What does it mean when someone identifies as they?
Someone who uses she/they pronouns may identify as both being a woman and nonbinary. Or, they could be genderfluid, genderqueer, bigender, or another identity. (For more, check out A Guide to Genderqueer, Non-Binary, and Genderfluid Identity from Psychology Today.)
When individuals whose gender is neither male nor female (e.g. nonbinary, agender, genderfluid, etc.) use the singular they to refer to themselves, they are using the language to express their identities. Adopting this language is one way writers can be inclusive of a range of people and identities.
by Yu Sheng Teo | Updated on September 16, 2021. He / him / his are gender-specific pronouns that are usually used to refer to men or boys. This is different than gender neutral pronouns, which do not associate the person being referred to with any specific gender.
What does it mean when a person is nonbinary? Being nonbinary is identifying gender as not 100% male or 100% female. Someone who has a nonbinary gender could describe themselves as having no gender, multiple genders, a masculine or feminine gender, or any other gender that is not fully male or fully female.
Gendered pronouns specifically reference someone's gender: he/him/his or she/her/hers. Non-gendered or nonbinary pronouns are not gender specific and are most often used by people who identify outside of a gender binary.
Pangender: Someone whose identity is comprised of all or many gender identities and expressions.
Do you know anyone who wants to be called they instead of she or he? It may be because they identify as non-binary.
Within the United States, and much of the world, it is the cultural norm to classify people as male or female – this is called the gender binary. Many individuals have a gender identity that does not fit within this binary, and use the umbrella term non-binary.
Instead, their identity is composed of multiple separate people, sometimes called headmates or fragments . Since these individuals see themselves as multiple people, they may refer to themselves using plural pronouns such as “we.”
Why they/them? It is normal in the English language to use they/them pronouns when we don't know the gender of the person to which we're referring, or if we want our sentence to be applicable to all genders. This isn't new – the saying “Everybody loves their own mother” has been used since around late 1300.
What does it mean when someone identifies as she her hers?
“She / Her / Hers” is a set of gender-specific pronouns typically used to refer to women or girls. Some nonbinary folks, as well as genderfluid or genderqueer folks, may also use the “She / Her / Hers” pronouns.
Non-Binary Defined
Some people don't identify with any gender. Some people's gender changes over time. People whose gender is not male or female use many different terms to describe themselves, with non-binary being one of the most common. Other terms include genderqueer, agender, bigender, and more.
Your health care provider might make a diagnosis of gender dysphoria based on: Behavioral health evaluation. Your provider will evaluate you to confirm the presence of gender dysphoria and document how prejudice and discrimination due to your gender identity (minority stress factors) impact your mental health.
Likewise a demiboy is a person who feels their gender identity partially identifies with a masculine identity but is not wholly binary. Like a demigirl, a demiboy may identify this way regardless of their assigned gender. A demigirl and demiboy fall under the trans umbrella.
Non-binary people may identify as an intermediate or separate third gender, identify with more than one gender, no gender (agender), or have a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid). Gender identity is separate from sexual or romantic orientation: non-binary people have various sexual orientations.
They/them/theirs (“Shea ate their food because they were hungry.”) This is a pretty common gender-neutral pronoun and it can be used in the singular. Singular “they” is not a new concept to English speakers – singular they is often used if we do not know the person we are talking about (“Who called you?
Folks who identify outside the gender binary, a cultural or societal structure that classifies gender into two opposite forms, male and female, might use they/them pronouns. Nonbinary people do not exclusively identify as male or female — they might identify with some aspects of the binaries or none at all.