Nearly a quarter of young adults now identify using a non-gendered pronoun such as they or them, a study has revealed.
Younger generations are eagerly embracing issues around birth sex and gender identification, with 23 per cent of those aged 18 to 24, known as Gen Z, using non-gendered pronouns.
Nearly half, or 48 per cent, of those aged 18-24 now state their pronoun on their email signature or social profiles. The practice is intended as an act of solidarity with people who do not identify with their birth sex, but many see it as virtue-signalling.
Nearly half, or 45 per cent, of the 2,036 people polled were supportive of people having the right to identify with a gender other than their birth sex, with 34 per cent against. But older generations are more likely to be dismayed by the creep of gender identification into everyday life, the study by OnePoll found.
The majority of the British public think the debate has gone too far, with 62 per cent saying the issue is now “disproportionately pandering to the wishes of a small minority”. This rises to 78 per cent among the over-65s but falls to 48 per cent among Gen Z....
Harry Gove, spokesman for OnePoll, said: “Our findings show a clear generational divide among the British public when it comes to the subject of gender identity. Those aged 18-24 in particular are much more accepting of new ideas in this area, which older respondents may be less sure about.”
How very patronising of Harry. We're not so much "less sure about" these exciting new ideas, but perfectly well aware that it's dangerous nonsense which prioritises a narcissistic appeal to feelings over the realities of biology.
On which subject...James Marriott - TikTok is a threat to our intellectual health:
TikTok is deservedly acquiring a sinister reputation..... Its frenetic algorithmic video feed represents a gear change in the accelerating inanition of our political culture. This is not to grouchily denounce the latest newfangled thing the kids are doing, but to acknowledge that the successful functioning of a democracy benefits from mental habits associated with a literate society.
Liberal democracy is the creation of a literary culture. The birth of modern democracy in the 19th century coincided with the advent of mass literacy. Our democratic institutions are the products of a society in which the values of print culture were ascendant. The principle of the free press requires that political argument is carried out at length in newspapers, magazines and books. Parliamentary debate began as a form of what has been called “printed orality” — ie debaters addressed one another with the length and complexity of written texts....
Now that sales of fiction are in long-term decline and Instagram is the most popular source of news for teenagers, the political benefits of a print culture are imperilled. We are increasingly reluctant to engage with complex texts. One university lecturer I spoke to recently said she had resigned herself to the fact that she would never again teach George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch. Her students are no longer able to engage with such a long and difficult book. Another academic tells me he habitually approaches classic texts through their TV adaptations....
Literary culture is inherently liberal. The solitary reader is an individualist engaged in the reasoned contemplation of different ideas and perspectives. The increasingly visual culture of social media is fundamentally illiberal, promoting groupthink and trivia. In Britain, the most online generations are the ones most sceptical of democracy.
"Promoting groupthink and trivia"...unable to manage a novel like Middlemarch. There are your non-gendered pronoun users.
Right. Time for my morning pills, I think....
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