Check This Out!
In many of Sheryl’s futuristic books you’ll find a foreword called “Check this out!” The idea was to acknowledge that in future societies where medicine has advanced to where gender and race are no longer fixed, assuming gender would (in a polite society) be pointless.
Ps: Shout out to Francine and Thom for their help in creating a system of genderless pronouns.
Here’s the foreword by Sheryl:
In this future society, everyone uses gender-neutral pronouns and honorifics as a custom unless indicated otherwise by the person being addressed or referenced. (No more guessing or assuming, right?)
Rather than show a preference for neutral pronouns in use today, I respectfully chose ones based on the Latin term “Sui Generis,” meaning “A person or thing that is unique, in a class by itself,” as defined by The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Example paraphrased: “This person is an original artist; each painting is sui generis.”
For the pronoun Sui, I prefer the pronunciation “sw-ee” as in the French word oui with an S at the beginning.
Subject (he/she): Sui
Example: Sui took a shuttle to the moonbase.
Object (him/her/it/them): Sem
Example: I offered to give sem a ride.
Possessive Determiner (his/her/its/their): Ser
Example: This was ser first trip to the moon.
Possessive Pronoun (his/her/its/theirs): Sers
Example: The whole trip idea was sers in the first place.
Reflexive (himself/herself/itself/themselves): Serself
Example: Sui gave serself plenty of time to get ready.
Honorific (Sir/Mr./Ms./Mrs./Ma’am/Miss/Madam/Mister): Su
Example: Su Smith is the owner of the bag.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure!
S.K.