It's frustrating that I frequently get comments on my site from people who are mad about the use of "they" instead of he or she to describe unknown individuals.
The reason I use "they" in these cases has everything to do with the fact that I've been wrong on gender assumptions previously, and that attempting to divine someone's orientations from what they say or post is a fool's errand.
More to the point, a surprising (to me, anyway) number of English-speaking cybercriminals are born with one gender but identify with another. Some are transitioning to another gender, and some have already taken that step.
Also, for the kind of investigations I do, someone's gender is usually the least useful or interesting aspect of who they are in real life, because they are often involved in some crazy illegal stuff.
@briankrebs And anyway, isn't "they" the _traditional_ third-person pronoun for unknown or ambiguous gender ("it" being reserved for "does not have a gender")? You'd think the people who'd complain about "pronouns" would be all about using the traditional forms...
@tknarr @briankrebs Exactly this. Perhaps the problem is that people just don’t get taught such things, and it has fallen somewhat out of common speak, but it’s a valid use of “they” despite what people might believe otherwise.
@tknarr @briankrebs Used by both Chaucer and Shakespeare.
@tknarr @briankrebs Well, on the one hand, yes.
On the other hand, masculine pronouns doubling as neuter have also traditionally served the same purpose. But if you use them that way these days, most people won't know what you mean and the ones that do will think you're doing it to be misogynistic and/or LGBT-phobic on purpose. But I remember my "Christian" homeschool English book being adamant about using neuter "he" instead of "they"; wanna say because "they" is only ever plural. (It's not.)