Pronoun usage...

[Pythagoras]

My Universe is the result of the workings of five god-like beings. Two of them are male, and two of them are female. The fifth one (the one from which the others were spawned) is asexual. I know that the proper pronoun for this sexless entity would be 'it'. However, that sounds strange and confusing to me when I write it down. I do not want to avoid this by stating the name every time this character comes up, because that is tiresome to read, but I don't know if writing 'it' in its place sounds good. Is there an alternative that I'm unaware of? Or should I just press onward with what sounds awkward but is correct?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Honestly, "it" or "them/they" are really your only options. If it is neither male nor female, and you have no defined third gender, then "it" it must be. In our WIP we have a demon referred to as an "it," because it refuses to define it's gender like other demons do. Some people default to referring to it as "he" or "she" depending on what form it tends to take with them, but the correct term for it is "it."

Is your entity hermaphroditic or entirely without gender? Does it slide along a spectrum of identity or firmly defy definition? That will have some bearing on you other character's perceptions of them.

 

[Pythagoras]

I want to avoid Them/they because that implies plurality.

It's tough to answer that question. It is without gender, but it did produce two children. In a gender sense, it is firmly without definition. In a reproductive sense, I guess it would have to be both.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

My demon which is correctly referred to as an "it" produced 3 children, and is often referred to as "he" by the mother of those children. So, in it's case gender is flexible. It just depends on how you want to approach it.

 

[Pythagoras]

This character begat children without the help of a mate.

 

[Penpilot]

Here's a link to a Wiki entry on genderless pronouns. It explores various genderless pronouns from the history of English and from countries around the world.

Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia