At least, that's what they say

This is a response to the musings of Brandon and Avery concerning gendered pronouns.

I believe there are only two reasons as to why "they" has not completely caught on as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. First, that it looks odd in writing; second, that it can become complicated if you are referencing a hypothetical or unknown individual relative to a group, which can make it unclear whether the "they" is singular or plural.

The solution for the first problem is to get used to it. If we use it enough this will happen eventually. The second problem is somewhat trickier; we must depend heavily upon context and careful use of proper nouns. To be perfectly honest, this does not seem to be a common scenario, but since it sprung so quickly to my mind, I might hazard a guess that it worries some people.

With all this said, I also support the use of "they" as a singular pronoun and use it in such a manner myself.