Why is it common in English to address animals as "it"?

Question

It's not an inanimate or abstract object, they have a gender and they're alive.

A chair, idea, tree, rock, etc are an "it", but why does English speakers address a dog, cat, bird, fish, etc as "it"?

Isn't male the "default gender" in English?

For humans, it is difficult to tell the gender of an animal (but easy for other humans). If you know the gender of the animal it is customary to use he or she for the animal. When it is unknown, you use 'it'. For humans, in English, when gender is unknown, you don't use 'it', you use 'that person' or something similar or try to find out. 'Why' is just the way it is. One could just as well ask why some languages insist on gendering every single word even those obviously without distinguishing sex characteristics. Why? It's just the way it is. — Mitch, Oct 09 '16 at 21:57

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

11

No, unlike many other Indo-European languages, current English has no default gender. Grammatically speaking, English does not have gender at all—the only gender that English marks at all is natural gender (sex).

When the natural gender of a living being is known, it is customary to refer to that being using pronouns that reflect that gender; for male beings, we use he/him/his, and for female beings, we use she/her/her(s). As you say, animals do have natural gender, and there is nothing to stop you from using the corresponding gendered pronoun. When referring to your own dog, for example, most people will use gendered pronouns. In many cases, however, you simply don’t know what sex an animal is at first blush.

With some animals, the distinction is fairly easy to make—a buck with its antlers looks quite different from a doe, for instance—and figuring out the right pronoun tends to be easy. With other animals, however, it’s not so easy. I for one would have absolutely no clue whether a cat or a turtle or a grizzly bear is male or female just by looking at it.

In those cases, you can either choose to use a gendered pronoun and then have a 50% chance of being right; or you can skirt the issue altogether and use it, which is sex-agnostic.

The same is true of human infants, incidentally. Babies all look the same (quoth the bachelor), and it can be quite impossible to tell whether a clothed baby is a boy or a girl. Until you find out, you can dodge the risk of mis-gendering it by calling it it (cf. this question).

Historically speaking, English did of course have genders, including using the masculine as the default gender; but while some still consider using he to refer to being(s) of unknown sex to be neutral, many people nowadays consider this to go against the notions of equal rights. Some have started using she as the default gender instead for obviously animate beings. When dealing with (non-infant) human beings, where it would be depersonalising and degrading, many now use singular they.

With animals, the notion of ‘depersonalising’ is rarely an issue, and it remains the more common way to get around the issue. That is, the ‘default gender’ for non-human entities is no gender, whether the entity in question has a natural gender or not.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Community

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answered Oct 09 '16 at 11:23

Janus Bahs Jacquet

32,382

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You usually know perfectly well where to look for a grizzly's gender. You just don't want to get that close ;) – Helmar Oct 09 '16 at 11:33
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Calling a baby or animal "it" sounds very bad when translating to my language (Hebrew), it's like you don't care that it's alive. – shinzou Oct 09 '16 at 11:33
@kuhaku That’s not the case in English. The standard phrase when you want to know the sex of someone’s newborn child is “Is it a boy or a girl?”. Asking, “Is he a boy or a girl?” would sound absolutely ludicrous, akin to asking, “Is that man a man or a woman?”. If you’re talking about adults, then using it is generally seen as offensive, and most people would avoid it (commonly by using singular they), but for babies, that’s not the case. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 09 '16 at 11:36
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If translation turns something normal in English into something bad in Hebrew, then it is not the fault of English or of Hebrew. It is a poor translation. – GEdgar Oct 09 '16 at 12:20
@GEdgar I meant literal translation of course. – shinzou Oct 09 '16 at 13:23
@kuhaku May I suggest: 'Referring to a baby or animal as "it" sounds very bad in my language (Hebrew): it's like you don't care that it's alive. A literal translation from the English is better avoided.' – Edwin Ashworth Oct 09 '16 at 14:53
I think that "the ‘default gender’ for non-human entities is no gender, whether the entity in question has a natural gender or not." needs a caveat. 'She' is often used to refer affectionately to ships, cars, locomotives etc (even the 'Duke of Gloucester'). – Edwin Ashworth Oct 09 '16 at 15:10
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@EdwinAshworth That's true; but I'm not sure I'd call that default. I'd think of that rather as marked gender, the gender being here used specifically to mark the affectionateness. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Oct 09 '16 at 15:14
@Janus Terminology, of course. But the fact is that 'she' is what many mariners for instance would have as their default setting. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 09 '16 at 15:27
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@JanusBahsJacquet Personally, I would go to some lengths to avoid referring to a baby as it. "It" does not come over at all well to "its" parents. I speak as a father and grandfather of a few. Expressions like now, am I looking at a little boy or a little girl? are much preferable in my book. – WS2 Oct 09 '16 at 15:35
@kuhaku So how do you say "it" in Hebrew? – michael.hor257k Oct 09 '16 at 16:12
We don't say the literal translation for "it" for animals, or babies, we use "he" which is a "default gender", it has term in Hebrew that I don't know how to translate. Also, when I think about it, it's a bit informal but in some specific situations you can address animals or babies as "it" but it might be offensive to the parents of the baby. @michael.hor257k – shinzou Oct 09 '16 at 16:30
@kuhaku I was just curious how do you say "it" when there's no such word. It's probably not the right place to have this discussion . – michael.hor257k Oct 09 '16 at 17:04
@michael.hor257k we have a word for "it": זה, it's just not correct to say it to animals and babies. We use it for inanimate objects only. – shinzou Sep 30 '20 at 08:43

Why is it common in English to address animals as "it"?

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