Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-1451563-20180913002703/@comment-6032121-20181004204940

Hm… I'm kind of coming round to your view of things, but a few points:


 * I do know of genderfluid people, but Time Lords felt yet again different: they don't change "at random" while still keeping the same body; each life, which is in many ways its own sentient entity, has a different gender. I think the difference is worth keeping in mind.


 * I was definitely not using "he or she" in a sense where "she" is an "afterthought"; I meant it as literally what it is, "he" or "she" having equal values. If you do think that such a wording implies precedence of the "he", my suggestion would be that we'd flip it around depending either on majority (in which case, for example, Kenossium's lead would say "she or he") or latest known incarnation (in which case the Doctor ' s lead would read "she or he", but be switched back to "he or she" if and when we get a male Doctor again).


 * Concerning the "petty human obsession (blah blah)" quote, look upthread for the very reasonable out-pointing that put back into its context the quote isn't supposed to be that convincing. The Fifth Doctor quote is a much better contender, if nothing else.

Still, if a majority feel that "they" can describe a being who has at times been a "he", at times a "she", and never a positive "they", even if we know about when that being was one or the other… then I'll retract my objection. Personally I feel that "they" oughtn't cover such situations, and "he or she" is better, but I'm not the Crowned Monarch of the English Language.