That's What They Tell Me · 5:02pm Jun 4th, 2018
During the publishing of "Growing Pains", one particular comment has come up time and again; my decision to refer to Discord as "they". I would like to address my reasons for this here and now, so as to avoid repeating myself further.
I headcanon Discord as a non-binary individual. There are no particular reasons for this-- there are generally no particular reasons for any of my headcanons apart from the sense of joy they bring me. However, I do feel that the self-styled Lord of Chaos would probably not adhere to a system as ordered and mundane as gender, not least because I suspect they've been around for long enough to see various other ideals of gender come and go. Discord is not the only individual I headcanon as non-binary, but for the purpose of this blog, I shall focus on Discord alone.
There are a number of pronouns which could be used to refer to a non-binary individual. Just as there is "he/him/his" for male pronouns and "she/her/hers" for female pronouns, non-binary pronouns include "e/em/eirs", "sie/hir/hirs"' and more. According to Merriam-Webster, the American Dialect Society, Time Magazine, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Washington Post Style Guide, the singular "they/them/theirs" is acceptable as well for individuals of indeterminate gender, far better and less clunky than "he or she/him or her/his or hers" or "(s)he/ (him/her)/(his/hers)", which end up looking less like pronouns and more like algebraic alphabet soup. Singular they is considered to be most correct and natural-looking of the non gendered options, and it has been used by such authors as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Austen, to name a few.
Cases can be made for the use of other pronouns, naturally. If someone you know wants to be known by a different set of pronouns, it takes very little effort to do, and will make them a lot happier. As the characters in my stories live solely inside my head, it is my prerogative to give them what pronouns suit them best. I hope that all this explains my decision to refer to Discord using the singular they.
Makes sense. And yea, I agree that Discord predates gender and most other things (yet another subject I'm planning to write upon, like so many other folks around here).
Personally, I usually think of Discord as masculine, largely because I view myself as masculine and I like to project myself upon Discord to some extent. But, like Loki from the tales of old, I also tend to think Discord is whatever genders suit him at the moment: any, all, or none. It just doesn't come up that often. After all, they doesn't need to procreate, so it's just another form for her to try on and discard, like a hat or a pair of socks.
Celestia is another one I see as genderless, personally. She's just from a time when such a thing (non-binary gender identity) wasn't even conceived of, and isn't interested in knocking down millennia of tradition (and dealing with the pearl-clutching that would doubtless follow) over a label. At least, not yet; the time may come when in the interest of social justice a statement must needs be made. But it would be for other ponies' sakes, not her own.
I also see Tia as being asexual, like her apprentice Twilight, and so I wrote it into my Elsequestria universe accordingly. But while Twilight is an ace, she's also, unlike Celestia, female. And since Celestia is aromantic, Twilight always kinda assumed she was aromantic as well. At least, within my AU. Then again, within that same timeline, Applejack may be challenging that assumption.
I'm curious: what other characters do you see as non-binary?
4884089
Snails, as is covered in It's a Kind of Magic. Also Big Macintosh and Babs Seed. And the Doctor, of course.
Your take on Celestia is quite interesting, too. I never really thought of her that way, but it's a well-considered take.
4884104
*cocks head* Ah, cool. I haven't read It's a Kind of Magic yet; looking forward to it.