Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-2162194-20130713192557/@comment-5918438-20160114222807

Oh my god...

"SOTO These should be used only when the stories use them. If the story gives nothing, then something neutral like "it" should definitely be used, and not something of your own creation."

...and then I go on to say that singular they isn't grammatically correct, and it doesn't matter if "it" comes off as a bit rude. I was one of those people!

Yeah, this was before I identified as agender and non-binary, clearly. :P

I most certainly do not think it should be used in reference to any sentient individual. It can most certainly be noted in cases like Alpha Centauri that "it" was among the many pronouns used for them, but that's not even a clear case at all. Show me an example of a character consistently referred to with "it" pronouns, to no objection from the person themself, and we can have this debate.

I propose, as a general rule, stick to they if more than one pronoun is given or used, but obviously go with whatever the character goes by if something else like he/him, she/her, ze/hir (or at least hir in that one case...can't wait to incorporate that into my as-of-yet uncreated gender articles!)

I also think if we're referring to Time Lords who have been more than one gender, and we're not talking about a specific incarnation, we should use they/them pronouns as well. It's now wrong to call the Time Lord known as the Master he if we're talking about all their lives.

That's different from a character who's actively transitioned in any manner, or who has discovered that their gender did not match up like they might have thought as a child. Yes, those characters do exist, and we should use their real pronouns (ie. the "latest update")

It's different because Missy may regenerate at any moment into another man. Female is certainly true of her latest incarnation, but she very much was a man in previous lives, rather than just assumed to be so within the same life.