A New Pronoun for Nature

Resource:

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/together-earth/2015/03/30/alternative-grammar-a-new-language-of-kinship/?fbclid=IwAR196kau_1Qj3aSdC3_iZHxLmdPuYMYS74lDwrVy0pqCLrFtPdaZ7pXitxo

“Look at that salamander! He’s so cute!” I hear this from 5th graders and adults alike - the default pronoun for anything in nature is usually “he.” I usually respond either by asking “how do you know it’s a he?” or by referring to whatever it is as “she.” I’ve found that children are much more likely to question their own patterns and modify how they speak than adults. It really irks me how male/masculine is considered the baseline for anything, although I know some people will say to be irritated by something so small as pronouns is ridiculous or silly. But I think that words matter, and how we refer to other living things, human or otherwise, matter. Whatever pronouns we for a salamander does not make an immediate impact on a salamander - as far as I know, the salamander does not care whether we humans refer them as “he” or “she” or “it” or “them” - like misgendering a person might do. However, the way we label salamanders can impact the way we as humans interact with and treat them which in turn has an impact on their livelihoods, and all the rest of the more than human lives we refer to as “he,” or even more problematic, “it”.

I recently read the article “Nature Needs a New Pronoun: To Stop the Age of Extinction, Let’s Start by Ditching ‘It,’” by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer. In it she describes the importance of calling living things “it.” In the article, she writes, “Imagine your grandmother standing at the stove in her apron and someone says, “Look, it is making soup. It has gray hair.” We might snicker at such a mistake; at the same time we recoil. In English, we never refer to a person as “it.” Such a grammatical error would be a profound act of disrespect. “It” robs a person of selfhood and kinship, reducing a person to a thing. Objectification of the natural world reinforces the notion that our species is somehow more deserving of the gifts of the world than the other 8.7 million species with whom we share the planet. Using “it” absolves us of moral responsibility and opens the door to exploitation. When Sugar Maple is an “it” we give ourselves permission to pick up the saw. “It” means it doesn’t matter.”

She proposes a new pronoun for “beings of the living Earth”: ki (singular) and kin (plural). For example, “Look at that douglas fir - ki is very tall” or “Those slugs are very small. Kin move very slowly.” I think this is a beautiful way to acknowledge the vibrancy of life around us without having to gender everything. I know for some people it might seem excessive, but I have learned that people do not care about things they have no connection to, and the pronoun “it” does a really good job at severing connection between humans and an awareness of the intrinsic value of other beings. I am all for changing language to help remind us of our connection to the natural world.