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Pronoun Trouble: Difference between revisions
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([[Beat]])
'''Daffy:''' ''"It's not 'He doesn't have to shoot ''you'' now,' it's 'He doesn't have to shoot ''me'' now.' WELL, I SAY HE ''DOES'' HAVE TO SHOOT ME NOW!! [[Too Dumb To Live|(runs to Elmer)]] SO SHOOT ME NOW!!!"''
|[[Looney Tunes|Daffy Duck]], before promptly being shot
[[Gender Neutral Writing|Gender neutral pronouns]] and substitution of names for pronouns allows speakers in anime to play a kind of pronoun game. The purpose of the game is usually to obscure someone's the gender or identity to the audience (or other characters) in a natural manner. It can be used as a way to talk about the [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] before revealing their gender without anyone technically lying about it. Occasionally, it's also a way to refer to a machine or other creature as if they were a person.
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* In ''[[Ender In Exile]]'', Graff does a pretty good job of tiptoeing around pronouns when talking about Demosthenes, but naturally, Ender sees through it anyway.
* In the Spanish translation of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the problem is in number, not gender, when a character says "May the Valar protect you." Since the Valar are not mentioned anywhere else, the translator uses "El valar" ("el" is masculine singular for "the"), probably assuming that the Valar is a sort of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]. It is clear from other works, though, that the proper form would be the plural "Los Valar."
* The ''Children of Triad'' trilogy by Laurie J. Marks features the Aeyries, a race of hermaphrodites that are effectively neuter until maturity. A lot of this trope results when the Aeyries inevitably have to deal with the human-like Walkers, who, like every other species on their planet, have two genders. Because [["It" Is Dehumanizing]], many [[Fantastic Racism|Walkers, who are incredibly prejudiced against the Aeyries]], call them such, but the correct pronouns are 'id' and 'idre' in the Aeyrie language. As a more direct example, the eponymous main character of the first book, ''Delan the Mislaid'', grows up in a Walker village; because id has no male 'characteristics,' the people of id's village decide id is a very, very ugly 'she' and move on from there.
== [[Live
* Pronoun Trouble drives the "humor" in the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' skit "It's Pat!" Watching any version of this skit at all makes clear exactly how troubling Pronoun Trouble can get.
** Your contributor suspects that the film version of these skits (yes, they had one) had a scene in a Japanese restaurant where the chef Pat is working for and his customers discuss Pat's gender in Japanese, specifically because of the language's gender neutrality... though to be fair, they also throw in [[The Un-Reveal|a guy vacuuming]].
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