User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-1451563-20180913002703/@comment-5918438-20190112201225

Just to be clear on how the previous thread ended, it was established that we should generally try to use whatever pronouns are given in the narrative, but if a character like Alpha Centauri is "he" in one story, "it" in another, and still yet "she" in a third story, based on arbitrary decisions on part of the characters, we go with singular they, especially when speaking generally. Or indeed if no clear pronouns are given for a character, and it is left ambiguous.

And the reason they/them is the default is simply: that's how English works, or certainly how it has developed. But even real world English aside, especially in a fictional universe with all sorts of different genders, particular species established as having no gender or no fixed gender, etc., it would be simply nonsensical to assume that either "he" or "she" must always apply. "He or she" is not gender-neutral; it only allows for two options. As the First Doctor says when Ian and Barbara are desperately trying to determine genders for the Torcaldians, it's a big universe and we must "cast aside these preconceptions".

And characters like Orr specifically using singular they as a personal pronoun establishes that they/them is absolutely the established singular gender-neutral pronoun in the DWU, so you can’t base an argument on it being somehow "incorrect", because even the Doctor Who universe does not agree.