Although Candace Owen, a Kanye West-backed right-wing pundit, has never made grammar a priority, she has now made it one. Owens became extremely concerned with the grammar of the decision after pop star Demi Lovato came out as nonbinary and revealed their pronouns are “they/them,” to the acclaim of fans and scholars who are well aware that style guides like the AP and MLA, as well as Merriam-Dictionary, Webster’s have embraced these pronouns for years. It’s fascinating to see how it works.
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.”
Owens seems to deal with her insecurity by using nonspecific slang like “a thing” to refer to a common use of “they/them” pronouns when gender is uncertain or when the person who owns it has determined it as undefined. I’m not sure what “academic success” has to do with grammar; mine has always been bad, but I was valedictorian in high school. Candace proceeded to beat her own drum on a topic that has nothing to do with her, instead of letting it go with one troll remark about Demi.
“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. She ended with, “So desperate.” To which I respond, as I do every time a backlash against basic requests like using a pronoun or using the restroom arises: Why do people like Owens even care? It has no bearing on their lives in any way.
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.
