While grammar has never been a high priority for the Kanye-cosigned right wing pundit Candace Owen before, she’s made it one today. After pop star Demi Lovato came out as nonbinary and announced their pronouns are “they/them,” to the immense support of fans and academics who are well aware that style guides like the AP and MLA, along with Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary have accepted these pronouns for years, Owens suddenly became immensely concerned with the grammar of the decision. Fascinating how that happens.
In a tweet from this morning Owens stated that, in her mind, using “they/them” pronouns was “low academic achievement. “Announcing that your pronouns are they/them is just poor grammar,” the noted Cardi B troll wrote. “I don’t care your reasons—please stop trying to make low academic achievement a thing.”
Announcing that your pronouns are they/them is just poor grammar.
I don’t care your reasons—please stop trying to make low academic achievement a thing.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 19, 2021
I guess using nonspecific slang like “a thing” to refer to a common usage of “they/them” pronouns for when gender is unknown, or when the person who possesses it has determined it as undefined is how Owens deals with her own insecurity. Unsure what “academic achievement” has to do with grammar anyway, mine’s always been terrible and yet I managed to be the valedictorian at my high school. But instead of letting things be with one trolling comment about Demi, Candace continued to beat her own drum on the subject that has nothing at all to do with her.
“America is actually such an accepting society that because coming out as gay and lesbian no longer inspires hatred, the Left moved the goal post to coming out as ‘bad at English pronouns’, so that they could call people who enjoy the english language ‘bigots,'” she wrote, with numerous commas misplaced outside of quotation marks. “So desperate,” she finished. To which I ask, once more, as I do every time the backlash against simple requests like using a pronoun or using the toilet comes up: Why on earth do people like Owens even care? It doesn’t impact their lives in anyway.
So far, Demi has managed to stay out of the fray. Knowing them, a retort might be coming at any moment, but ignoring trolls like Candace is still the best way to handle them.
