Read the post! The title is to catch attention for those using they, duh!
The post explains in short, basically how to save being questioned and lectured!
You have One tortoise don't use THEY
- Thread starter wellington
- Start date
The post explains in short, basically how to save being questioned and lectured!
I didn't call it a trend. I called it a fad.
I have little knowledge of what language was in use in England at the time of Shakespear or how he used that word. What I have knowledge of is how the word is used in America, and how it was used by our great grandparents and before. They means plural.
You used the word they when referring to multiple people, plural, so no, we didn't have any trouble understanding what you meant.
"Nick names" are not new. Nick names have been in common use in the country for many decades, if not centuries. This is not something newly invented to push an agenda with a vocal minority trying to force it down the throats of the rest of society. Guess what... My "real" name isn't Tom. Its Thomas. Nobody is confused by this. Ever.
If people come to this site, or any other site, or talk to me in person, and they misuse words, there is going to be confusion, questions, and frustration. That is normal, natural, human behavior. If you and I are having a one on one conversation and I start referring to you in the plural, as if there are several of you when there are not, aren't you going to wonder what the heck I am doing and why I am doing that? Won't you be confused?
We've all read 1984 and we know what Doublespeak is. Well, war is NOT peace, and freedom is NOT slavery, and some of us are not going to play along and pretend with the current trend of Doublethink and Newspeak.
I'm not going to be rude to new people, but I'm also not going to pretend words don't mean what they mean.
When someone needs help with his or her tortoise, that's what this forum is here for, and I do believe that getting help quickly to the person should certainly be most important. When the poster says "they", I figure we next just have to ask how many tortoises are involved!
Just make sure you don't ever call yourself US, Tammy.
Exactly and when it's one, it's a waste of time having to ask and give the pair lecture.
coming from someone in gen z i agree with @SinLA on how the use of "they" is more commonly being used to refer to a singular animal/person 
i can definitely see how it can be confusing, but i think for younger people it might be kind of a reflex and the confusion it causes is unintentional. honestly, i dont know the sex of my baby hermann's, so i just use it/he when i refer to little Ube (yes, i named it after the yam). so i agree with @wellington that using it/she/he is a better way of referring to a singular tortoise and i appreciate wellington, tom, and others explaining that for the sake of efficiency, when asking for help or guidance it is less confusing to use it/she/he when referring to a singular tortoise.
overall i see both sides of this discussion. im just glad that i get to learn from people with years worth of experience on this forum and that these qualified members are willingly taking time out of their day to help new tortoise owners
i can definitely see how it can be confusing, but i think for younger people it might be kind of a reflex and the confusion it causes is unintentional. honestly, i dont know the sex of my baby hermann's, so i just use it/he when i refer to little Ube (yes, i named it after the yam). so i agree with @wellington that using it/she/he is a better way of referring to a singular tortoise and i appreciate wellington, tom, and others explaining that for the sake of efficiency, when asking for help or guidance it is less confusing to use it/she/he when referring to a singular tortoise.overall i see both sides of this discussion. im just glad that i get to learn from people with years worth of experience on this forum and that these qualified members are willingly taking time out of their day to help new tortoise owners
Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
Summed up quite nicely, I definitely see both sides here too, I agree with Barb that it can feel frustrating having to clarify over and over how many torts are involved when folks use ‘they’, but as @SinLA says, regardless of this thread being a thing, new members will continue to come here and use that term when they don’t know the sex of their tortoise, they have no idea why that would be an issue for regular members on the forum, most of them don’t know that keeping pairs isn’t a good thing.coming from someone in gen z i agree with @SinLA on how the use of "they" is more commonly being used to refer to a singular animal/person
overall i see both sides of this discussion. im just glad that i get to learn from people with years worth of experience on this forum and that these qualified members are willingly taking time out of their day to help new tortoise owners
We can either go into why we find it so frustrating with a new member and risk them not feeling welcomed, or we can just quickly ask how many it is they’re housing and continue advising with the most important information
At the end of the day, everyone deals with numerous common problems with care daily on the forum, what’s one more ‘pair lecture’ even if it turns out to just be the one tortoise? I have a small paragraph I keep in my phone notes for why pairs aren’t a good idea, takes very little time to paste where needed
That's great for you. Not for me!Summed up quite nicely, I definitely see both sides here too, I agree with Barb that it can feel frustrating having to clarify over and over how many torts are involved when folks use ‘they’, but as @SinLA says, regardless of this thread being a thing, new members will continue to come here and use that term when they don’t know the sex of their tortoise, they have no idea why that would be an issue for regular members on the forum, most of them don’t know that keeping pairs isn’t a good thing.
