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When gender pronouns are explicitly stated they tend to be given in the form "subject-pronoun/object-pronoun" e.g. he/him, she/her, they/them.

Where does this convention originate from? Is there a particular reason why two forms are stated rather than just the subject-pronoun?

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    This is a completely new convention, and it's still settling down. Often one sees three, one possessive. I suspect the reason why there's at least two is because many readers will pass over a solitary pronoun without really questioning why it's there. If one sees they/them, however, it's odd enough that one slows down and pays attention.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 21:10
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    @JohnLawler this conventional may be relatively new, but it's pretty well established at this stage, certainly sufficiently so that the question "where does this convention come from" can be asked. I can relatively quickly find academic literature back to 2015 which uses this convention (link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-014-3148-7) and I believe it was in colloquial use before that.
    – David258
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 21:34
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    Embarrassingly I found a duplicate after I had answered this. Even more embarrassingly I had answered the original.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 22:08
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    @DJClayworth You can delete one answer and vote to close one question as a duplicate of the other.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 22:50

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This is an entirely new convention that is just getting started and isn't universally accepted.

The reason it is not sufficient to just state the subject pronoun is that pronouns are are not just about identifying which of two binary genders a person belongs to. Not everybody wants to be he/him/his or she/her/hers. Some might want to be (to quote some examples) ze/hir/hirs or ey/em/eirs. Unless or until everybody is familiar with all of the possible variations, you will want to be able to specify all three pronouns. (There are four in some cases, but three is usually enough).

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  • Things are particularly tricky with ze which has, in different proposals, been accompanied by different object and possessive forms.
    – jsw29
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 21:32
  • @djclayworth subject/object seems to be the dominant form in current use? The examples you give, (he, she, ze, ey) are all multiple forms of the same pronoun, I'm trying to understand why multiple forms of the same pronoun are given rather than just stating 'He' or 'ey' without the alternative forms. It seems to me that the pronoun choice and grammar are independent?
    – David258
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 21:38
  • @jsw29 - it's interesting that 'ze' has different possessive forms, do you have any examples, or could you post an answer which shows the different forms and why it might be ambiguous to give one form only?
    – David258
    Commented Apr 11, 2021 at 21:40
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Just having "He" by itself in your bio doesn't really convey anything. Having two pronouns like "he/him" conveys that you're referring to pronouns themselves with far less ambiguity. I suppose the reason that people don't use three (he/him/his) is because the traditional female possessive and objective are the same, and having "she/her/her" doesn't really make much sense, although that's just conjecture on my part.

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