this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
650 points (97.9% liked)
23239 readers
539 users here now
News and Discussions about Reddit
Welcome to !reddit. This is a community for all news and discussions about Reddit.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules
Rule 1- No brigading.
**You may not encourage brigading any communities or subreddits in any way. **
YSKs are about self-improvement on how to do things.
Rule 2- No illegal or NSFW or gore content.
**No illegal or NSFW or gore content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-Reddit posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Bunny doesn't identify as a rabbit. Bun is non-binary and the pronouns are bun/bunny. Not a name. We use it like they/them and ze/zem. And not a child, a teenager.
Super weird arguing specific language rules in english, of all things. Multiple languages recognize more than three gendered classes. Most importantly, language changes to fit our needs, no one should change how they express themselves or identify to fit a language model.
This is nonsense. And, as I said, a child.
Y'all got issues beyond being trans. And whatever it is, it has nothing to do with trans people or our struggles. I leave you to your demons.
And you clearly have isues with gatekeeping what pronouns someone is allowed to use, according to your arbitrary rules. It has everything to do with trans people and our struggles when people dictate how others are allowed to identify.
Is denying that nicknames are pronouns really gatekeeping, is it not more of an argument of semantics? They said you can use whatever nicknames you want, but that does not make them pronouns by definition. That is not a direct argument against someone's identity, it is an argument about what words mean.
Nobody owns the English language, it is again a tool of communication, a social construct that is defined by the rules people agree to use. The argument made is that English pronouns (or gender for that matter) are not an expression of personality by the very rules that agree how to define what the word "pronoun" means. Not that people cannot call themselves anything they want.
You can disagree with the argument (the rules of languages are everchanging after all), but saying it means an intent to prevent people from using words to describe themselves is unrelated to the actual point made.
We're not using it as a nickname, it's a pronoun.
The argument is, that it's a nickname you are using a as a pronoun.
I'd word the problem something like... Inserting completely new words into a language can be very difficult, and inserting them in place of existing words is even harder. If a significant portion of the speakers will not accept them, they essentially will not become part of the language. Stretching the meaning of "woman" to include transwomen too? relatively easy, transwomen already fill most of the requirements people have for the meaning of the word. Adopting loanwords for new concepts, something like schadenfreude? also relatively easy, since it did not have a word before and people can quickly grasp the concept.
But if I say something like "uiminen" means swimming in English, will enough people adopt it and use it instead of "swimming"? Absolutely not, why would they? Replacing something like pronouns is even harder than that, since they not only have solid meanings, they are associated with a rigid role in the English language. Does that mean you cannot use them like it? also absolutely not, of course you can. But you cannot force the change you are using to become part of the English language, since a lot of people refuse it as it breaks the existing rules harshly and they have no reason to accept that.
You can obviously try to make "it's a pronoun, not a nickname" true, which is what you are doing, and which the commenter above is arguing against. But as things stand, the majority of the language speakers will take the side of "it's a nickname you are using as a pronoun", which means that's the reality of it inside what constitutes as the English language.
And yet everyone around bun is fine with it. "It's harder" is the exact same argument people have against ze and they pronouns.
That is besides the point. Languages are tools of communication, and you and your circles are using it however you want, which is how languages evolve over time. They are calling it a wrong use of the English language, and telling their opinions why they think so. That is a linguistic argument. Having differing opinions about what is a correct use of words, does not fit the definitions of "gatekeeping", as you are not prevented from using English the way you want to. If your use of words is not being understood or is refused to be used by others, that is not preventing you from doing. It is a failure of communication.
"I refuse to use it because It is harder" is not an argument, that I have made. What I have pointed out is, that it is especially hard to get people to use neopronouns, since they break the commonly accepted English grammar. The difficulties stemming for example from discrimination, are only one of the issues, that affect people's opinion about their usage. Ignoring that and claiming it is all because of discrimination or gatekeeping, is either misunderstanding the arguments, or resorting to ad hominem.
I disagree.
Well, then we have to just agree to disagree. Nonetheless, thank you for the discussion.