Sloth Socks

While I have gone back and forth on this issue, I believe that They will win out.
Not to hurt Jenn's feelings, but people usually break rules to make things easier, not to make a statement. We can lay down the law about how and when to break rules but why would anyone take us seriously? When political correctness made "He" no longer acceptable the English language got a chunk bitten out of it; and you know what they say about Nature and vacuums.
So fuss and whine but the hole will be filled and filled with what's most familiar and readily available, no matter how inartistic.

How about "People who think they can beat"...?

Dilemma solved, at least with this example. Using "he" when the gender is not specified seems wrong, and using "she" in the same instance seems like a conscious decision to make a small political point. Or I'm overthinking.

The language has evolved. The singular they filled a hole in the language that needed to be filled. I think the only people who are still against using it are likely the ones who don't like it when language evolves. They want it to stay the way their teachers taught them, likely out of a textbook that predated the change. Unfortunately for them, evolution is a constant process. Language is defined by the people who use it, not by the teachers and textbook writers.

Quoting from dictionary.com: "Shakespeare, Swift, Shelley, Scott, and Dickens, as well as many other English and American writers, have used they and its forms to refer to singular antecedents."

I won't discuss the authenticity or trustworthiness of dictionary.com (I do trust them), but this should be easy to verify, and 500 years of usage should be sufficient evidence that outweighs any possible modern "political correctness". There's also enough historical evidence that invented/coined words for a gender-neutral pronoun are not accepted in the long term (http://illinois.edu/blog/view/25/31097)

As already mentioned, language evolves. Not "evolved", but "evolves", as in it is an ongoing change. You can't fight it. Unless you're the L'Académie française...

Singular 'they' it is. About time... his/her, he/she or hir whatever... gone like the dodo!

Just because I beat you at arm wrestling doesn't mean I can beat "anyone." Geez, I really hope that is a singular "they" in that sentence.

One should always use the "singular, gender non-specific pronoun" HE!

Don't make me come over there and slap some sense into him no matter what sex he may be.

PS: It is the fourth choice that should be in the poll. You know, the right answer.

"You" used to be only plural, then it got used for a "polite" singular as well, now it's always used for both singular and plural (except for dialectical innovations). Looks like "they" is going the same route. Jenn, thou needst to get used to it.

"They" is so much less awkward than "he or she" or "he/she" and less ridiculous than defaulting to "he" or alternating.

And, let's not forget, there are people who do not identify as either male or female (I am one), and the other options out there for gender-neutral *specific* singular pronouns are universally terrible.

"They" is fine.

It's not ridiculous to default to "he." It's correct. Unless, of course, you've checked your testicles at the door.

They has been used as a gender nonspecific pronoun for hundreds of years. The author writes "But I see absolutely no reason other than laziness to start subbing our hes and shes with a clunky they, or our hises and hers with theirs"
But she has it backwards. They is being subbed out with a clunky 'he or she' (really, which one is more elegant when you say/read them?). It just seems to me like she is annoyed by the convention and came up with a bunch of reasons why we should agree with her, and simply chose to ignore the facts about its historical usage.

Everyone sure has got their opinion on the singular they! ;)

"s/he" is definitely the worst of both world.
Learn from the Germans: the neutral form happens to be the masculine. P/C and emancipation lead to every word now being a ridiculous hybrid or everything being said twice (by politicians and the like) to express f & m.. pointless.
One shouldn't overanalyze these things

I have always said 'they' - I didn't actually know it was such a contentious issue!

I voted for using the singular 'they.' As has been pointed out, language is a living thing and usage changes over time; 'they' fills a void in the language. And if we can have a gender-neutral 'he' why not a singular 'they'? Besides, basing your usage on whether the subject has dangly bits in their underwear ignores the fact that gender is not actually binary. And how exactly do you go about finding out? "Excuse me, I need to know what kind of genitalia you have. It's for an article I'm writing."

Can we have a couldn't care less option please?

The singular 'they' because 'he' and 'she' and its variants leave the rest of us out.