We can either go into why we find it so frustrating with a new member and risk them not feeling welcomed, or we can just quickly ask how many it is they’re housing and continue advising with the most important information
At the end of the day, everyone deals with numerous common problems with care daily on the forum, what’s one more ‘pair lecture’ even if it turns out to just be the one tortoise? I have a small paragraph I keep in my phone notes for why pairs aren’t a good idea, takes very little time to paste where needed
Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
It’s just something unavoidable on here unfortunately, I know it’s frustrating for you
When a woman is pregnant and doesn't know the sex....the norm is IT or HE (from what I remember). That makes sense. My tort Pinky has an attitude so I named her Pinky Tuscadero. All our kids and animals are boys so I thought, this is my girl 
. Well now she's a HE. I constantly slip up so now it's Pinky, she, or he. I don't care. I'm a walking talking mess.
That being said.....idc what people want to call their torts as long as they are trying to make their torts existence better. Also some people are thrown into this mentality. Not being allowed to offend someone at work so you have to use their pronouns etc. Some are conditioned to use those words.
I've learned that everyone has their own life and their own story. We don't know why they say the words they do.
I will question what they mean when they use THEY. Clarification is needed when helping someone.
I agree with every post in here because I can see all sides of it. I like that. That's how I learn how to deal with different people. If THEY bothers someone, then just don't reply to the post. Someone else will.
We can work around it. No one has to conform. Just get to the matter at hand.
. TFO is a pretty bad@$# forum. I'm extremely thankful to everyone on here and I appreciate all that you do.
Save The Torts
Do I even make any sense? I think I rambled. My apologies.
. Well now she's a HE. I constantly slip up so now it's Pinky, she, or he. I don't care. I'm a walking talking mess. That being said.....idc what people want to call their torts as long as they are trying to make their torts existence better. Also some people are thrown into this mentality. Not being allowed to offend someone at work so you have to use their pronouns etc. Some are conditioned to use those words.
I've learned that everyone has their own life and their own story. We don't know why they say the words they do.
I will question what they mean when they use THEY. Clarification is needed when helping someone.
I agree with every post in here because I can see all sides of it. I like that. That's how I learn how to deal with different people. If THEY bothers someone, then just don't reply to the post. Someone else will.
We can work around it. No one has to conform. Just get to the matter at hand.
. TFO is a pretty bad@$# forum. I'm extremely thankful to everyone on here and I appreciate all that you do. Save The Torts
Do I even make any sense? I think I rambled. My apologies.
I like this way of thinking. I do this more and more as the years go by. Sometimes I read a whole post by someone that clearly got their tortoise keeping advice from one of the many wrong sources and I know its going to take 20-30 minutes to type out a big old long response, and then some percentage of those people are going to get mad and argue, and then I have to spend hours explaining why that info is wrong... I do it because I want to help that poor tortoise, but some days I just don't have it in me to fight that fight, and I let others do it.
Careful saying that. I got criticized for saying I will pass the they threads up. Some how they think they have the right! Lmao
Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
I think giving the countless tortoises you’ve helped and the countless hours you’ve both spent collectively over the years on this forum, has more than earned you the right to sit some out if you need to, honestly the whole reason I began wanting to help out advising where I could with some of the basics, was so the long standing, more regular members like yourselves could see some questions have been answered so the amount of threads to deal with is a little less overwhelming.
