32-year-old Elyse Donovan has had a difficult time adjusting to her friend Anne’s gender-neutral pronouns despite having absolutely no issue calling her Toyota Camry by the pronoun “she”.
“I love Anne, but it feels clunky to use plural pronouns when she is one person,” says Donovan, who has been known to call her 2009 Toyota by the name Brenda.
When asked about her car, Elyse lit up.
“Oh she’s a beaut,” she gushed. “She drives so smooth. She’s my baby girl!”
Friends of the two have made it clear that Elyse personifying her car is definitely more confusing and linguistically difficult than calling Anne by their preferred pronouns.
“Anne is our good friend and it has taken some work to correct ourselves, but using their pronouns is a pretty simple adjustment,” says Sadie Carmen. “I don’t see how Elyse can literally map a female pronoun onto her car so effortlessly and enthusiastically while continuing to misgender Anne.”
Still, Elyse clearly has no plans to prioritize making her friend feel seen and safe.
“I’m gearing up for a cross country road trip with my girl,” she said, patting her car. “I asked Anne if she wanted to come—sorry, if they wanted to come. That is just so hard to figure out. ‘They.’ Does that conjugation even make sense?”
The dictionary confirms that yes, it does make sense.
