Pronouns on bbc

[hexsnidgett]

Am I imagining it or has anyone else noticed 'they' being used instead of 'she'?
I find it confusing.

I haven’t noticed this, do you have an example?

Only in specific circumstances. It's easier to use they if not sure! Better than the days everything defaulted to he!

A couple of times when referring to the Beth Shriever the bmx rider, but other times too.

Lots of people do this in their normal speech now. My teen DS and his friends certainly do, and he’s as GC as I am.

perhaps the English language has changed forever…..

I have noticed this. Not widespread so far but sometimes with certain stories being reported, you have a sense of the reporter/presenter consciously using they instead of "he" or "she". This isn't only when there's a gender special dimension to the story so it is puzzling both in following the mangled presentation and trying to understand why it's been mangled.

I've noticed this. The presenters are using 'they' as default now. Incidentally, have you seen that BBC News channel trailer that pops up from time to time? "She's ...., He's ...., They're....", and it shows a young woman with short hair and glasses in a library. Bookish and female? Nah, you're 'non binary'. And the masked scuba diver on next and addressed as 'she' is very big boned.

This problem, at least, disappears in the languages which don't have sex-specific pronouns for third person singular.