abstract
| - In the English language, pronouns are divided into 'he' or 'she' depending on the gender of the person you're talking about. Referring to someone as 'it' is incredibly rude, as it's almost entirely used for inanimate objects or wild animals. Calling someone 'it' is therefore tantamount to denying he or she is a real person. 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 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 Humans. 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 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. Compare What Measure Is a Non-Human? and Pronoun Trouble. Examples:
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