A fact from Shamir (musician) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 September 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that "If It Wasn't True" from countertenor Shamir's 2014 Northtown EP was called "Your Favorite Breakup Song" by Vogue and "semidissonant pulses tickled by antsy snares and hi-hats" by Dazed?
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is of interest to WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, which tries to ensure comprehensive and factual coverage of all LGBTQ-related issues on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, please visit the project page or contribute to the discussion.LGBTQ+ studiesWikipedia:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesTemplate:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesLGBTQ+ studies articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Nevada, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.NevadaWikipedia:WikiProject NevadaTemplate:WikiProject NevadaNevada articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pop music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to pop music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Pop musicWikipedia:WikiProject Pop musicTemplate:WikiProject Pop musicPop music articles
I'm consciously avoiding pronouns here in an attempt not to sway the discussion by starting it with any particular usage. I'm aware that this makes the following read fairly poorly.
This article currently seems to tend toward "they" and related terms ("their", etc.), which from the above quote doesn't seem to be a designation preferred by Shamir. Is there a better solution here which doesn't go against either Shamir's preference or exclude by emission the nature of Shamir's gender identity? Should pronouns change throughout? Stick to one but with an explanation of Shamir's preference? Some other solution? 120.147.106.54 (talk) 07:36, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It would be different if the subject was requesting everyone use non-gendered pronouns. Then we could have the usual Wikipedian debate. But there is no argument here. He is fine with the male pronouns and thinks they / their makes no sense since he is one person. So can we just leave it that way? It's gramatically correct, genetically correct, and fine by the subject of the article. There is no basis then to switch it to something that makes no sense. As of this writing, American English doesn't really have an appropriate non gendered singular pronoun. Sorry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.172.145.180 (talk) 05:44, 6 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
[Edit conflict] My understanding of gender politics is that it is almost universally accepted (and policy here) that people get to self-define their gender and the pronouns that should be used in reference to them. The tweets you refer to make it a little problematic since Shamir does not really state a preference, other than to say that "they" and "them" is less preferred. So it seems a change is needed in the article but not quite clear what the change should be to. So I Googled a little anc found an interview from May this year where Shamir was asked about pronouns. Here is the exchange: "Do you have a preferred pronoun, do you get annoyed if people refer to you as ‘he’?Shamir: "I don’t have preferred pronoun, but if there was a preferred one, I probably would be 'he'."[1] So based on this I would say the article should also go with "He", "Him", and "His". I am going to be bold and make the changes. 99.192.78.213 (talk) 05:54, 6 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I've updated the article to reflect the fact that Shamir has expressed a vague preference towards male pronouns and a dislike of singular they. Also included a couple of sentences explaining pronouns with citations.137.205.1.201 (talk) 02:01, 21 January 2016 (UTC