English is easy, check how confusing it is for an English speaker to learn a language that has more specific. http://tvslo.si/predvajaj/kako-postanes-slovenec-how-to-become-slovene-1-del/ava2.155437318/

There is no evolution of language here. Chaucer used a singular 'they' in Canturbury Tales in 1400, the Tynsdale Bible in the 1500s, the King James in the early 1600s, Shakespeare in the late 1600s, and so on. Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman, George Eliot, William Thackeray and other famous authors used singular they. Anyone who thinks this is a recent invention, brought on perhaps by some sort of political correctness, does not know the history of our language.

Perhaps you think it's wrong in modern usage. You can appeal to William Safire and insist on 'he', and I can appeal to sources ranging from 'Fowler's Modern English Usage' to Grammar Girl. Yippee. So let's test it out.

Here's a line from C. S. Lewis's "Voyage of the Dawn Treader": “She kept her head and kicked her shoes off, as everybody ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes.” Do the "he" fans here serious think that should be ".. in his clothes"? I find the change from "her" to a "(gender-neutral) he" somewhat odd. (I believe this could replaced with "... one's clothes", but then 'everybody' should be changed to 'everyone'. Meh.)

But perhaps you insist that "he" is gender-neutral. What about "At the funeral, everyone was dressed to the nines, each wearing his nicest dress or swankest tie." or "Is it your brother or your sister who can hold his breath for four minutes?" Are you so sure now that he/his is gender neutral? (And using "one's" for the second case certainly doesn't work.)

I'll quote from "Motivated Grammar": You don’t have to use singular they yourself. You can go ahead and re-work your sentences to avoid it. You can employ he or she, or s/he, or a made-up gender-neutral pronoun of your own devising like xe. You can even just stubbornly plow on, using he as a gender-neutral pronoun until you grow tired of people pointing out that it isn’t really. I don’t care, and you’re not grammatically wrong. But you’re just making a fool of yourself when you go around telling users of singular they that they’re wrong, because they’re not.

Language is a living, changing thing. "They" has become a preferred gender-neutral singular pronoun because, quite frankly, everyone understands it...and if it is understood, then what's the issue? We write to be understood. If we're going to be sticklers for pronoun use why not complain about "you" as well...after all, the singular second person is "thou" ("you" is plural). Language changes. Change with it.

There's another issue at play, which is to do with gender politics. The He/She conundrum assumes a gender binary: that there are only two genders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer

"Break the rules if you must"

So she wants us to break the rules... as long as we don't use "they".

As a writer and lecturer I'm often confused about this :
One, why is they a problem, but nobody campaigns for a return to thou , thy, thee and thine
Two, English is not French there is no L'Académie française equivalent. "Rules" are just opinions. The benefit of English is that it is free to evolve.

Some quotes:
Do not argue with an idiot they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience- Mark Twain
God send every one their heart's desire!- Shakespeare
Every body began to have their vexation - Jane Austen
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes - Oscar Wilde
Every fool can do as they're bid - J. Swift,

Using "he" as the pronoun has several centuries of custom to back it up. Using "she" as the pronoun sounds forced or specific to the female gender. It sounds more exclusive than "he", but that's rationalized by the idea that it's okay to exclude men.
Every time I read "she", I think "she". Every time I read "he", it is more inclusive.
Alternating between "he" and "she" rarely works well - too often, it sounds tedious, and makes one wonder if the writer managed to get that 50% equality they seem to be striving for.

I like the idea of "he or she", or simply, "they". "They" is the most inclusive. Note I used it above, and it seemed perfectly natural, yes?

Before "He" became the de facto gender neutral pronoun, "They" actually was used as a gender-neutral singular. Consequently, I have no problem throwing my weight behind "they" as an approved gender-neutral singular pronoun.

You say that "gender inclusive English was pounded into me" - you should pound right back. Expression is not about socio-political ideology, it's about beauty, accuracy and effectiveness. 'Language engineers' in educational instituions and media should be challenged and resisted. They are the people who think Orwell's "1984" is an operations manual. They are seriously bad people with bad intentions.