I’m by no means doing the perfect job, and there’s so many times I have to tag you guys for support
but I like to think I’m helping by contributing in some way
COmtnLady
Well-Known Member
I just don't like people degrading our language for a whim or a style (fad is a great term for it). For every single one of the people who use a plural pronoun for a singular person I would bet that five or ten or fifteen years before it never would have occurred to that person to do this. For want of a better way of saying this, the society as a whole agreed on the meaning of the word. Unless this person is trying to tell us that they are schizophrenic and genuinely are unable to differentiate between one and many, then that person needs to keep with the established definition of the word so the rest of us can understand what they are attempting to convey. It's a "word salad" otherwise.
Using plural pronouns for singular person is as affected and colloquial as "that's a big 10-4 little buddy" or "far out". It is an attempt at establishing a clique with its own "inclusive" and "exclusive" buzz-words. While I find it mildly better than swearing, it is confusing and draws attention from the subject at hand to the personality of person using the word inappropriately.
Using words out of context is the "sand" in our language substrate.
.
Using plural pronouns for singular person is as affected and colloquial as "that's a big 10-4 little buddy" or "far out". It is an attempt at establishing a clique with its own "inclusive" and "exclusive" buzz-words. While I find it mildly better than swearing, it is confusing and draws attention from the subject at hand to the personality of person using the word inappropriately.
Using words out of context is the "sand" in our language substrate.
.
The_Four_Toed_Edward
Well-Known Member
I don't want to fall in to the rabbit hole of identity politics or anything, just want to bring in the view of a non-native speaker. My tortoise is sexually mature and has male parts and I refer to him as "he".
Because English is not my native language and I was taught pronouns in school. I was taught to use they both in plural sense or in singular if the sex is unknown. Later on I learned about pronouns, identity and the diffrence between sex and gender (we have just one word for those two in Finland).
In Finland we have only one pronoun which can mean he, she or they (singular) depending on the context. Animals are referred to as it. If you refer to them as she or he you are seen as "One of those trendy people, reflecting their own emotions to the animal".
To me it is natural to refer to a tortoise as they when the tortoise is still too young to sex. Because to me it depicts the original use of singular they, a case when the sex is unknown. BUT I think it should be clarified in the initial post, like "I only mean one tortoise/I mean they in a singular way".
Because English is not my native language and I was taught pronouns in school. I was taught to use they both in plural sense or in singular if the sex is unknown. Later on I learned about pronouns, identity and the diffrence between sex and gender (we have just one word for those two in Finland).
In Finland we have only one pronoun which can mean he, she or they (singular) depending on the context. Animals are referred to as it. If you refer to them as she or he you are seen as "One of those trendy people, reflecting their own emotions to the animal".
To me it is natural to refer to a tortoise as they when the tortoise is still too young to sex. Because to me it depicts the original use of singular they, a case when the sex is unknown. BUT I think it should be clarified in the initial post, like "I only mean one tortoise/I mean they in a singular way".
jeff kushner
Well-Known Member
LMAO .....sorry guys, I don't sugarcoat my feelings so I'll sum them up and go back to being highly entertained by those rushing to leap off the proverbial cliff of the day!
As the world and our nation in particular races to emulate the movie: "Idiocy"....i can't help but laugh at them.
"Naivety" is priceless to watch, especially when they have been so well trained, they don't even know how they have been duped!
Broken people do broken-people things!
Enjoy it, they are funny to point at and laugh.
I don't even bother to engage with them because I can't respect " stupid".
LOL....as always, never take anything I say seriously....if I offend you, guess what group you belong to?
("These ones" is just the stupid becoming mainstream)
As the world and our nation in particular races to emulate the movie: "Idiocy"....i can't help but laugh at them.
"Naivety" is priceless to watch, especially when they have been so well trained, they don't even know how they have been duped!
Broken people do broken-people things!
Enjoy it, they are funny to point at and laugh.
I don't even bother to engage with them because I can't respect " stupid".
LOL....as always, never take anything I say seriously....if I offend you, guess what group you belong to?
("These ones" is just the stupid becoming mainstream)
Spoken language (primarily) and usage dictate what language is. That's how "society as a whole" "agrees" and definitions become "established".
And those definitions change over time and according to usage.
I am sure thou has never degraded our language with the singular you.
"Idiocracy". I worked on that one briefly. I didn't realize at the time just how accurate it was. Meet Bam Bam:
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! So freaking right on funny Tammy!! Good one
