History Main / GenderInclusiveWriting

And let's not forget the far more strongly-gendered languages (like Spanish or German) where pulling this off without looking or sounding 'fake' is... at least very difficult. [[note]]In German the only established third person singular personal pronouns, "sie" (her) and "er" (him), are clearly binary gender marked. However, it does get easier in other grammatical forms: first and second person personal pronouns are not gender specific and neither is the third person plural. There are also other problems concerning binary gendered language, e.g. since many common German nouns are specific to binary gender, e.g. "Alex is a police officer" would have a (slightly) different German noun depending on Alex's gender ("Alex ist (eine) Polizistin [woman]/ (ein) Polizist [man]"), although [[GenderBlenderName the name wouldn't tell]]. But there are ways to come by which normally won't cause (much) attention: the participle forms in plural are the same for masculine and feminine grammatical gender ((female) workers: Arbeiterinnen; (male) workers: Arbeiter; workers (regardless of gender)/ working people: Arbeitende (participle)). Often you can avoid the gender specific noun. ("Alex works for the police.") [[/note]]

* In the Literature/ColdfireTrilogy, the Master of Lema, the first book's BigBad, [[spoiler: is a woman]]. This is revealed dramatically after the Master captures and tortures VillainProtagonist Gerald Tarrant -- he's a vampire who [[spoiler:preys almost entirely on young women, if given the choice]] so being at [[spoiler:a woman]]'s mercy is particularly galling for him.

* In the Sandra Brown novel ''Lethal'', the criminal kingpin known as "The Bookkeeper" is never referred to by any gender, which hides the reveal that [[spoiler: not only is The Bookkeeper female, but she's [[TheDogWasTheMastermind the seemingly innocent wife of one of the agents investigating her crimes.]]]]

* Chris Shane, the protagonist of ''Literature/LockIn'' by Creator/JohnScalzi, never has their gender revealed.
** John Scalzi follows this up with Jamie Gray, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheKaijuPreservationSociety'', who also never has their gender revealed.

* Optimus Yarnspinner from the stories of Creator/WalterMoers once wrote a novel where he doesn't reveal whether the protagonist is male or female for several hundred pages. The answer BTW is: [[spoiler:Neither nor - volterks are sexless.]]

** Ashiok is a genderless being. Although accidentally referred to as "he" in an early promotional piece, Ashiok has since been referred to with no pronouns at all. Instead, all references to Ashiok use "Ashiok" in place of a pronoun.

--->'''Marshall:''' So he just starts randomly pointing to people, and goes, 'Him! Her! Her! Him! Him! ...Jenkins!'

* In ''VideoGame/StickyBusiness'', the Gingerbread People sticker parts aren't called Gingerbread "Man" or "Woman", but rather "Gingerbread Person" and "Gingerbread Person With Dress".

* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'':

* In ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'' it is mentioned that someone in Class-E has higher bloodlust than even [[spoiler: Itona]] the pronouns used are gender neutral despite the shot seemingly focusing on [[spoiler: Nagisa, the protagonist]]. This is used to hide that it's actually talking about [[spoiler: Kayano]]. In this case many translations, including the official one, were fooled and used the pronoun appropriate to the person the shot seemed to be focused on.

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':
** The Japanese versions of the games typically avoid gendered language regarding Kirby (and WordOfGod is that his gender is unknown), though on the rare occasions he talks, he uses the boyish [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns pronoun]] "boku," which does not necessarily contradict the unknown gender statement. Because gender-neutral writing is more difficult in other languages, international versions discard this and refer to him with masculine pronouns.
** The English version of ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' refers to Wild Edge, Wild Bonkers, and [[spoiler:Fecto Forgo]] with "they/them" pronouns. While Wild Edge wears a gender-concealing suit of armor, and it's very likely [[spoiler:Fecto Forgo]] is outright genderless, Bonkers has a masculine design and voice and has been referred to as male before in previous titles, so it's unclear why gender-neutral writing is in play for them now.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Chris Claremont's ''ComicBook/SovereignSeven'' had a character named Indigo, whose gender nobody could work out. [[spoiler: This was another example that turned out to be gender-neutral]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', the culprit of Chapter 3 ([[spoiler:Mikan Tsumiki]])'s motive is centered around their "beloved". The Japanese version never mentions said "beloved"'s gender, so the audience might be reasonably able to suspect that the "beloved" is a romantic lover. [[spoiler:Turns out that said "beloved" is the female Junko Enoshima, which, LesYay implications aside, means that the culprit likely intended to say that she "loved" her in a fit of despair.]] The English localization tries to use "their" in a way of covering this up, though it then trips the player's radar as to why it would be used for someone the culprit should most definitely know the gender of.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', [[spoiler: everyone in court refers to Adrian Andrews this way while the assassin De Killer is listening to proceedings, because in one later testimony he refers to the [[GenderBlenderName (female) Adrian as 'him']], thus revealing that he did not meet her in person]].
** However, earlier, without being told, he refers to his client's manager as a she without being told, most likely an oversight or having never heard the manager's actual name.

