easily been a they, had that been an option when I was younger. I’ve never felt like a particularly girly girl. Mostly I’m attracted to dudes, but occasionally a woman strikes my fancy. I’m no different than millions of other people who could be “theys” but were forced to choose their social gender box — he or she — early on.
For all the older folks out there repulsed by, or at minimum baffled by, shifting views on gender, there are a whole bunch of us applauding a generation free and brave enough to say: Enough with these confining, stifling, sexist gender labels.