one day during sophomore year honors english class i pulled my teacher aside to ask about why i got marked down for using they as a singular pronoun when it was grammatically correct. in fact, the gender of the subject in the poem we where writing about’s gender wasn’t even mentioned. she proceeded to chastise me in front of the whole class about how they is only a plural pronoun. (keep in mind this was like a decade ago so pronouns were not in anyone’s minds at the time) i just asked “so if a person used they instead of he/she then they would be incorrect?” she agreed and waited in silence when i didn’t say anything else. she gets impatient and barks at me “what?”. I just repeat myself “…then THEY would be incorrect?”
…we stood there in silence for what felt like a minute but was probably only like 10 seconds before a couple students chucked. she knew she fucked up. she didn’t even give me back my fixed essay until after class let out but you know i’m framing that mf’er some day!