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Comment by spidercat | Hacker News Reader

Maybe not particularly relevant, but I'm noticing you using "xe" pronouns for Sanger. Why is that? Just wondering if I am missing more context.

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The GP (Jonathan Pollard) has been using the “Xe” pronouns on other people since about 2015. I think he’s also edited/argued for unusual pronouns on Wikipedia as late as 2025.

I don’t think he’s ever explained his intentions with "Xe" on HN. My guess is that forcing “Xe” somehow gives him pleasure, neverminding the misunderstanding it incurs.

Huh. I mean, if you're gonna go that far to Make A Point with gender-neutral pronouns, might as well go the Stallman route with per/pers: https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html

(I'm not necessarily endorsing his screed here... but it is one of my "favorite" bits of Stallmanism. His first entry in the "subsequent notes" section makes me laugh every time.)

edit: oh, this user actually has a similar piece on xe/xem pronouns on his website! excellent. this pleases me greatly (no sarcasm).

Larry Sanger is very clearly a man and has never expressed any desire to be treated differently than that.

JdeBP is misgendering him on purpose, which is a very serious offense and even illegal in many parts of the world.

We'll see if this is allowed to stay here.

Could also be a typo. Unlikely on QWERTY, but if JdeBP uses Dvorak or especially Workman that's more likely than JdeBP going out of their way to misgender a man with an obscure neopronoun

A typo? Twice in the same post? In both places where "he" would normally appear? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

Yeah when I made the comment I only saw the first one. Still don't think it's impossible

From my understanding, `xe` is a gender-neutral pronoun, no different than using "they".

It is different, since they is quite old, and xe is very new, and so the context and, more primarily, the force of the expression changes.

Misgendering is illegal only in "progressive societies."

How can you misgender with xe? It's unisex. Although Sanger may not want to be treated as unisex I guess.

I'm married to a nonbinary person and not even they like "xe". It's definitely weird to use it for a cisgender person who has never expressed interest in being referred to in that way. It's usually done by people who are trying to normalize the use of "xe/xer" pronouns for everybody, when the fact of the matter is it's clunky and will never catch on, and I've yet to meet an agender person in real life who actually uses those pronouns.

JdeBP is surely referring to https://xeiaso.net/

It ain't me. I have no connections to Wikipedia and have a "only look, never touch" rule when it comes to interacting with it.

Oh thanks I thought "xe" was some Chinese character in the story that he had forgotten to introduce! How dumb.

Yep. Occasionally people shoehorn it into conversations thinking it's more inclusive (it's not) when in reality it just confuses people unnecessarily.

at least stallmans "pers" makes sense and is grokable after seeing it a few times

True, but even that I really just can't see catching on.

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