TV show using "they/them" to describe male serial killer.

[Ilikegreenshoes]

Ok, I fully deserve to have the piss ripped out of me for even watching this bullshit show, so fire away. I'll take it with good humour. 😆

Riverdale (I KNOW!)

Another serial killer in town (of course) who is clearly a man, no suggestion that he 'identifies' as anything other than a man. Crucially, he has been targeting female hitchhikers and prostitutes to be tortured, murdered (and presumably raped.

They catch him, he kills himself.

Two characters then have an exchange where this male serial killer of women is randomly referred to as "they/them."

Why? It was just so utterly stupid and confusing.

Sorry, just having a whinge really, all this crap is really winding me up at the moment.

I watch Riverdale.

They’re not being woke. They’re using a plural because they think there is more than one killer.

What is Riverdale?

@TheBeardedVulture

I watch Riverdale.

They’re not being woke. They’re using a plural because they think there is more than one killer.

This.

I don't think so. He literally said, "So you captured a guy who more or less confessed, and then they swallowed their tongue because they thought you were going to dismember them."

He called him a guy, then used they/them.

(Glad someone else watches Riverdale though!

SisterJude fair enough. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. I certainly have never used they/them when the sex of the individual is known, and I've never really commonly heard it phrased like that, so it was very jarring for me, but maybe it's natural for lots of people, just not in the part of the world I'm from.

"They" is kind of doing its job as a generic singular there - the particular identify of the person isn't important, it was a remark about the action.

It's kind of de-emphasising the personal/identity aspect. It effectively agrees with "a guy". If a name had been given there, it wouldn't have worked.

And that's my main problem with using "they" for a specified individual - the "generic" aspect is very strong, and it strongly suggests it's someone else than that particular named individual we just referred to.

Can't believe you've admitted to watching Riverdale 😳
I do too

Necessary Scene I see what you're saying there, l just think using "they" as a generic singular only works (in my mind, at least) when the sex of the person is unknown, or the statement applies to someone of either sex. For example, "Each customer should wait their turn to pay for their items."

To me, the sentence would have sounded so much clearer as, "So you captured a guy who more or less confessed, and then he swallowed his tongue because he thought you were going to dismember him."

I'll accept that maybe it's just me who finds the original phrasing clunky, awkward and annoying though.

Time to go and do something else, perhaps!

LizBennet I know! It's such ridiculous garbage, but I can't stop!

Haha me too 😂

It’s amazing garbage though. Always manages to both be at the same time utterly predictable and completely surprising and insane.

dyslek

What is Riverdale?

It is an extremely silly soap on Netflix loosely based on the Archie comics series.

Using they\them is an entirely normal way of speaking for some people. It is where i live.

That's the problem with all the changing of words, declaring pronouns etc.

Even when what has been said is perfectly normal your ears prick up and your brain waves a red flag. Like we are always on alert and capable of seeing isues where there are none, because we start to see the saturation of it, even where it isn't.

And I fucking hate it. I hate the change in my character TRA demands and actions have wrought in me. I don't want to be a sweary, pissed off, hyper vigilant, often obnoxious middle aged woman with an axe to grind.

I love Riverdale. It is cheesy and cliched and really satisfying. But I didn't actually notice the they/them thing.

Fwiw, though, I'm American and using they/them like that is perfectly normal IME. Nothing to do with identity, just the way we speak.