"It" Is Dehumanizing: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''John:''' Don't kill him!
'''Sarah:''' ''It'', John. Not 'him', 'it'.
|''[[Terminator 2]], Judgment Day''}}
In the English language, pronouns are divided into 'he' or 'she' depending on the gender of the person you're talking about.
This trope is when a character is referred to as 'it' in fiction. Perhaps the person who is referring to the character is a [[Fantastic Racism|fantastic racist.]] Otherwise it may refer to an [[Eldritch Abomination]], which indicates that the being is too inhuman to empathize with, despite its intelligence. The worst victims of this trope are probably [[Artificial
Needless to say, this trope gets to be troublesome when referring to a person who fits neither ''he/his'' nor ''she/her''. In real life, multiple genderless person-pronouns have been invented—such as [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|hir, zie, or ou]]—to avoid it, but none of them have made it into mainstream use. In English, using 'they' to refer to a single individual is becoming more popular in common use, though many a [[Grammar Nazi]] will tell you off for doing so (despite singular "they" having existed for a long time).
Compare [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] and [[Pronoun Trouble]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Kaze no Stigma]]'', there's a girl who was created as a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for a woman who was supposed to be sacrificed to an evil spirit (so basically, she's supposed to be sacrificed in her stead). She's generally mistreated and dehumanized, including referring to her as 'it'.
* In the English dub of ''[[Soul Eater]]'', Medusa refers to [[Ambiguous Gender|Crona]] as either "it" or "my child", while everyone else either uses "he" for convenience (since
* In ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'', several characters refer to Torches and Mistes (sentient constructs used to replace [[Ret-Gone|Ret
* Cheza from ''[[Wolf's
== [[
▲* In ''[[Kaze no Stigma]]'', there's a girl who was created as a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for a woman who was supposed to be sacrificed to an evil spirit (so basically, she's supposed to be sacrificed in her stead). She's generally mistreated and dehumanized, including referring to her as 'it'.
▲* In the English dub of ''[[Soul Eater]]'', Medusa refers to [[Ambiguous Gender|Crona]] as either "it" or "my child", while everyone else either uses "he" for convenience (since English lacks a gender-neutral third person pronoun) or just refers to Crona by name, and in the original Japanese Crona was just referred to with [[Japanese Pronouns|an ambiguously gendered pronoun]]. Also counts as a [[Woolseyism]] since Medusa's use of "it" ties into how [[Abusive Parents|she treats Crona]].
▲* In ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'', several characters refer to Torches and Mistes (sentient constructs used to replace [[Ret-Gone|Ret Goned]] people, they have all their memories and personality) as "it".
▲* Cheza from ''[[Wolf's Rain|Wolfs Rain]]'' is a strange case, as she refers to herself as an "it", due to being an [[Artificial Human]]. Everyone else uses female pronouns for her.
* [[New 52]]: [[Superman]] gets captured by the government and subjected to torture and experimentation. The scientists and [[Lex Luthor]] refer to him as "it".
** Later, Helspont tries to break Superman's spirit by giving him a nightmare where the government is hunting him down. The soldiers yell stuff like, "There it is! Shoot it!"
* In [[Marvel Comics]], robots and androids often refer to themselves as "this unit". If they are intelligent and become independent of their original programming, they may switch to "I".
* Invoked in one item of marginalia in the ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]'' in-universe book ''So You Just Arrived from a Parallel Universe'': where the book states that "If you meet a self-aware program or android, it's a displacee", [[Robot Girl|Chii]] from ''[[Chobits]]'' has indignantly commented "'It'? I self-identify as female."
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'': "It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!"
* ''[[Terminator (franchise)|Terminator]]'': "That
** ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'': "''It'', John. Not ''him'', ''it''."
* ''[[Blade Runner]]''. "I don't get it, Tyrell. How can it not know what it is?"
* In ''[[X-Men (film)|X2]]'', Stryker yells "Shoot it!" in reference to Wolverine
* In the 2007 version of ''[[I Am Legend]]'', Anna watches Neville experiment on a captured zombie, and asks whether what he's doing will "cure her." Neville responds "Actually, it will probably kill it," with the second "it" slightly emphasized.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[A Child Called It]]'' is this trope applied to an autobiographic story of a mother abusing her son.
* IT falls in to the "too inhuman" variety in ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]''. (It's a giant evil brain.)
* [[Stephen King]] wrote ''[[IT]]'', a firm example of the too inhuman variant.
* In ''[[Lucky Starr]] and the Rings of Saturn'', the eugenically-enhanced Sten Devoure refers to Lucky's rather short and ugly sidekick Bigman as "that thing" and "it." The insult becomes dangerous when he tells a group of [["Three Laws"-Compliant]] robots (who are unfamiliar with human variation outside the limited norms of Devoure's world) that Bigman is not human, and orders them to "break it."
* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series some species (most notably humans) refer to the [[Big Bad|Lone Power]] (a.k.a. [[Satan]]) as "It".
* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in [[Bruce Coville]]'s ''[[Rod Albright Alien Adventures]]'' stories, which feature a (good) alien who is neither male nor female. This alien tells Rod that "it" is the best English pronoun to use. Rod comments that that sort of sounds insulting, but the alien responds that it considers "he" or "she" insulting too.
** Other Coville books sometimes play with this idea, such as his ''[[My Teacher Is an Alien]]'' series.
* Played with and [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] in [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Vorkosigan Saga]], where "it" is considered the polite way to address Betan hermaphrodites. Bel Thorne, the hermaphrodite most central to the series, has an entire canned rant about how "it" is ''not'' considered to be dehumanizing... [[Troll|but also quite enjoys using its "it" status to make less tolerant acquaintances uncomfortable]].
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* Averted in A.C. Crispin's StarBridge series, which includes an intelligent telepathic alien fungus; the characters adopt a non-gendered pronoun from another alien language specifically to avoid this trope.
* When diagnosed sociopath John Cleaver of [[I Am Not a Serial Killer]] begins to do this, it's a sign that he's getting excited and losing control. He even has a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment when he refers to his crush as 'it'.
* Used in the second sense of the trope for [[Spell My Name with a "The"|The Exalted]] in the [[Night Lords]] series of [[Warhammer
* In ''[[Maximum Ride|The Angel Experiment]]'', Angel is very upset when the scientists experimenting on her continue to refer to her as "it".
* Inverted in ''[[Foundation]] and Earth'', where the genetically engineered hermaphroditic Solarians insist on being called "it" - since, after all, they are not half humans like us, but complete, perfect beings.
* "It" is used by Death Eaters in ''[[Harry Potter and
* The Laurie J. Marks' ''Children of Triad'' novels are an interesting case; in them, [[Fantastic Racism|certain members of the Walker community]] refer to the Aeyries as "it", due to their hermaphroditism. Most notable of these is the Walker Teksan, the [[Big Bad]] of the first book. However, it is mentioned somewhere in the books that the Aeyries wouldn't mind it if the Walkers weren't deliberately using the pronoun because they believe it is insulting. The H'ldat (the Aeyries' language) pronoun, 'id/idre', simply refers to something without gender - in essence, it means the ''exact same thing'' as the word "it"; the usage itself is what makes the word "it" dehumanizing.
* Averted by the Mrdini in the ''Talents'' series. They are a genderless species, and as such insist on being referred to as "it" in human language.
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* Averted with [[Heidi]]. The title of the second book, literally translated, means "Heidi can put to use what ''it'' has learned". This may seem odd to you, but in some German dialects, "it" is generally used for girls. Not the dehumanizing "it" implying "thing", but rather as in "cute little thing".
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek: The
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' did this in "The Measure Of A Man", an episode discussing Data's legal status; Commander Maddox constantly refers to Data as a possession of Starfleet and therefore an "it", until he slips into "he" after a court hearing formally rules that Data has free will and the right to choose.
** When Dr. Pulaski first saw Data at the helm, she balked at the captain: "You're letting ''it'' pilot the ship?" upon which Picard [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|laid the smackdown on her in magnificent form]]. Given the fact that Data was so popular with the fans, having a one-off character treat him like a machine [[Kick the Dog|quickly became shorthand]] for telling the audience that a character was an asshole, this scene probably was enough to [[The Scrappy|doom Pulaski's character]] terminally.
** The series did this earlier in the season 1 episode "Datalore", where Captain Picard at first felt inclined to refer to Data as "he", and to Data's newly-discovered twin brother Lore as "it". Data called him out on this, and felt uncomfortable at the idea of them being referred to differently when they were both androids. Picard understood and apologized.
** Also in an episode of [[The Next Generation]], Riker rejects the [[Pronoun Trouble|pronoun "it" for referring to a member of the (genderless) J'naii species]] for this very reason.
* In "Kellerman, P.I.", a [[Ripped from the Headlines]] ''[[Homicide: Life
* In the episode of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' where Kryten was first introduced, Rimmer refers to Kryten as "it". Looks like painting a portrait of Rimmer on the toilet, pouring soup on his bed, calling him "smeg for brains" and flipping him off taught him a lesson.
* In ''Terminator: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' Sarah nearly always refers to Cameron as It, or Tin Man. Derek's the same.
* In ''[[Fringe]]'', when Peter gets thrown back into the timeline, Walter keeps referring to him as "it" and "the subject".
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''OGRE'' by Steve Jackson Games one of the bits of flavour text in the manual mentions that the eponymous giant AI tanks are never referred to by the traditional "she". Friendly OGREs are "he" and enemy OGREs are "it".
* The introduction of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Malakim]] angels in Steve Jackson Games ''[[In Nomine]]'' has an angel use this trope when referring to a demon.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 358/2 Days'' has Saix refer to Xion as "it". The manga had DiZ refering to Roxas in the same manner.
* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', some high-ranking members of Blackwatch are very insistent about referring to ZEUS, otherwise known as Alex Mercer, as "it" instead of "he". {{spoiler|Which turns out to be fitting, since the "Alex" you control is a sentient version of the Blacklight virus that has assumed Alex's form.}}
* Inverted by Shale in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', who is a golem and thus treated as furniture by those who don't know better, but is actually a fully sentient individual. Shale refers to everyone ''else'' as "it" on purpose, mostly for the ironic reversal and to indicate a complete lack of respect. Including the [[Player Character]]. {{spoiler|The player character will get upgraded to "you" if you reach friendship level with Shale.}}
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* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Joker consistently refers to [[Spaceship Girl|EDI]] as "It" seeing as not only is he wary of an illegal AI but he also doesn't like anyone/anything interfering with his piloting. {{spoiler|After the Collector attack where Joker risks his life to give EDI full control of the ship leading her to save the day, he starts referring to her as "she".}}
** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', in video logs, the Illusive Man gets to [[Kick the Dog]] by always referring to EDI as "it", even correcting technicians who call her "she".
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Gets referenced in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', after Ennesby (a viral vannilla-helix AI) gets the Tough's ship blown up during the Battle for the Core. Tagon is understandably annoyed, and starts referring to Ennesby by 'it' for a while, most noticeably in [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050725.html this strip:]
{{quote|Ennesby: Petey, help! He's demoted me to an 'it'! }}
* A gate-guard in ''The Prime of Ambition'' [http://jaadrih.comicgenesis.com/d/20080409.html referred to] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Thanatos]] this way (the next page shows that he knows what this meant).
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* An interesting variation is in ''[[Digger]]'', where Ed refers to himself as it because he was cast out of the tribe and his ""name was eaten". The main character calls him 'he' because she can't ''not'' think of him as a person.
* In ''[[Freefall]]'', the Mayor calls Florence 'it'.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The
* The bug Ktk in Christopher Wright's ''[[Pay Me, Bug!]]'' insists on [[Averted Trope|being called "it"]], because it's just the logical thing to call a hermaphrodite. Characters who don't know Ktk have a little trouble remembering to call it "it".
* The ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' does this intentionally, at least in official files. SCP's are referred to as "objects" and "it" is always used as a pronoun, even when the SCP is clearly sentient and has a clear gender. This is done to prevent agents and researchers from feeling sympathy or affection towards them, something that is rarely a good idea.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Iron Giant]]'': Hogarth chides Dean for calling the Giant "it".
* One episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' has Bruce referring to his android duplicate as "it" even when questioning whether the android had a soul.
* Referenced on ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]:''
{{quote|'''[[Plucky Comic Relief|Kid Flash]]:''' He can talk?!
'''[[Cloning Blues|Superboy]]: (annoyed)''' Yes, "''he''" can!
'''Kid Flash:''' ...[[Averted Trope|It's not like I said "it."]] }}
** Later, in the same episode:
{{quote|'''[[Mad Scientist|Dr. Desmond]]:''' And get [[Person of Mass Destruction|the weapon]] back in its pod!
'''Kid Flash:''' Hey, how come ''he'' gets to call Supey an "it?" }}
** Later ''[[Running Gag|still]]:''
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'''Kid Flash (out of the corner of his mouth):''' He doesn't like being called an "it."<ref>Batman wasn't actually talking about Superboy, just the Superman logo that he was wearing.</ref> }}
** Supervillain and world-class sociopath Harm narrates his battles, referring to his opponents as "it" all the while. The only person he breaks this habit with (other than [[Third Person Person|himself]]) is {{spoiler|his sister [[Morality Chain|Greta]], whom he murdered.}}
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Some people dislike the practice of referring to pets as "it." That leads to some [[Pronoun Trouble]] (see below).
* In [[Real Life]] most of English's [[Pronoun Trouble]] comes from this trope. It is the only gender-neutral singular pronoun, but it is offensive to use when referring to other people.
** To avoid this, it is becoming increasingly common to use "they" (normally a third-person plural pronoun with no gender affiliation) when referring to an individual whose gender is uncertain for whatever reason. English language purists tend not to like this, but it is functional and other pronouns such as "you", originally the plural of "thou" (and after that, the more formal second person pronoun when used singularly) , have undergone similar transformations.
* While you'd be hard pressed to find ''anyone'' who likes being referred to as "it", this is a particular [[Berserk Button]] for
* In an aversion, it is generally considered acceptable to refer to an unborn baby as "it" (as in "when is it due?"), probably due to the fact that not everyone knows the gender of the child before it is born. Even infants outside of the womb sometimes receive this treatment.
* Inverted with Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 'Lindbergh Baby'. He was affectionately referred to as 'Little It' by his parents.
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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
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