I much prefer the Thai pronoun system to the English one because it is almost completely contextual.

Pronouns I use for myself, and the ones I use for the person I'm talking to/about, do depend on gender to an extent, but they also depend on relative age, familiarity, level of respect, situational context, etc.

The immutable quality of English pronouns is anathema to me, I find them utterly useless. I'd rather people use my name (which is also a totally normal option in Thai).

@noxy doesnt the Thai system also have some immutable qualities though? particularly as related to gender.

@Eve Um, kind of, but not really. For example there are some pronouns like ผม that are only used for one gender (in this case men), but there's no requirement that every man use that pronoun for themselves. Many straight men use other pronouns in intimate contexts, even ฉัน which is technically neutral but is usually only used by women and queer amab people.

You can also just use เรา which is purely neutral. เขา "he/she/they" is purely neutral as well.

@noxy yeah I was thinking of ผม in particular. I guess it’s only a unidirectional requirement though as you say. The others are quite flexible. Actually do afab straight people use กู? My queer amab friends used to use it sometimes but idk

@Eve yeah I think กู is pretty exclusively for women and amab queer people (not much out there on what lesbians use), it's also "impolite." Not rude in the right context just super casual.

So like, pronouns often refer to gender but it's not something you have to participate in if you don't want to

@noxy hmm that’s interesting. I always was told กู was kind of hyper masculine and ultra casual, I never really heard afab straight people use it (I think toms do though). It’s all gender performance I suppose