Instead of he/she, let's write *e
So often, I need to write he/she. He alone is offensive, he or she is too long, they is incorrect, I'm guessing at the proper word... the list goes on. So, let's just write *e instead. OK?
For example:
If he or she would like to attend...
becomes
If *e would like to attend...
And if you don't know if you're referring to a he or a she, it works, instead of assuming.
For example:
The guy who posted that didn't know what he was talking about...
becomes
*e didn't know what *e was talking about...
More efficient, right?
If you're in person, it could work, too. It could be pronounced like two es, as though the *implies the sound of an e.
For example:
That, um, guy, um, girl just took your parking spot...
becomes
*e took your parking spot!
More effective, too!
We could even go a step farther and replace that old Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. title with *...
"Mrs. Vargas, welcome to the diner this evening..."
becomes
"* Vargas, welcome to the diner this evening..."
Then, she doesn't have to bother to correct him as to her current marital status, ahem.
Perhaps you can think of additional benefits and examples of how *h could be used to efficiently and effectively communicate instead of she or he.
Will you test it out and let me know what you think?
- Lisa
P.S. I have a thought of how we could use *E... anyone wanto guess?
Great, except you've just added a new letter "*" to the alphabet.
He is not offensive as you presupposed, apart from to ultra feminists who are missing the point and like to be offended by anything. "He" has two definitions, the male pronoun, and also the generic pronoun. "He" is fine use when you are unaware of the gender.
Rather than the ugly sight of *e, which is also incorrect by the way (which adds to the irony that you discarded the use of "they"), you could just write "one", even though it does sound quite 19th century. Or better yet, use your other disregarded suggestion of he/she, or she/he if you find it sexist to put the he at the front :/
Your whole post seems to try to apply some efficiency to an inefficient system (The English Language), but giving an inefficient solution.
Code or write in Latin if efficiency of the English language is bothering you so.
Apologies that you've had the brunt of my daily rant, I had 5 minutes to kill :P
Or maybe just use the they/them/their/themself which has already changed to be a neuter singular pronoun as well as a plural pronoun?
I like the idea of having more information in less space using special characters.
But * is a special Markdown character. So I had to write "& ast;" (without the space) to actually show a * in my comment,
which is slower than he/she !
So unless you don't care about Markdown maybe chose another special character ?
Like.. /e or -e ? I am not an expert here. Just suggesting.