English's pronoun problem is centuries old

Language works as a dynamic democracy, not as rule by experts.

“Pronouns are suddenly sexy,” Dennis Baron declares at the start of What’s Your Pronoun?  For “pronouns,” read one specific pronoun, or rather its long-lamented absence in English: The third-person singular gender-neutral pronoun. And for “sexy,” read thorny. Pronouns now come up in lawsuits, school regulations and company codes of conduct. Colleges ask students to provide their preferred pronouns; online dating sites offer pronoun options. “It used to be nerdy to discuss parts of speech outside of grammar class,” Baron, a professor emeritus of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, writes. “Now it’s cool.”
 
After this slightly forced attempt