* The English translation of the ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' remake refers to the little sprite Popoi with they/them pronouns. [[ShesAManInJapan It wasn't this way in the original]], where Popoi was male.

* The English translation of the ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' remake refers to the little sprite Popoi with "they/them" pronouns. It wasn't this way in the original, where Popoi was male.

* The adult-oriented [[InteractiveFiction Twine game]] ''Weeb's Wonka Game'' has the player as the {{featureless|Protagonist}} "Charlie" adressed by the others with "they/them" pronouns.

* The adult-oriented [[InteractiveFiction Twine game]] ''Weeb's Wonka Game'' has the player as the {{featureless|protagonist}} "Charlie" adressed by the others with "they/them" pronouns.

** ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' does away with gender options almost entirely, instead having the player choose one of two "styles" (in non-Japanese versions) at the beginning, the choice of which has no effect on clothing options or hairstyles, and can be easily changed at will later in the game. The [=NPCs=] generally only refer to player characters by they/them pronouns as well.

* The English translation of the ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' remake refers to the little sprite Popoi with they/them pronouns. It wasn't this way in the original, where Popoi was male.

* When Rusty was introduced onto ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', Britt Allcroft sought to make the character gender-neutral and avoided using gender-specific terms when referring to Rusty. However, in season 9, Rusty was accidentally called a she in early US broadcasts of "Tuneful Toots". Since then, Rusty has been referred to with he/him pronouns.

Many times, a writer of fiction wants to give a character an AmbiguousGender. It might be because it's an important detail in the mystery or because the character is really in disguise and the writer doesn't want any potential crossdressing stigma. Or possibly they really are of a non-binary gender, and the author is trying to accurately represent their identity. The easy solution is to only have the character be directly addressed, but what happens if you need to have other characters talk about them?

Enter Gender Inclusive Writing. In English, this is when every attempt is made to avoid any use of the pronouns "he", "she", "him", "her", or any references to the gender identity of a character.

English ranks about middle in the difficulty of pulling this off, since most words in English do not need to be gender-specific, and even most nouns can be fairly flexible too. However the gendered pronouns are very ingrained into normal dialogue, especially when one is referring to other people, and there aren't too many alternatives ('they', 'their' and 'them', mostly), so it's painfully obvious when you ''are'' trying to conceal gender (though there are [[TheAllConcealingI some tricks that make it easier]]), almost always enough to draw attention to itself. This may not be a bad thing if the whole point is that they ''are'' a non-binary gender, since you will obviously be using their preferred pronoun. A partial solution, even if you have a binary character whose gender you are trying to conceal, is to have characters who don't know use gender-neutral pronouns such as they/them or ze/hir, not only for them, [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles but also for other characters]], [[FutureSlang if the setting allows it]].

And let's not forget the far more strongly-gendered languages (like Spanish or German) where pulling this off without looking or sounding 'fake' is... at least very difficult. [[note]]In German the only established third person singular personal pronouns, "sie" (her) and "er" (him), are clearly binary gender marked. However, it does get easier in other grammatical forms: first and second person personal pronouns are not gender specific and neither is the third person plural. There are also other problems concerning binary gendered language, e.g. since many (common) German nouns are (binary) gender specific. e.g. "Alex is a police officer" would have a (slightly) different German noun depending on Alex's gender ("Alex ist (eine) Polizistin [woman]/ (ein) Polizist [man]"), although [[GenderBlenderName the name wouldn't tell]]. But there are ways to come by which normally won't cause (much) attention: the participle forms in plural are the same for masculine and feminine grammatical gender ((female) workers: Arbeiterinnen; (male) workers: Arbeiter; workers (regardless of gender)/ working people: Arbeitende (participle)). Often you can avoid the gender specific noun. ("Alex works for the police.") [[/note]]

