High time we gave 'It' the respect it deserves

The inspiration for this thought came from various events. Events where people took offence to a living breathing being referred to with the pronoun “IT”. For example, in my earlier blog, I referred to the baby in the womb as It. A friend of mine referred to a doggy as It. Now why is IT denounced as a pronoun which should be used to refer only to things, objects, non-living and unimportant on the emotional scale (somehow not the material scale. Your diamond necklace? IT is so beautiful! Thank god that didn’t change)

Now why has the word IT been dropped a couple of notches on the respect scale? Let us go to the roots of this word. IT originated when the Old English pronoun Hit (meaning He in modern English) which was gender specific got merged with the proto-Germanic Het to produce a neuter pronoun It. Leaving all the etymological boutros boutros aside, I find the word IT the purest form of reference. It is gender neutral, it is devoid of discrimination of any kind being it caste, creed, origin, colour, size, shape or any other distinguishing parameter that pops in your mind. The English version “IT” is even more pronounced in its purity as compared to other languages like French where the speaker needs to distinguish between an il and an elle depending upon gender used in the context.

Now let us ask ourselves a few questions to demonstrate why IT is a hero. Would we refer to the Soul as a he or a she or worse still something, somebody or anybody? We won’t, because it is the purest form of existence. Old timers would refer to a higher power or the unknown with an IT not with a gender specific pronoun or a name. On a lighter note, ask a kid to narrate the line from the comic series Superman when the super hero is spotted. The line goes – It’s a bird...It’s a plane...It’s Superman! It is not - It’s a bird...It’s a plane...He’s Superman! We have not paid attention to that tiny little detail, have we? If we had, we would have fretted and fumed about what a grave insult we did to the suave superhero by referring to him with that despicable lowly “IT”.

The thought I want to incept into your minds is that every word has an intent and value. Just like beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, the respect in a sentence lies on the tongue of the speaker. One can use the sweetest of adjectives but still spit venom at the same time. Therefore, “It” does not necessarily mean a non-living, non-feeling, lowly object. It can simply mean the purest, unprejudiced, non-discriminatory being.

So it is time we give IT the respect it deserves or else we will always blame IT for our prejudiced outlook until it is too late to realise that IT was not to be blamed! (Did I just use IT six times in that sentence?!!!)

As for the baby in the womb, I would let it enjoy those months of bliss before it is welcomed to our prejudiced world as a he or a she!