Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34586
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In colloquial American English, it’s become common to use _they_ for an individual of unknown gender, so this probably would not sound strange to a Millennial or younger. I think, if hermaphrodites appeared on Earth today and didn’t say what to call them, _they_ is probably what most people would go with.

There are, however, other literary precedents. Ursula K. LeGuin’s _The Left Hand of Darkness_ called hermaphrodites _he_, although the author herself was ambivalent about that. The mythological Hermaphroditus was also called _he_. It has also been common from the early days of the English language to call a small child with no visible indication of sex _it_ (as the Germanic word _kind_ was grammatically neuter.) The Spivak pronouns, or other invented pronouns, will probably be familiar to many readers of a SF story about hermaphrodites and are not hard to pick up from context if they aren’t. If they look female with their clothes on, most people today would probably call them _she_.

If the characters themselves would have a preference, in-universe, you should go with that.

Original score: 1