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I was watching "The office" season 5 episode 14 (script link), and I did not understand why they were referring to the male dummy as "they" at first:

CPR Trainer: So, assessing the situation. Are they breathing?

Michael: No, Rose. They are not breathing. And they have no arms or legs.

Then, the Rose referred to it as he:

Rose: All right, well, lets get back to it. ‘Cause you’re losing him. Okay, too fast. Everyone, we need to pump at a pace of a 100 beats per minute

So many questions in my head :D.

  1. Why do we refer to someone as they ?
  2. Do we refer to someone as they when we know their gender ?
apaderno
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smarber
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1 Answers1

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Because in this case the dummy is a stand-in for an actual person. The trainer wants people to think about performing CPR as if being done on a living person rather than treat the dummy and that future actual person any different.

English does not generally refer to a known-gender person as "they" (although there are some individuals who with to be so-addressed). The trainer uses "they" because for the purposes of CPR the future person needing CPR's gender is not known at the time of this training (even if the dummy's gender is clear), and unknown-gender people very often are referred to as "they".

SoronelHaetir
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  • What've changed then so that Rose said: Rose: All right, well, lets get back to it. ‘Cause you’re losing him. Why did she change and choose to refer to the dummy as he? – smarber Oct 09 '22 at 15:47
  • Who knows? It was her choice to think of the 'patient' as a real man. – Kate Bunting Oct 10 '22 at 08:36