This is why English uses "they", "them", and "their" with a singular context. At Oberlin College, they always put the term "s/he" in place of "she" or "he" to recognize gender non-specificity - I believe it was a way of recognizing females since to this today the default is "he". Then they just utilize sentances that avoid requiring "his" or "her" and place everything in the s/he format. Since I come from a "hick" background, the"hir" really bothers me because it reminds me of the people I went to school with who after 5,10,15 years of spelling correction _still_ couldn't manage to remember that her is not spelled hir. The "sie" doesn't work well for me either - I learned that when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking so it comes out in my head as sie - what's that: sty, shy, sow a typo - huh? My brain stops there - as with hir - going "wait - that's not a word OK so is it a typo - don't think so - OK hold this in your head while you continue. Then my head start filling up and it's hard to read/think. So I'm a proponent of using s/he. I'm surprised I haven't seen something like hir/s or his/r. Out of those I like his/r best - it connotates his or hers to me and there is no perceived misspelling thing to debunk first. Thanks for the footnotes!
BTW - the transsexual news. In Britain, a high court ruled that a transexual female (born male) be permitted to marry a female. Apparently this is the first "genetic" female-female marriage to be recognized by a legal government. Rulings on other associations involving transexuals in Great Britain are forthcomming. Specifically, a male (born female) that wants legal paternity rights over his 4 children, obtained by artificial insemination of his female partner. Apparently the rulings and legal recognitions are going to be bound to transexual individuals who have maintained a social and personal life under their "new" gender without exception for a lengthy period of time.
hir and sie
BTW - the transsexual news. In Britain, a high court ruled that a transexual female (born male) be permitted to marry a female. Apparently this is the first "genetic" female-female marriage to be recognized by a legal government. Rulings on other associations involving transexuals in Great Britain are forthcomming. Specifically, a male (born female) that wants legal paternity rights over his 4 children, obtained by artificial insemination of his female partner. Apparently the rulings and legal recognitions are going to be bound to transexual individuals who have maintained a social and personal life under their "new" gender without exception for a lengthy period of time.
Hearts and flowers,
Ru