When Gender Gets in the Way - The ConsumHERist

Posted on | November 12, 2009 |

by Delia Passi

I just learned of a debate regarding the need for a genderless pronoun. There has apparently been much discussion about the need for a simple word to replace “he or she,” “he/she,” and so forth when speaking about the abstract person that can be of either gender (like a customer). The politically correct want to move away from he and its variants; the grammatically correct don’t want to use they; the Twitterati want something brief to fit in 140 characters; and most simply don’t give a hoot.

According to CNN, the debate has gone on for over a century. The New York Times has covered the debate as well, giving weight to the needs of Twitter users. A Google search of the phrase “genderless pronoun” brings up 5,000 matches, including suggestions such as hu, yo, em, thon, even dude. I think om, short for omni, would be pretty good.

Gender assignment in marketing speak is a common problem. We don’t want to alienate one gender or the other by speaking of his or her demand for a product, how he or she buys, or what price is right for her or him. At times we just want to refer to the customer without identifying their gender. At times it is because we want to avoid the clumsiness of being all inclusive in copy without being grammatically incorrect (as in the use of they, them or their with regard to a singular customer). In any case, choosing one or the other gender will give the impression, however unintended, to the other gender that the copy isn’t talking to them.

Okay, so the adoption of a genderless pronoun might be welcomed by marketers and others, but unfortunately a new word doesn’t address all the gender issues that arise in marketing and advertising.

Take, for example, the voiceover for a radio ad. If you use a man’s voice, it sends subtle signals to both men and women regardless of the words spoken. Use a woman’s voice and you simply flip the effect. The same would be true in the choice of the subject of a print, TV or video ad. Put a woman in a car and it’s an ad for women. Put a man in the same car, does it become an ad for a man? Yes. Put both in the car and one of them has to drive. Good grief!

How do we make a genderless ad without eliminating people? I can’t think of any person who strikes me as genderless. Can you? Even a silhouette is difficult to make genderless.

But does it matter? Do we really need to be so gender neutral? Sometimes it would be nice, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

Delia Passi, Founder of WomenCertified® and author of Winning the Toughest Customer: The Essential Guide to Selling to Women is a regular columnist on ReachingWomenDaily. Delia can be reached at delia@medelia.com.