This is most common in interactive fiction designed for players and avatars of any sex and gender. This generally shows up in games where the developers were too constrained (or, perhaps, too lazy) to have the game capable of modifying the dialogue to fit all genders, so they try to write for all. This leads to a FeaturelessProtagonist (although as that article mentions, they more often than not fail because they assume MostGamersAreMale). The {{Gamebooks}} genre makes heavy use of this (along with SecondPersonNarration), since they won't exactly split the book into volumes to accommodate everyone. Often, they get around this by either assuming a gender based on the genre of the book (e.g., a science fiction book would assume a male reader while a book that places the character as nobility in medieval Europe would assume a female reader) or by just creating a very generic character with a PurelyAestheticGender. This is also the main reason ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books are written in the second person. It's not entirely rare for it to show up in other fiction, though.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': The mythological character Atlantiades--the TropeNamer for {{Hermaphrodite}}--makes their first DCU appearance, and keeps to gender neutral terms as they are physically both sexes and choose to identify as androgynous.
* ''ComicBook/{{Eternals}}'' has the immortal Jack of Knives, who uses they/them pronouns.

* Done very well by Vonda N. [=McIntyre=] with [[AmbiguousGender Merideth]] in ''Literature/{{Dreamsnake}}''.

* ''VideoGame/BattleTech'' gives players the option to set their PlayerCharacter's appearance and pronouns independently of each other, including having "they/them" as an option, allowing for trans or nonbinary [=PCs=]. This alters nothing about the story other than how [=NPCs=] refer to the PC.

* Every character in ''VideoGame/{{Everhood}}'' goes by they/them. According to the developers, this is because [[spoiler:so much time has passed and so many physical changes have come and gone for each and every one of them, that the concept of gender has lost all meaning to the lot]].

** All of the game's ghost monsters (such as Napstablook) are also talked about with exclusively gender-neutral pronouns except for Mettaton, who, despite his original species and the [[{{Bishounen}} androgynous design]] of his EX form, is always referred to as male. For Napstablook at least, this appears to be the character's preferred terminology (even their cousin uses "they"), suggesting a non-binary gender identity.
** ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' initially refers to its PlayerCharacter Kris the same way as the human child from ''Undertale''. However, while gendered terms are always avoided, characters from Chapter 2 on all refer to Kris as "they" (including their close friends and mother, so it's definitely Kris' preferred pronoun), again suggesting Kris is non-binary.

* Marshmallow from ''WebAnimation/TheAnnoyingOrange'' has this as a ''RunningGag'', with several episodes involving characters unsuccessfully trying to determine Marshmallow's gender with Marshmallow messing with anyone who tries. This lasts until the episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0o7jvEXGDU "Pride"]], where Marshmallow is [[spoiler:revealed to be non-binary]] after [[spoiler:deactivating a malfunctioning quantum computer, which is justified through a joke]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Monsterkind}}'' has Louise Spence, who is referred to solely by they/them pronouns.

* ''Webcomic/{{Paranatural}}'' has RJ, a [[TheQuietOne silent]] member of Johnny's gang, who is never referred to by pronouns in the actual comic and whose face is obscured by a hoodie. This is lampshaded in the cast page where they "eschew[s] school rules, public speaking and the gender binary. Goes by they/them." All we know under that hood is that they [[spoiler: have a mohawk]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'':
** In "Understanding Willow", Boscha refers to a [[ItMakesSenseInContext nonexistent cute ghost]] with they/them pronouns, with Amity following suit.
** In "Through the Looking Glass Ruins", Emira refers to Edric's date with "their".
** Raine Whispers "Eda's Requiem" is referred to with they/them pronouns and confirmed by WordOfGod to be nonbinary.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' introduces the character Double Trouble in Season 4. While the character appeared in the original '80s toyline as Princess Glimmer's female cousin, the new version is a shapeshifter-for-hire, and is distinctly non-binary, referred to by all characters with the singular-they.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' follows Three Houses' lead in referring to the gender options for PlayerCharacter Alear as "choosing a form" and preferring gender neutral pronouns and terminology when referring to them.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'': [[PlayerCharacter Byleth]] is usually referred to by other characters as just "the Professor"; or, when in relation to their father, Jeralt, his "child", which can get a bit {{narm}}-y considering Byleth is a full-grown adult. Like the above ''Animal Crossing'' and ''Splatoon'' examples, the gender choice is also referred to as "choosing a form". On the rare occasions that Byleth is referred to with third-person pronouns in dialogue, "they" is used; however, "he" or "she" is used in the guide.

[[redirect:GenderNeutralWriting]]